back there

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As part of Ortstermin 2019, the exhibition “back there” is dedicated to the obvious and the less obvious. If something is obvious, it is exactly like that and not different – obvious because it is indeed open and insightful. Thus, the rooms of Galerie Nord | Kunstverein Tiergarten also seem exceedingly open and insightful at first glance. Here, the physical barrier between art space and urban space consists merely of a transparent pane of glass, while the socio-spatial distance is more complex. The exhibition “back there” takes this paradox as an opportunity to bring the otherwise imperceptible spatial and social conditions of the Galerie Nord to the fore. This confrontation is intensified by a wooden wall installed especially for the exhibition, which stretches across the gallery rooms and, as a double back, visibly blurs the boundary between foreground and background. The assembled positions remain on the surface, illuminate backgrounds, make them invisible and allow glances to run into the void.

Outside, along Turmstraße, this working method continues. Art is presented here in a deliberately casual, almost functional way, yet it consistently moves in the background. It blocks itself from the courting of attention and uses already existing media and structures, LED displays in the shop fronts, advertising stands, fences or flagpoles. It is only constituted at second or third glance and thus challenges the viewer to pause, to step closer and to become aware of their own perspective and position. In addition to the individual, there are also historical and social reasons why exactly this and not something else comes into focus at this moment, is obvious, and therefore supposedly real and important. The seemingly random goings-on in urban space can be analysed on the basis of various criteria. One of them is visibility and as such it is anything but neutral, it is contested, unequally distributed and always political. Is the intentionally unsettled gaze here not always also an aesthetic one? The exhibition “back there” creates blurriness and invites us to deliberately look past what is obvious, to become aware of how our own gaze constitutes what is visible and significant, and thus perhaps to take responsibility for what is obviously overlooked.

Curated by Ulrike Riebel and Christopher Weickenmeier

The locations of the participating artists’ works can be found in this map: Link

With the kind support of the district funds of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Industry and visitBerlin.

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