juicy things

In three acts, ‘juicy things’ explores contemporary figures of disorder and new narratives in the arts: Re-enactments as well as the resulting ruptures enable a new perspective on the present. Figures of disorder such as the trickster, the vagabond or the witch, representing the Other*, experience a re-narration and challenge hierarchical structures or traditional role models. In doing so, they unsettle societal relations that are still predominantly white and male. Therefore, the project focuses on what disturbs, confuses and mixes up anew. The first act, entitled ‘Witch Nursery’ reflects on the production of knowledge: What about the story next to the story? The second act focuses on materiality through ‘Shimmering Objects’ that can be more than a mere reflection of the status quo. The third act ‘Queer Botanics’ revolves around more-than-human relations and ecologies of relationships: We want to interrogate nature as a reference point of human thought and action. The works of the artists Kai-Chiang Lin and Aza belong to the first act and deal in different ways with the question of how knowledge is narrated and constructed. In his textile works and photographs, Kai-Chiang Lin negotiates questions about the construction of cultural and gender identity. Based on German idioms around sausages such as "Das ist mir Wurscht", his wall-sized photography opens up a poetic space to discuss gendered, social conventions, national identity and the construction of the Other*. Aza's performance "ich weiß", which takes place at the preview of the exhibition, links to this question of relations of power and the production of knowledge. The artist interacts with the audience and responds: "ich weiß". Depending on the emphasis of the words and through the repetition, questions arise about how knowledge is produced, who speaks, how we are entangled in power relations and/or reproduce them, all the way to questions about critical whiteness. Sophia Roggenkamp's shimmering textile objects belong to the second act Shimmering Objects. Scattered on the wall and throughout the space, the smooth, shiny surfaces attract the viewer's interest. A play between closeness and distance commences: Do I want to throw myself into the shimmering clouds or does the material repel me? The space-related object collage by Katja Neubert deals with the everyday, its materiality and potential for intervention. For the exhibition, the artist has developed two site-specific interventions that disturb the familiar spatial architecture. The materials of the object collage refer to existing materials and simultaneously transform them: The familiar* becomes alien* and vice versa. The third act focuses on relationships and the deconstruction of dichotomies. The artist collective Klara Goiny and Lili Weismann developed a site-specific installation. The basis of the work is the relationship between the artists - as partners, friends and as a collective. The artists jointly develop a new wall piece and a space-related hanging of drawings that refer to each other, respond to each other and enter into a relationship with each other. Individual authorship is deconstructed and the practice of working collectively is discussed. Ollie Gandul's ceramic objects are linked to the practice of deconstruction - focusing on questions of the binary categorisations of body, nature and identity. Starting from a diverse and constantly changing biosphere, Ollie Gandul develops ceramic objects that cast a non-binary view on embodiments: The ceramic objects are reminiscent of organic forms in nature, refer to human genitals and thus elude gendered classification. Accompanying the exhibition, the international symposium with lectures, workshops and screenings expand the artistic discourses from various disciplines. Additionally, a catalog about the exhibition releases which was developed in collaboration with the students of the ‘juicy things’ project seminar. Further cooperation partners are the Studium Digitale project with the translation of the exhibition into digital space and the conference ‘Dis/Assembly of Performative Things’ by Leoni Fischer at Kunstraum Vika.