The Library of Alexandria, The Fall of the USSR...
«The Library of Alexandria, The Fall of the USSR, A Window to the Future, and Other Stories»
With Yumna Al-Arashi, Olga Antonova, Catalina Bucos, Catherine Duboutay and Rachel TonThat
Exhibition: 27. 10. - 10. 11. 2021
Friday till Sunday from 13 till 18 Uhr.
With the short audience attention spans in this frenetic digital age, it can be difficult to get people to read an article, let alone engage with text based artwork. Things move too fast for extensive storytelling.
Our group exhibition features these artworks which are strongly tied to and/or composed of narratives conveyed through written text, visuals, or audio. This exhibition explores the question of how to exhibit text and seamlessly integrate it into a fine art context while engaging deeply with viewers.
One factor that can be controlled might be the environment of the exhibition space. Museums and galleries are often like chapels- places where people can visit but are not invited to stay. To truly access our audience, we propose recreating a space that feels like a library, a quiet, sacred domain where guests are invited to stay as long as they conform to the rules. In this environment, people can come together to participate in a shared activity of reading text and art.
Topics that are discussed in the artworks include ideological shifts in politics, consumer behaviour and the struggles of identity. The exhibition will mindmap connections between the political and the emotional, between the individual and the collective and, in the accompanying exhibition text by Tobias Bärtsch, create a story of the present moment.