in der Luft | in the air

SHORT TEXT FOR INSTAGRAM: The exhibition explores the motif of the flying creature as a symbolic space of resonance between the observation of nature and social analysis. The focus is not on the depiction of the winged animals themselves, but on their function as a canvas for questions of power, care, violence and coexistence. The works on display – in the media of video, sculpture, photography and installation – address, amongst other things, animal husbandry, ecological interdependencies, social rituals and mechanisms of control and appropriation. LONG TEXT FOR WEBSITE: In the air. An expression with many meanings. Above us in the air: sky, space, atmosphere. Something is in the air: palpable, mood, tension. Something hangs in the air: uncertain, unresolved, impending. Something is torn apart in the air: connections, present, safety. Something flies in the air—wings flutter. in the Air is the title of a group exhibition at the Heidelberger Kunstverein, bringing together ten artistic positions. The show delineates the multifaceted interpretations of the winged creature as a motif. It does not address the bird as an animal species per se, but rather presents it as a projection surface, an echo, and a cognitive model, opening up inferences about contemporary societal conditions. It is a symbolic space of resonance between the observation of nature and social analysis, raising questions of power, care, violence, and coexistence. The animal surpasses humanity in its evolutionary capabilities—a state that has long inspired desires and driven scientific endeavour. Technology is enlisted to push the boundaries of comprehension and imitation. Thus, during videographically documented nocturnal forays, the artist Joshua Bonnetta explores the denizens of the forest in Arc of Night. As a figure of fear and imagination, the nocturnal bird appears here as a bearer of narratives and inner images. Through digital birdsong synthesis, Sasha Iliashenko probes animal communication in Chirp, Chirp, Trill, Warble. Although artists and scientists alike successfully approach the animal, the inescapable realisation remains that, despite technological aids, the animal subject will ultimately remain uncomprehended and autonomous. Conversely, in human custody, the animal frequently loses the autonomy of its existence. Domestication goes far beyond affectionate care; it entails externally directed actions and extensive control over the animal’s life. In her video work SSRC, Yalda Afsah sheds light on a highly specific case of animal husbandry: the pigeon breeding of the so-called Pigeon Rolling Clubs, wherein these winged creatures are carefully bred and trained by individuals to partake in competitions. The history of the corporeal appropriation of animals stretches far back: Leonie Kellein’s transmedial installation A Wing Beat! A Wing Beat! recounts the history of pigeon photography, its enduring utilisation to this day, and its role as a model for military purposes—flight as a channel of communication, surveillance, and technological appropriation. Appropriation, as a conceptual subterfuge, invariably necessitates a form of hierarchising division between the familiar and the foreign. In Clara Spillaert’s sculptures Nest and Wedding Dove, the artist negotiates the segregation of pigeons in everyday urban life and their forced integration into human traditions. The desire for mastery is mirrored in TaeHwan Jeon’s video work Death Star beneath the guise of preserving an aesthetic ideal: the work presents glimpses of the craft of taxidermy, the preservation of animal remains. Mario Urlaß’s sculptures Hybrid discuss—particularly through their materiality of dried chicken feet—the industrialisation of animal bodies. Driven by a protective intent, human intervention in avian life is depicted in the photographs taken during walks by Hendl Helen Mirra—birdboxes in the forest. With further fragments of the green environment, the categories of inside and outside, of culture and nature, are tentatively dissolved within the exhibition space of the Heidelberger Kunstverein. Instead, the presence of an intra-institutional ecological system is simulated. Particularly instrumental in this regard are Henrik Håkansson’s works A Painting for a Bird: large-scale canvases affixed with a branch to serve as a landing perch for birds, dispersed throughout both the interior space and the garden of the Kunstverein. The group exhibition’s semblance of an aviary is reinforced by the continuously resounding bird calls from Louise Lawler’s sound installation, Birdcalls. In the spirit of feminist Institutional Critique, Lawler questions the categorisations, divisions, and hierarchies of the art world. The exhibition unites various generations of contemporary art. Through diverse media—film, sculpture, installation, painting, and photography—they approach the discourse of their present day. They propose a departure from notions of hierarchy and standardisation, offering alternative perspectives and the possibility of an egalitarian coexistence of living beings. In this context, what unites them within the selection of the exhibition is the use of the winged creature as a central vocabulary in their artistic language. They address something in the Air—a present: unpredictable, highly charged, indeterminate.