KAI 10 | Arthena Exhibition
“Bodies, Grids, and Ecstasy”
Exhibition @ KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation
Verena Issel and Roy Mordechay in Conversation with Ludwig Seyfarth
(This post also appears, in slightly different form, at my Instagram account betweendrafts.)
That was awesome.
The conversation within and about Verena Issel’s installation touched upon questions of recreating unutilized land space (aka nature) and free play within artistic/artificial spaces that seem natural but are highly constrained and predefined constructs. A reasonable estimate as to the percentage of unutilized land on Earth is hard to come by, and the artist knew that the number she had heard might not be entirely accurate, or reliable. But that doesn’t matter—her art installation fell into the realm of dynamics and developments, physically, psychologically, and conceptually, not of percentages.
Roy Mordechay’s paintings and his thoughts about his art and techniques were even more up my alley. So many aspects I’m deeply invested in were hit upon, prominently in terms of “layers”—personal layers of memory from first childhood impressions to the present; vibrating layers of memory that produce uncertainty; collective layers in art history from cave paintings to modern art; layers with analog and quasi-digital transparency; material layers of distinct materials/tools and frame variations for an individual piece of art; and layers of “meaning” that are not rooted in any pre-conceptualized “story” the artist had in mind but in their (Roy’s) endeavor to make it “work” in a functional (aesthetic) sense. I loved this so much!
You can visit the exhibition “Bodies, Grids, and Ecstasy” at the Arthena Foundation, Kaistraße 10, Düsseldorf, from November 1, 2023, through April 20, 2024. There are more artist involved in this exhibition; some of them—Katja Novitskovea on January 11, 2024; Margret Eicher and Lena Schrank on January 24, 2024—will also be available for interesting conversations next year. (I won’t be in Germany for the first event, but most likely show up for the second.)
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