September 2, 2019

Composting the Universe is an outerdisciplinary exhibition project. It seeks to com-post¹: to be with (com) what comes later (post). How can we think with the future today? And how can past incidents become a sediment on which we can imagine a future, irrespective of a positive or a negative interpretation of these incidents? The area of b-05 was established in times of the Cold War, now it’s a natural reserve. The possibilities of the apocalypse have always accompanied humanity. Or: After Cold War, Global Warming². We want to test ways of handling this constant moment of temporary fragility.
Therefore we are concerned with the interconnected changes that happen in our technologies, our hierarchies, our communication, our bodies, our relation to nature and our views on the future. By com-posting what is “there”, we might find multiple possibilities of what will be “here”. The more possible perspectives we have, the more likely they can form a universe. Connecting with the notion of maintenance in com-posting, we see this work as the usually disrespected, un(der)paid work of care.

In the curatorial team, we want to connect to the notion of curare – to care. We provided a frame: the space that we got provided from b-05, the time frame and the work of organization and communication. Due to financial instability and limited power ressources, we asked the artists to be responsible for their travel and build-up, being able, in worst case, to pay for their own costs. Needless to say that that this is not the ideal state we are looking for as we solely reinvent a common circumstance of art production. We are happy that we could maintain the bonds with the artists during the negotiation with sponsors who did provide us with a financial sediment to work with. In this context we would like to thank the team of the b-05 for their support and for the maintenance of the exhibition during the opening hours.

Being aware of and transparent with the production contexts in the art world (or anywhere else), we would love the exhibition to be a platform for futuristic social and artistic concepts. We invited artists that we know from various contexts to form a loose net of associative connections with their works as well as with their different persona and approaches to working in the art field. We are looking forward to seeing them together in the forest of b-05 and to meet you, the audience, as well.

Footnotes:
1 Donna Haraway in the introduction of Staying with the trouble.
2 Quote of the huge wall installation Recession (2008) by Dan Perjovschi at Ludwig Forum Aachen.

 

With works by:
Andreas Schmitten / Düsseldorf.
Bianca Kennedy & The Swan Collective / München.
Wolfgang Stehle / München.
Jana Schumacher / Hamburg.
Simone Kessler / Hamburg.
Simone Kessler & Charles Eck von Schanzenbach / Hamburg, München.
Sarah Lehnerer / Berlin.
Xin Cheng / Hamburg/Auckland.
Nico Lillo / Hamburg.
Taru Kallio / Hamburg.
Lisa Reitmeier & Benedikt Hipp / München.
Barbara Herold & Florian Huth / München.
Böhler & Ohrendt / Nürnberg, Berlin.
Tintin Patrone / Hamburg.
Sultan Alawar / Hamburg.
Martin Heise / Köln.
Rights of Nature Working Groop / Massiaru.