We see the world with different eyes since we've been outside

Carole Flammang

Suchverläufe (Search Histories), 2024, printer ink on plotter paper, sound c. 16min, size variable

 Suchverläufe by Carole Flammang makes hidden paths and traces of digital interactions visible and physically tangible. Search histories, which are often only processed and stored in the background on computers, are now lined up in the room like a monumental wall, visible to the public and dividing the space.

 For the work, the anonymized browser histories of several computers from the IT center of the Muthesius Art Academy were overlaid with private search histories. The visual representation is accompanied by a continuous sound installation in which various AI voices recite the search histories.

Lukas Hanisch

Was hält ein Haken (What a hook holds), 2022, 450 x 250 x 190 cm, plaster, sand, steel, steel plates, reinforcing steel, XPS plates,

 The installation Was hält ein Haken by Lukas Hanisch is an artistic material study and plays with formal contrasts. Solid, straight-lined, geometric objects – casts of common road markings for the haptic orientation of pedestrians – which are riddled with cracks, are contrasted with objects with brittle surfaces – this time, casts of piles of sand, which Hanisch transfers as negatives into the interior.

By shifting the context from floor to wall, from massive piles to hollowed-out forms, from street to exhibition space, from outside to inside, he frees the material from its function and makes it visible – perhaps for the first time. Everyday things receive attention through artistic processing, things that are not noticed come into focus solely through the newly created frame and the space given to them.

Katharina Krüger

Kinderzimmer Tapete (Children's Room Wallpaper), 2024, objects on woodchip wallpaper on wood,

86 x 38 cm, each

 The triptych Kinderzimmer Tapete by Katharina Krüger may appear to have formal similarities at first glance, but it takes the opposite approach. The artist goes from the inside out, giving an intimate insight into the privacy of her childhood room. In addition to the childlike joy in trivial objects, there is a touch of nostalgia. The time of childhood disappears as we grow up.

The plain woodchip wallpaper of the former children's room becomes a bearer of childish treasures and memories, dreams of glitter, toys, photos, and offers protection, an escapist view into an ideal world supposedly beyond social evaluations. In the exhibition context, the work offers space for dreaming, enables projections back into one's own childhood, a moment to pause and visualize.

Laleh Khabbazy & Farhang Rafiee,

Toshak, 2020 - today, oil on canvas and wood, C-print, c. 340 x 600 cm

Toshak – which means a mattress that lies on the floor – Is a collaborative installation by Laleh Khabbazy and Farhang Rafiee. They interweave paintings and photographs that reflect private scenes into a spacious tapestry full of memories.

The two media sometimes overlap, resulting in direct references and associations in the viewer's eye. The scenes range from banal everyday actions to intimate moments, protected in the private space of their apartment in Tehran, Iran, with friends or remote places in the mountains. The freedom and permissiveness of the actions stand in contrast to the dictates of the state order surrounding them, in which reprisals against those who think differently are the order of the day.

The private space becomes a refuge where it is possible to be yourself, where a mattress is quickly placed on the floor for friends and they are welcome. The interior is sealed off from judgmental glances.

In their works, Laleh Khabbazy & Farhang Rafiee negotiate the tension between visibility and concealment, intimacy and anonymity, and the rebellious political act of making private things public.

Christian An

Replay, 2024, arrangement of drawings, collage, book object and neon lettering, ink, watercolor, colored pencil, chalk and dispersion on various papers, anatomy book, fabric ribbon, wood, LED tube, size variable

 In the Replay project, Christian An traces collective memory spaces and their paths of production and negotiation. In imitation of memory formation processes, he tries to produce changing narrative fields and contexts by assembling and collaging fragmentary content and arranging the resulting material.

 Using figures from German colonial history and the current debate about how to deal with the daily inscriptions and forms of heroization in public space – be it through monumental statues or street names – an overall picture full of references emerges.

The work does not see itself as a closed form, but is designed for expansion, re-arrangement and thus new contextual formulations with varying content.

Marie Mausolf

Mustapha, 2022, woven basket made of bamboo grasses, photographs, 30 x 10 x 10 cm, 20 x 15 cm (each) |

Mustapha is a very personal work, it is a gift to the artist, a hand-woven bamboo basket. In its simplicity, the work refers far beyond the friendly gesture to the relationship between people and nature and their attitude towards natural resources, which seems to be moving further and further away in a consumer-oriented world.

"I am living in a small village in Morocco, next to the area of ​​Er- Rich. Five years ago, I decided to start my own farm business. My dream is to be able to live independently of the state. I am self-sufficient, generate my own electricity and have built my own well. I try to use as many natural resources as possible. I planted the bamboo next to the small river in town. From the bamboo I build my own furniture like tables, chairs and a bed. I can make an additional profit by selling the vegetables I grow and the bamboo items I create.”

Si-Ying Fung

hCG (STRANGE FEET), 2024, glazed stoneware, paraffin, postage stamp, seeds, table 40 x 45 x 40 cm, wall object with postage stamp: 6 x 8 x 2.5 cm

In her work, Si-Ying Fung deals with the often ambivalent relationship between humans and animals, in which the benefits and harms of animals are viewed from a purely human perspective. The sculptural work hCG (STRANGE FEET) deals with the fate of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis).

Before the 1970s, a possible pregnancy in women was proven with the help of this frog. This was easier than dissecting mice or rabbits as previously, and required the living animal. The woman's morning urine was injected under the skin of a female clawed frog. If the urine contained the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), the frog spawned within 8-12 hours and the woman was definitely pregnant.

For the next 20 to 30 years, the Xenopus laevis became a laboratory frog and was imported in shipments from sub-Saharan countries to Europe and the USA, among others, and were also bred.

After the invention of the chemical pregnancy test, there was no longer any use for the many clawed frogs. They were mostly released and were able to spread unhindered. Their presence there and outside of the laboratory is now undesirable and the genus is considered an invasive species.