In-between 4 - Andrea Wolfensberger

In-between 1-9
Spaces of possibility
2024

In-between 4
Andrea Wolfensberger
(Space of Possibility)

Manaf Halbouni
Judith Neunhäuserer
(film programme)

Exhibition from 3 May to 29 May 2024
Opening Thursday, 2 May 2024, 6 pm to 9 pm

In 2024, 'Being in-between' provides the conceptual superstructure for nine short, individual artistic presentations that explore the theme in its various aspects. Being in-between can be a thought, a state or even a feeling. We want to understand being in-between as a possibility to see more and to grasp different perspectives simultaneously.

Andrea Wolfensberger has selected 4 works for Dazwischensein, which are being shown for the first time in the DG Kunstraum. Her installation consists of two large sculptures made of corrugated cardboard, a material she has been working with for many years and with which she develops a translation of sound into form. The result is a notation, a meta-language that is difficult to trace back; a reaction to the reduction of language in the digital world to 0 and 1, to yes and no. The anatomy of sound questions the creative potential of language, the connection between word and matter, between wave and body, between the now and its lasting echo.

For the elongated sculpture from the 'Between Yes and No' series, the Swiss artist uses the soundtracks of a "yes" and a "no". The tall sculpture unites eight different voices, each taking a pro and a contra position in pairs. Wolfensberger refers to the basis of democracy: the debate. Especially in the seclusion of the valleys, people were dependent on finding solutions together, listening to the opposition's arguments and thus creating a new space that is larger than the individual "yes" and the individual "no".

Pro and contra voices are superimposed in the form of sound waves, creating curved surfaces, the construction element for the three-dimensional body. The layering of countless pieces of cardboard results in an interwoven, soaring structure, which on one side is reminiscent of a place of protection, a protective mantle of Madonna, and on the other sides takes on the formation of crevices. The result is spaces of in-between, spaces of new possibilities. While the sculptures reflect social coexistence, the works on paper in the exhibition deal graphically with the theme of lichen. They are dual creatures made up of algae and fungi, which, like bacteria, are among the first living organisms on our planet. Lichens are particularly prevalent in habitats with extreme climatic conditions, such as mountains or ice, regions that are too dry, too nutrient-poor or too cold for higher plants. How have they survived? What can we learn from them? "In this symbiosis of algae and fungi, the boundary between individual and community is blurred. But the hyphae only wrapped themselves around the algae in extreme distress, and only when the algae were under great stress did they allow the advances to take place" (Robin Wall Kimmerer, Geflochtenes Süssgras, p.316).

Andrea Wolfensberger (*1961 in Zurich) lives and works in Waldenburg and Zurich (CH) and is a sculptor and installation artist. She studied at the École Supérieure d'Art Visuel in Geneva. In the artistic discourse on the subject of nature, Andrea Wolfensberger takes a very unique, stringent position with sculpture, video and installations, combining scientific abstraction and narrative poetry. Most of her works are based on classical studies of nature. Recognising is understood as a moment of touching, as situated, embodied and partial knowledge. Is cognition as a moment of contact reciprocal? What is the relationship of the individual to the whole? The position of the subject in relation to the group is addressed in particular in those works that deal with swarm intelligence and self-organising systems.

Manaf Halbouni (*1984 in Damascus, Syria) lives and works everywhere, as he says. Halbouni studied sculpture at the University of Damascus and the Dresden University of Fine Arts. His getaway car on Dresden's Theaterplatz, the scene of Monday's Pegida rallies, has made the Syrian-German artist Manaf Halbouni famous. He ironically dealt with Islamophobic statements and the fear of refugees. Since then, he has been travelling internationally with his vehicle laden with German devotional objects such as garden gnomes, beer crates and bicycles. After taking part in the Venice Biennale, his works were presented at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, where he also exhibited one of his getaway cars. As part of his installation Monument, he had three buses erected vertically in Dresden to commemorate the war in Syria and send a message of freedom to the world.

Judith Neunhäuserer (*1990 in Bruneck, Italy) lives in Munich and Milan. In her artistic practice, she deals with attempts at demarcation and aesthetic and epistemic similarities between science and religion. This involves, for example, myths and dreams as the basis for discoveries, the ritualisation of research processes and different languages and symbol systems for formulating models of and for the world.

Film programme
Manaf Halbouni
Nowhere Is Home, 2015
Film, 3 minutes

Judith Neunhäuserer
Everything Flows, 2023
Film, 8 minutes
Soundtrack, 2022,
다음 Daum (dialogue), 김호빈 Hobin Kim (simultaneous translation)

Judith Neunhäuserer
All Heat Is The Same, 2023
Film, 15 minutes
Soundtrack, 2023
Adrian Sölch (Composition)

Programme
Programme opening
Thursday, 2 May March 2024, 6 pm to 9 pm
Introduction 7.30 pm

Andrea Wolfensberger in conversation with Prof. Dr Boris Previšić
Wednesday, 15 May 2024, 7 pm

Finissage with music by pre-art
Wednesday, 29 May 2024, 7 pm

Dazwischensein is a project in cooperation with the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München, the Uri Institute Cultures of the Alps and the Lucerna Foundation. With the kind support of the Curt-Wills-Stiftung and the sponsorship of the Verein Ausstellungshaus für christliche Kunst e.V., Munich. The project was made possible by the BBK - Verbindungslinien funding programme with funds from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts.

Further information and current dates can be found at www.dg-kunstraum.de

#dazwischensein on Instagram (external link, opens in a new window)

Last edited on 22.02.2025