Coming of Age for Ages at Halle für Kunst

Coming of Age for Ages at Halle für Kunst

KIM at Leuphana University

Nicolas Ceccaldi, Pain, 2013. Installation view, castillo/corrales. Photo: Peter Clastres.

May 11, 2014

Coming of Age for Ages
17 May–22 June 2014

Opening: Friday 16 May, 7pm

Halle für Kunst
Reichenbachstraße 2
D-21335 Lüneburg
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday 2–6 pm

www.halle-fuer-kunst.de

Artists: Merlin Carpenter, Nicolas Ceccaldi, Jana Euler, Monika Jarecka, Tobias Kaspar, Dirk Meinzer, Buffy Summers, Jan Timme, Amelie von Wulffen

Feelings of being beside oneself, of self-deprecation and revolving only around one’s ego, as well as rejection, romantic indulgence, social phobia, fandom, deviance and rebellion are usually associated with adolescence in the West. The reason is most likely that, at least from the perspective of smooth functioning, a certain immaturity, lability, embarrassment and self-love is attributed to them.

The exhibition is interested in these emotional states, passions, dispositions and poses because they not only characterise adolescence. When talk is of adolescent sentiments and gestures of “puberty,” we do not place them in a temporal context, in a certain phase between childhood and adulthood, but instead refer to a continuous or never-ending adolescence, to not wanting or not being able to grow up. Puberty as an attitude, so to speak.

“Pubertal” gestures and passions understood in this way should not be romanticised, however, but grasped, quite to the contrary, as deeply ambivalent phenomena. For apart from the productive aspects revealed in withdrawal, rejection and self-empowerment (whether they are intentional or not), an obstructive stance of this sort is usually also accompanied by moments of suffering in face of oneself and the world, of wanting too much or everything at once as well as of a speechlessness (felt at least) and inability to act. These can indeed be described as everyday horrors, as an ongoing struggle.

The exhibition Coming of Age for Ages brings together works in which either explicitly or implicitly “pubertal” gestures, passions and feelings appear, be it in the form of adoration, navel-gazing, refusal, provocation, pathos or paralysis. In some of the works on view, a distance is inscribed which at times takes on the form of irony, détournement, pastiche or parody, while other works owe precisely to such an “adolescent” stance as an artistic practice. What must also be considered, though, is whether the making of art (like any other self-centred production seeking recognition) is not already deeply “pubertal” as such in regard to its insolence and excessiveness.

Contact:
KIM
Innovation Incubator
Leuphana University of Lüneburg
Project Office: Building 5, 4th Floor, Room 421
Scharnhorststraße 1
D-21335 Lüneburg

www.kim-art.net

The exhibition is based on a cooperation of KIM, Innovation Incubator of Leuphana University of Lüneburg with Halle für Kunst. The Innovation Incubator Lüneburg is an EU major project, financed by the European Regional Development Fund and co-funded by the federal state of Lower Saxony.

 

KIM at Leuphana University of Lüneburg presents Coming of Age for Ages at Halle für Kunst
Advertisement
RSVP
RSVP for Coming of Age for Ages at Halle für Kunst
KIM at Leuphana University
May 11, 2014

Thank you for your RSVP.

KIM at Leuphana University will be in touch.

Subscribe

e-flux announcements are emailed press releases for art exhibitions from all over the world.

Agenda delivers news from galleries, art spaces, and publications, while Criticism publishes reviews of exhibitions and books.

Architecture announcements cover current architecture and design projects, symposia, exhibitions, and publications from all over the world.

Film announcements are newsletters about screenings, film festivals, and exhibitions of moving image.

Education announces academic employment opportunities, calls for applications, symposia, publications, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Sign up to receive information about events organized by e-flux at e-flux Screening Room, Bar Laika, or elsewhere.

I have read e-flux’s privacy policy and agree that e-flux may send me announcements to the email address entered above and that my data will be processed for this purpose in accordance with e-flux’s privacy policy*

Thank you for your interest in e-flux. Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.