Time and space are physical magnitudes, which, though ever-present, are abstract phenomena barely to be grasped. They form our perception, yet every endeavour to approach them through conceptualities remains necessarily vague. Nevertheless, we need systems or vocabularies which we can use so we can reach agreement on them. These include, for example, units of measurement that define duration, distance or quantities. The ostensible clarity of these systems concurrently contains the attempt at comprehending the universal, the not wholly graspable, to understand time, space and the world.

And so everything gets measured and counted out, is numerable and thereby nameable, is even quantifiable in currencies. Often, these units are based on natural measurements: foot and ell are oriented on the human body, the metre is defined via the speed of light. However, if these systems deviate from one another, agreement becomes difficult. One establishes that the sense for units is a learned one. And that perception of them is extremely subjective. Probably everyone is familiar with the infinite variations in how long an hour or a route is felt to be. These attempts at appropriating the world are also an aesthetic phenomenon, for humanity has been in search of the perfect measurement for millennia. Over and over, the attempt is made to answer the question of what beauty is by means of certain measurements, and each era comes upon its own answers and numerical proportions.

 

In the exhibition, regional and international artistic positions are presented which address units of time and measurement, and measuring – or the impossibility of measuring. This can occur through systematic mapping, humorous investigations into time and distance, or also in the attempt at capturing movements, therefore temporal processes, in the image. Repetitions of unvarying activities within a certain period can also provide a vague idea of an abstract concept like “duration”. Steps and breaths specify a rhythm, while individual speed in each case determines an action’s duration or the length of a taken route. The trails our journeys leave behind have stored time – actually a short-lived procedure. Thanks to tracking apps, though, these trails can even be conserved: a walk becomes a graphic. And not only that, tracking apps also decrypt – rudimentarily at least – the processes of optical perception. Trails that have conserved time and activity leave behind sporting exercises on a paper web, in exactly the way a photographic record of the sun’s trajectory leaves a trace. The exhibited works may be understood as approaches to the phenomena time and space, as questions, comments, or possibly even answers. The exhibition is an essayistic contemplation on time and duration, space and distance, on the attempt at apprehending the world and finding order in chaos.

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Public tours of the exhibition

Sunday, March 5th, 2023 | 3 PM with Anna Siebert in Russian language

Thursday, March 16th, 2023 | 6 PM with Kim Behm in German language

Thursday, April 20th, 2023 | 6 PM with Melek Kilic in Turkish language

Sunday, May 7th, 2023 | 3 PM with Kim Behm in German language

All public tours are free of admission.

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Reading

Thursday, March 9th, 2023 | 19 AM

Helmut Orpel reads from "The Invention of Reality"

"The Invention of Reality" is the fourth book in Helmut Orpel's art crime series about the fictional Worms museum director Oliver Treschko. It deals with manipulations in the art market and a painter's project to create art free from commercialism and patronage.

Admission is 5 €.

 

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Catalogue presentation

Sunday, March 19th, 2023 | 3 PM

Fritz Stier - Performances, video works, photo paintings, and projects

The catalogue book, published in 2023 by artbear books, presents Fritz Stier's diverse work for the first time in a comprehensive and differentiated way. Numerous illustrations and texts by the artist himself are accompanied by contributions from a number of authors.

Admission is free.