Jana Kerima Stolzer & Lex Rütten: We grow, grow and grow, we’re gonna be alright and this is our show

With We grow, grow and grow, we're gonna be alright and this is our show, the HMKV presents the first institutional solo exhibition by artistic duo Jana Kerima Stolzer and Lex Rütten. Both live and work in Dortmund.

This multimedia exhibition embodies a radical change of perspective, observing the world through the eyes of non-human organisms to which we usually attribute no consciousness. The artists give these beings a voice and they express themselves through the seven fictional characters Micro, Xtract, Pionea, Azolla, Symbiotechnica, Extinct and Hydra. All videos and the VR work are composed with a mix of 3D elements and real footage—and from those, a specific pattern is generated which is then associated with a story or a character. With their help, Jana Kerima Stolzer and Lex Rütten speculate on past, present and future symbioses between microorganisms, plants, animals, bacteria, fungi and technical objects, musing about novel cycles and alliances in nature, both now in the Anthropocene and far beyond. In the exhibition, a reading room invites you to further look at publications and texts surrounding the topics.

Lex Rütten and Jana Kerima Stolzer are an artist duo, working together since 2016. They create multimedia installations and performances which address the technological environment as a shaping and changing component of the world that affects not only human beings, but also flora and fauna. In the past the duo realized scenic installations and performances at the interface between exhibition space and theatre space.

A new HMKV Magazine (2023/1) will be released for the exhibition at the end of April (published by Kettler, €10 at the HMKV bookshop, €18 via the Kettler webshop). The magazine will contain a photo documentation of the exhibition, an introduction by Inke Arns as well as a new essay by Salome Rodeck and short encyclopedic texts or text excerpts on the seven characters by Johann Brandstetter & Josef H. Reichholf (Hydra), Jörn Etzold (Xtract), Christiane Heibach (Symbiotechnica), Bernd Heinrich (Extinct), Bernhard Kegel (Pionea), Lynn Margulis (Azolla) and Ludger Weß (Micro).

Curator: Inke Arns (Director HMKV)

Funded by
Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes NRW
Stadt Dortmund
Dortmunder U
LWL-Kulturstiftung
Stiftung Kunst, Kultur und Soziales der Sparda-Bank West

Media partners
Das Wetter
K-West Verlag

In cooperation with
Matthes & Seitz