Weaving Back to Common Grounds
November 7–December 7, 2025
ACUD Gallery
Weaving Back to Common Grounds by otc – Observant Thick Conversation (Rahel grote Lambers, Alexander Klaubert, Francis Kussatz & Julia Lübbecke) marks the final stage of the two-year project Have We Passed Peak Collective, developed in collaboration with Künstler:innenhaus Lauenburg, Lothringer 13 Halle Munich, KH Künstler:innenhaus Bremen and ACUD Galerie Berlin. The project has explored questions of collective practice, shared agency, and collaboration in times of social and cultural change, reflecting on the dynamics between individual and collective work and the conditions that make collaboration possible or strenuous.
Common ground can be difficult to locate. It requires negotiation, reflection, and the ability to move between different perspectives—sometimes facing conflicting realities. It can mean navigating distance as much as proximity, moments of comfort as well as friction.
Finding common ground is part of every collective process. Different threads are taken up and woven together—a structure that is never seamless, full of gaps and loose ends. It means navigating emotions as much as ideas: moments of frustration, care, hesitation, and trust that shape how people work and relate. Collective work is labour, but it is also a form of grounding, a way to stay connected when certainties fall away. In a society marked by division and hyper-individualism, the question of what can still be shared feels increasingly urgent.
The exhibition reflects on the processes of finding—and losing—common ground. It examines closeness and distance, change and transformation, acknowledging that what once connected can later become a site of rupture.
The works on view—both collaborative and individual—approach these questions through overlaps, exchanges, and shifting boundaries. They trace how proximity and distance, both spatial and emotional, shape artistic practice and collective experience. Some works emerge from shared research and conversation; others stand apart, maintaining a tension between independence and interdependence. Together they form a field of relations—unstable, negotiated, and open-ended.
About the publication
On 14 November 2025 at 6pm, a talk moderated by Laura Seidel (Curator) with Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius (Performing Architect & Cultural Activist), otc – Observant Thick Conversation (Artists Collective), and other guests will address collective work within the art world as well as times of social and political change. A publication accompanying the exhibition expands on these ideas, gathering voices and reflections from the project’s two-year trajectory, along with a practical Artist Rider that can be used by artists, collectives and institutions to structure collaborations. The publication brings together texts by Lisa Britzger, Rahel grote Lambers, Alexander Klaubert, Clara Kramer, Francis Kussatz, Marita Landgraf, Anne Meerpohl, Nadja Quante, and otc – Observant Thick Conversation; the graphic design is by Kiki Park.
Read and download the publication here.
About otc – Observant Thick Conversation
otc – Observant Thick Conversation was founded in 2018 and operated under the names Law of Life (LoL) and Yours truly, LoL until 2022. The group consists of the artists Rahel grote Lambers, Alexander Klaubert, Francis Kussatz and Julia Lübbecke.
The group emerged from a desire to challenge a culture industry focused on individualism and to develop collective support structures for young artists. In addition to their own exhibition practices and thematic engagement, building sustainable networks through initiating close dialogue between artists, curators, and cultural producers is a significant part of their artistic-political work.
Their works have been shown, among others, at the Kunstverein Göttingen, Lothringer 13 Halle Munich, the ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art Berlin, the Frappant Galerie in Hamburg, and the Vunu Gallery in Košice.
Website / Instagram
Contact: info@observant-thick-conversation.com
This exhibition has been made possible with the support of Stiftung Kunstfonds, the State of Schleswig-Holstein, Künstler:innenhaus Lauenburg Fellowship Program, the Künstler:innenhaus Lauenburg City Gallery & Vast Forward». ACUD Galerie is funded by the Basisförderung der Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt.
