Subconscious

„The stories we use to create our sense of self – the stories we tell our lovers at five a.m. so that they can understand who we are – are also the ones over which we have most heavily embroidered. They have been altered by the moods and settings in which we have told them. They have been altered by what we needed them to mean each time.“ Aus: Nadja Spiegelmann, I´m supposed to protect you from all of this, 2016 Subconscious (2020 -) by Nora Hansen is a site-specific and participatory installation only complete with the metamorphosis its visitors undergo. The installation features drawings and objects, fragments echoing legends, tales and myths from the past and the present. The magenta dominating the works, as a supposedly neutral color spectrum underlying the construction of all digitally printed images (CMYK), has recently found its way into Hansen's artistic processing. The characters, creatures, beings and objects are only indicated by their silhouettes and contours. The works intersect and overlap in a collage-like manner, opening up space for symbolic reproductions, codes and fictions emanating from a subjective contemplation. This collection includes partly explicit affects, which provoke the viewers to draw from the sum of their own memories and ideas. The artistic approach explores various methodological approaches based on visual phenomena that attempt to understand, classify, and ultimately process or re-evaluate memories and the emotions that are mostly subconsciously linked to them by means of narration. What narratives do we carry within us or do we create about ourselves for others? Is there a memory that always gives strength? Is there one that is surrounded by uncertainty and shame, and why? Is there a memory that is so concise, as if it were pricked into the skin and interlaced with it? And what would it be like if the thread were to slowly unravel…? The visitors are invited to fill the installation with their cognitive volume and memories, to immerse themselves in a process, to empathise with their own conscious and subconscious associations and preconceptions and to challenge them. A writing template may be used to create one's own drafts on it. In order to be included in an archive of the artist, the drafts may be placed anonymously in the exhibition. The exhibition Nora Hansen. Subconscious (07.09.-14.10.2023) at Artothek is sponsored by the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne and the Kunststiftung NRW.