Force The Hand Of Chance

In the German Duden, success is described as the "positive result of an effort" or the "occurrence of an intended, desired effect." According to this definition, success is not a coincidence. Rather, it should be preceded by a goal that a person has set for themselves. But what is success in a field where goals constantly change due to media shifts and fluctuating daily politics? Force the Hand of Chance is a group exhibition featuring original works by Lea Rohde, Matthias Meyer, Theo Huber, Ingeborg Gabriel, Tatjana Danneberg and Thomas Baldischwyler. These works will be surrounded by ephemera, copies and documents from Gee Vaucher, Cameron Soren, Melissa Sachs, Chris Reinecke, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jack Kirby, Thomas Bush, a screensaver by Harold Cohen, and a Nina Simone remix by a certain TT. Both groups of objects come together to form an installation that could be interpreted as a sprawling transcription of various mathematical sets. It is up to the visitors to make connections between the (also) historical texts and methods of work, to recognize overlaps between original works and edits, or, like Herman Melville's character Bartleby, to refrain from doing so in doubt. This group show was put together by Thomas Baldischwyler, following his solo exhibition An den Rand der Zukunft denken, which was on display in the same space until the end of March. He would like to thank the participating artists, the Nagel-Draxler and LambdaLambdaLambda galleries, but also a number of private collections and above all Ebay, Discogs and ZVAB for their great help.