artGERECHT ::: thematische Gruppenausstellung zeitgenössischer Kunst

In the organizer's words:

artJUSTICE

in the xpon-art gallery

Thematic group exhibition of contemporary art

Opening on Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 7 pm

Open afterwards until March 16, 2025

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How appropriately does a society shape its own situation? How does justice define itself. How species-appropriate does a society keep its artists? How appropriately do those who have dedicated themselves to art shape their lives? - When was the last time you thought about the role of art?

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AXEL BEYER 's photographic work "Bebra Curiosa" is about the absurd and surreal in a small Hessian town - about the feeling between security and constriction, familiarity and alienation.

In the series, the world becomes a model, a sealed-off cosmos of found situations in the region that challenges perception. The boundaries between the inner and outer world become blurred and convey the special atmosphere of this place, which played a special role on the border between West and East before reunification.

CARSTEN BORCK 's series "Neulich im Museum oder: Meine Oma malt auch" (The other day in the museum or: My grandma paints too) explores the question of how art and justice come together. What does it do to creative artists when precarious living and working conditions, current austerity measures and an increasingly harsh social climate collide? Like diary entries, the work, created in drypoint, brings together short sentences and sketches picked up along the way. An attempt to approach the subject of art and justice.

For a long time, pigeons were a symbol of communication and solidarity and not only had a function in our society as carrier pigeons. Today they are "rats of the air", a man-made problem. Pigeons are desperately searching for habitats in cities, which are being increasingly constricted by humans. This increases stress; diseases and parasites spread more quickly. While the pigeon suffers as an individual, its relationship with the urban population is also strained: Noise and odor nuisance caused by large colonies and pigeon droppings on buildings lead to frustration among city dwellers and can potentially transmit diseases.

FLORIAN HUBER's object makes it clear that the curious pose of the pigeon sticking its head out of the box symbolizes not only the loss of its once important role, but also the fragility and forlornness that many of us feel in an urban environment.

With his photographic work "Cucumber with Armored Tape", HELGE H. PAULSEN is apparently reacting to Maurizio Cattelan's banana, which costs millions: in keeping with the theme of the exhibition, he asks himself whether it is fair that this work of art, or rather the artist's gesture, is given such monetary value and thus also media attention, when most other artists receive little money and attention for their work. Should art even claim to want to be fair? What would that mean for art? Here the cucumber wants to be banana. Add a little lolly pop art and the work balances the tightrope act of being an artist every day.

With his objects,KLAAS WURTMANN approaches the emotional implications of dispossession, appropriation and heteronomy/oppression through power: In his role as the "powerful one", he deprives the material of its original, previous function and accompanying role and subjects it to his will. This is a violent act that brings about a reorganization of things.

LUISE KLEUSER asked us for her diploma in stage and costume design at the HfbK Dresden whether we had a floor plan that we could make available to her for a fictitious exhibition. We had.

The model of the exhibition entitled "Satan's National Park" is divided into an upper world (first floor) and an underworld (basement). A major source of inspiration for the exhibition concept was André Heller's "LUNA LUNA" theme park, which opened in Hamburg in 1986. The first floor contains banana pictures in various designs. In the basement, the banana is transformed into a marde and there are sculptures of things that are actually small in the real world but are experienced as large in the underworld. For the artGERECHT exhibition, we asked Luise if she would like to bring the model to Hamburg. She did.

Cages as boundaries, open cages - never occupied or escaped? What is freedom? Free flight or free fall - do we live in cages without realizing it? Two faces hang in the metal mesh, on monitors. In their installation "The Birds", BARBARA LORENZ HÖFER and MARA SCHOLZ address existential questions.

MARCUS KORELL mixes the inner being and the outer images of the people he encounters in his everyday life in his large-format fictional portraits to create fields of tension. What does it do to people who consciously take themselves out of the standards defined by the masses? And what about those who set these supposedly universal standards and look at the outsiders? Between seemingly negotiable terms such as "kind" or "just", dignity becomes the strongest weapon in the struggle for one's own existence.

A draft. A picture. A video. A story. The artist is commissioned to design an "organic toilet". So she thinks about how she could do it. But what does "organic" really mean? In her short four-minute animated film, the voice of film artist MARIOLA BRILLOWSKA takes the world of oh-so-special design ideas for a ride in a witty and colorful way by letting viewers witness her "design".

"Growing plants, which is normally easy, was difficult for me because I lived in the basement. That's why it's so special for me now to finally be able to grow plants. In this video, I captured my sister and I bringing plants into our new house. It took a long time before we finally had the opportunity to grow plants." "How to Bring Plants Home" by PYUNGHWA LEE.

"Snapshot" deals with a gentleman in the changing room. He is the husband of her business partner. He wants to spend every possible second near his beloved wife - even if he has to sit on a stool in a one-square-meter changing room. SHIA VADERS watches this daily spectacle, which lasts many hours, in amazement. His self-imposed "cage", his voluntary self-restraint, is her captivity. Unknowingly, he limits her freedom, which she promised herself by becoming independent.

"The unstable refugee policy creates uncertainty, in which the future is frightening and the present feels like survival. The fear of deportation and return to life-threatening conditions adds to this burden. The uncertainty of a career in the arts also makes it difficult to balance artistic practice, the political climate and mental and financial health.""Fear and function" is a sculpture with angular, geometric shapes made of metal by SUDABE YUNESI, who fled Iran in 2018 and is currently studying at the HfbK.

We recommendedULI GOLUB for the Achterhaus Scholarship. During her stay in Hamburg in 2019, the visual artist from Ukraine shot her film "Look, She's got Beard" - at the end of the scholarship, we showed a behind-the-scenes exhibition with the props and first shots. For this exhibition now the finished film, which won the Special Prize of the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv in 2020: "The jury was of the opinion that the work is particularly characterized by the fact that it addresses sensitive topics such as the 'other' and the acceptance of the same in a borderline provocative way. The jury felt that the work was a particularly powerful metaphor for discussing some of the most important issues of our time: Migration, integration, exclusion and difference."

Is the animal skull colonized by parasitic outgrowths a zoological find? Or is it an art object that plays with our idea of nature and artificiality in a mimetic way? WOLF MARTEN's work "Idyll II" from 2024 playfully invites us to reflect on these questions.

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And with that, we release you from this accompanying text. Because art means being playfully inspired to think, rethink, rethink. Feel free to walk around again. Get yourself a drink upstairs and go back downstairs. Cross-connections, dialogs, contrasts are deliberate, but not necessarily obvious. Art also works emotionally, subconsciously. Get involved and reflect on what you see. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, or if you are thirsty. We don't offer anything that we wouldn't drink ourselves. Drinks are available for a donation. Free admission, because everyone should have access to culture.

However, you are welcome to make a donation if you would otherwise honor it. We conceive these exhibitions and run this space because we think it is important that there are constant and challenging positions between state museums and commercial galleries on the one hand and changing platforms for emerging art on the other - on the one hand to better promote artists who are not yet established, and on the other to create a more vibrant culture for communication between art and the public. If you would like to support this work, please contact us.

The narratives of this exhibition were created by the artists. The text was edited by Gerald Chors.

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Participating artists:

Axel Beyer, Barbara Lorenz Höfer + Mara Scholz, Carsten Borck, Florian Huber, Helge H. Paulsen, Klaas Wurtmann, Luise Kleuser, Marcus Korell, Mariola Brillowska, Pyunghwa Lee, Shia Vaders, Sudabe Yunesi, Uli Golub, Wolf Martens

Vernissage:

Thursday, 13.2.2025 at 7 pm

Duration:

Thursday, February 13, 2025 until Sunday, March 16, 2025

Opening hours:

Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays from 6 - 9 pm and n. V.

Finissage:

Sunday, March 16, 2025 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Location:

xpon-art gallery

Repsoldstraße 45

20097 Hamburg

www.xpon-art.de

#xponartgallery

We will inform you about deviating opening hours on our homepage, our

Instagram account @xponartgallery and our Facebook page facebook.com/xponart

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In the course of the exhibition, especially interesting for those who still have to avoid a visit

visit, 360° views will be added to the homepage.

Despite everything, we ask you to think about Corona and the flu epidemic and to behave accordingly.

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With the kind support of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media

Price information:

On a donation basis Free admission, because everyone should have access to culture. However, you are welcome to make a donation if you would otherwise honor it. Drinks are available for a donation. We don't offer anything that we wouldn't drink ourselves. We conceive these exhibitions and run this space because we think it is important that there are constant and challenging positions between state museums and commercial galleries on the one hand and changing platforms for emerging art on the other - on the one hand to better promote artists who are not yet established, and on the other to create a more vibrant culture for communication between art and the public.