CACOPHONY OF THINGS
Paweł Kruk, Mélanie Matranga, Shelly Nadashi, Sue Tompkins, Jala Wahid
13 December 2014 – 15 March 2015

 

The exhibition "Cacophony of Things" explores the dealings of five contemporary artists with reflexive reference systems. They represent an imminent trend, which shows artists' works increasingly incorporating references to the works of other artists, contexts or languages. They search and explore references, invent new ones and, by this, create a framework that needs to be decoded by the viewer. The mass of references can be overwhelming, and exactly this limitlessness and hybridity leads to the question of the autonomy of an artistic idea. How does the idea position itself towards the dominance of references, does it take advantage of it? What role does language play as a means to mediate between the artistic idea and the framework of references? The exhibition and its accompanying talks aspire to show, that it isn’t just one but many voices inside an artwork that meet in cacophony, and that these voices aren’t necessarily bound to people but also to things.

Curator: Regina Barunke


PROGRAMME

13 December 2014
Mélanie Matranga and Benjamin Thorel: A Thing

24 January 2015
Regina Barunke and Stefan Wagner: Paweł Kruk. A Thing

6 February 2015
Jan Verwoert and Jala Wahid: A Thing

6 March 2015
Jennifer Allen and Shelly Nadashi: A Thing

11 March 2015
Sue Tompkins: World Wah!
Peter Gorschlüter and Sue Tompkins: A Thing


PRESS MATERIAL

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Funding and Support

Institut français, Berlin
Kulturamt der Stadt Köln
RheinEnergie Stiftung
Deltax contemporary, Wirtschafts- und Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH
Hotel Chelsea


Sponsoring

Boucherie, Design des 20. Jahrhunderts


Images

1 — exhibition view
2 — Mélanie Matranga: Almost an Achievement, 2014
3 — Paweł Kruk: The Lost Interview, 2009
4 — Jala Wahid: I’ve got a burning desire (come on, tell me boy), 2014
5 — Sue Tompkins: Cutz, 2014
6 — Shelly Nadashi: A Hidden Quiet Pocket, 2014
7 — exhibition view
Photo: Simon Vogel