CLEARING

16.03 – 12.04.2024

STUDIO HANNIBALL PAPPELALLEE 15 10437 BERLIN ‘We are protected by the references that we quote. This is why it may be better to revive more compromised words, which have been restricted to metaphoric use only. ‘Magic’ is such a word, as we freely speak of the magic of an event, of a landscape, of a musical moment. Protected by the metaphor, we may then express the experience of an agency that does not belong to us even if it includes us, but an ‘us’ as it is lured into feeling. I would propose that we need to forfeit this protection in order to relieve ourselves of the sad, monotonous little critical or reflexive voice whispering that we should not accept being mystified, a voice that relays that of the inquisitors. This voice may tell us about the frightening possibilities that would follow if we gave up critique, the only defense we have against fanaticism and the rule of illusion. But it is first of all the voice of the epic story that still inhabits us. ‘Thou shall not regress’! (…) Magic undercuts any such version of the epic. And this is precisely why neo-pagan witches call their own craft ‘magic’: naming it so, they say, is itself an act of magic, since the discomfort it creates helps us notice the smoke in our nostrils. If we said to them, ‘But your Goddess is only a fiction’, they would doubtless smile and ask us whether we are among those who believe that fiction is powerless.’ – Isabelle Stengers, ‘Reclaiming Animism’, 2012 Clearing is a video installation. A recurring vision haunts you; you engage in the pursuit of it. The vision slips away and with it, your grasp on reality. Through different environments – the forest, the city, the house – the exhibition explores obsession and the coping mechanisms used to deal with it. The video is a first impulse and acts as a red line between the objects created in response. Each environment shows a different phase of the process. Forest: a small fountain with moving water gives off a constant background noise. Torches pointed at the water reflect the light above, where dead bees are hung from the ceiling. A video showing me – filmed by my sister / hanging from a digger / dressed as a crow. City: a light box with a picture of the facade of my apartment building. The windows lit to form a heart. House: an installation of a wooden wall - a living room picture printed onto it - a window cut out of it. Behind it, a screen fakes a window and shows presumable views. Three curtains with the silhouettes of a castle form the rest of the house. One side’s entrance: an arch.

WITH ARINA BALAS, ANDREA D’ARSIÈ, DAMIANO FEMFERT, MARIE-LYNN GUNKEL,MARIE NADJA HALLER, TIBOR KOEHNE, HANNAH RETTL, SILVIO SARACENO, ELISE STEILEN, FYNN STOLDT, ALEXANDER STUTE, JOSHUA TEWES-MCCOY, BEATRICE ZANESCO