REAL FRIENDS

Real Friends "It's Fate. It's Destiny. We Both Like Burritos." Friendship. One word, twelve letters, the best thing in the world. Isn't it? Aristotle once lamented "O my friends, there is no friend!" Because friendship, while insanely beautiful, is usually not easy, but requires some commitment on both sides. This is even more true of friendship, because culturally and historically, friendship has been a male thing. Men have a blood brother or a buddy. Everyone else engages in 'catfights'. Siegfried Kracauer strictly distinguished mere 'friendships of the mind' from 'true friendships' characterized by spiritual affinity. Unsurprisingly, for him 'female friendships' belonged to the first category. Even if these stereotypes seem to be partly outdated, it remains a progressive gesture when two female artists exhibit their friendship. And this one is not only 'true', but also real! Josefine Schulz and Theresa Rothe are schoolmates, companions and intellectual and artistic allies. The importance of spatial togetherness and (public) places where one can meet and exchange ideas 'in real life' outside of the Internet were the starting point for the exhibition project and the joint spatial installation encompassing both works. This is no trivial matter: instead of the narcissistic artist's ego, communality is praised. That both artists play with the formal language of cuteness is no coincidence. Cuteness is - unlike the sublime, the beautiful, or even the ugly - an aesthetic of proximity. Its effect immediately triggers emotions and virtually tempts one to distance oneself, to the so-called "aww effect," which describes the need to want to touch, press, cuddle, or even squeeze. In the spatial coexistence of the two different, yet harmonizing artistic positions, the latently present cuteness invites social togetherness. For all the alienation, for all the uncanny and grotesque parts that may be present between Schulz's constellations of figures or in the design and movements of Rothe's objects, it instills warmth and affection. Friendship relationships always oscillate between strong feelings of familiarity and strangeness. The oscillation in between describes well the basic mood of Theresa Rothe's works: they are 'creepy' and 'cute', triggering aversion and affection. They are figures like from a waking dream, which one wants to get to know, but of which one is also a bit afraid. Their twitching and jerking provokes respect, but also fascination: are they good or evil? One can enter into both possible realities in equal measure. Theresa Rothe achieves this effect through her unusual handling of materials and devices. Familiar materials are alienated from their usual purpose. Ever heard of a flocking machine? What is actually used to apply a lawn for model making, Rothe uses for the incarnate, the facial skin of one of her figures. Josefine Schulz's paintings and ceramics are also about mixed emotions. Her group paintings feature teens and early twens alongside cute little dogs, which at first glance seem as if they were placed loosely next to each other. If you look more closely, you see how her protagonists touch each other, how they cast glances at each other or deny them to each other. In this way, she describes a time in life in which a great deal of fate can be found in chance, in which longings are often paired with fear - for example, of relationships breaking up instead of lasting. As fashionable and self-confident as the figures in Schulz's paintings may appear to us, their poses are awkward. This reveals their insecurity in an affectionate way. Behind the distanced-cool surface - in terms of painting as well as content - lies a deep-seated emotional web of desires and worries, pleasure and trepidation. A symbol for the fragility of friendship.