23โ04โ2024 Hidden in plain sight. Daniel Moldoveanu at GROTTO, Berlin We love artists who write about artists. In his recent visit to the newly founded space GROTTO in Berlin, Xavier Robles de Medina narrates his way through the exhibition ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ! ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ! ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ! by Romanian artist and essayist Daniel Moldoveanu. From satirical novellas to (in)visible queerness, Robles de Medina gives echo to the societal concerns behind Moldoveanu’s layered practice whilst gracefully preserving their encryption.
11โ04โ2024 In Hülle und Fülle: Kenny Dunkans hybride Räume basis e.V., Frankfurt am Main In his first institutional exhibition in Germany, Kenny Dunkan weaves together a complex vocabulary that surpasses material, cultural and historical categorisations. Clara Maria Blasius walks us through the works on view at basis e.V. and explores Dunkan’s haptic stories between Paris and the Caribbean. [Review in German]
31โ03โ2024 Antarctica as terrestrial crisis room. Esteban Sánchez at Matjö Cologne Remote views of the South: in our latest review, Verena Kämpken reflects on presence and void in Esteban Sánchez’s contemplations of the Antarctic. Read her words on his recent solo-exhibition at the art space Matjö in Cologne.
20โ02โ2024 What remains after the flood The exhibition and artistic research project “Flooding” at 91 Galerie in Frankfurt traces the multi-layered topography of memory in the city of Stanyslaviv, today’s Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine. Navigating through its re-entrants and crevices, artist Nikita Kadan and co-curator Alona Karavai interrogate established narratives surrounding the remembrance of the Holocaust in the city, focusing in particular on the events of what would historically be remembered as “Bloody Sunday”. Alica Sänger wrote a comprehensive review of the exhibition for Passe-Avant.
03โ02โ2024 Spuren rassistischer Gewalt Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main Initially part of an in-depth exhibition on structural racism and white supremacist ideology in Germany, Henrike Naumann’s renowned work 14 ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด is once again on show at the Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt. Referring to existing scenes of racist violence across the country, the installation is displayed in ‘Channeling’, an exhibition of works from the museum’s collection. Writer and curator Dalwin Kryeziu reflects on the new staging of the immersive piece as well as its possible impacts on the viewer. Do we all stand equal when facing Naumann’s work? [Review in German]
27โ01โ2024 Angesichts dessen New Now, Frankfurt am Main A hidden gem in Frankfurt East: the intricate works of the exhibition ๐ท๐ช๐ด-à-๐ท๐ช๐ด by ลฝiva Drvariฤ and Daniel Stubenvoll, which closed several weeks ago, left a soft yet lasting impact. In her latest review, curator and writer Clara Maria Blasius unlocks the meaning behind the dialectic installation at NEW NOW art space. [Review in German]
22โ01โ2024 Loss of lightness Camera Austria, Graz The consecutive and alternating duo exhibition 'Exposure / Double Exposure' at Camera Austria in Graz transforms the photo album from a static documentation into a flexible format, where narratives shift, overwrite, change, and complement each other. Robin Waart took a closer look at the show.
17โ01โ2024 Lampen-Kompositum DOOM SPA, Berlin High up in a Berlin skyscraper, the windows seem to shine particularly bright. The DOOM SPA project space presented a lamp exhibition last year, revolving around exactly what the title suggests; the lamp. Various artists delved into the object and the symbolics of light and lamp. Marie-Sophie Dorsch took a closer look at the exhibition and captured her impressions in her latest review for PASSE-AVANT.
03โ01โ2024 Unveiling The Abyss. Sibylle Ruppert's Spectrum of Violence Kunsthalle Gießen Long forgotten and shrouded in darkness, Sibylle Ruppert's (*1942, † 2011) gruesome works of masterful precision are now regaining attention. Her body of work, equally disturbing as it is fascinating, is the subject of a comprehensive institutional exhibition titled “Dancing in Darkness”. It brings together two contrasting locations, and hereby, two worlds: the Kunsthalle Gießen, architecturally bound to the city hall and its administrative offices, and the sacral church and cultural centre of St. Thomas Morus. This ambivalence is reflected not only in Ruppert's work, but also throughout her tumultuous life.
15โ12โ2023 Bridging Histories: Künstlerische Begegnungen in der Kunsthalle Mainz In a time when the bridges once built by art seem to crumble, curator and researcher Malina Lauterbach stepped right across one – from Mainz all the way to Lubumbashi. Her review of the exhibition ๐๐ฏ๐ฆ๐น๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ: ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฎ๐บ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ซ๐ช ๐ช๐ฏ๐ท๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ด at Kunsthalle Mainz wanders through the works of artists from the art centre Picha, situated in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Beyond the echoes of Kasala poetry invoking the anti-colonial struggles of miners, the secret engravings of a French horn muted by museum glass or the tale of a fish travelling through generations of history – Lauterbach locates the potential for resistance within the exchanges, frictions and even dissonances that bind the project. [Review in German]
26โ10โ2023 With(out) Words Die Auseinandersetzung mit den sozio-politischen ebenso wie poetischen Effekten verbaler und nonverbaler Sprache zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch die von Benedikt Johannes Seerieder kuratierte Ausstellung „Words Don't Go There“ im Kunstverein Braunschweig. Die Künstler:innen nehmen das Potenzial und die Grenzen von Sprache in ihren unterschiedlichen Formen, Texturen sowie Materialitäten in den Fokus. Wie können sprachliche Äußerungen durch andere Ausdrucksformen unterstrichen, umgekehrt oder gar ersetzt werden – und wo versagt Sprache?
18โ10โ2023 Dreaming Buried Promises Anew at the 35th Ljubljana Biennale Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Slovenia This year’s Biennale of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana reaches back to its origins and early aspirations, Lorenzo Graf and Zishi Han tell us. Their tour of the 35th edition was marked by a precisely curated collection of prints tracing transnational and generational bonds. Read their thoughts on the relational and militant capacities of printmaking, and the challenges faced by community-based practices in a rapidly gentrifying capital.
24โ09โ2023 Stories told from the cracks of a house Haus am Waldsee, Berlin In the rooms of this sprawling villa in Zehlendorf, Astakhishvili consistently explores questions of space, architecture, and nostalgia. A former home, the villa is transformed into a metaphor not only for protection and comfort, but also for violence, loneliness, and decay.
10โ09โ2023 mental furniture (of illiberal dreams) Ludwig Forum, Aachen Jandra Boettger's review of the show wanders through furniture forests and someone else's dreamscape, exploring the textures of the imagination and dreams.
01โ09โ2023 Dreaming of Heffalumps: Upholstered Anxieties DAS GERICHT, Frankfurt am Main In her review, Miriam Wierzchoslawska explores the solo show ๐๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด by Gina Fischli at Frankfurt based DAS GERICHT. With witty and sharp observations about city planning, the "hunting" of the camera and objects in western museums, she investigates the interconnection between urban critters, haunting dreams and human anxieties.
21โ08โ2023 Careful Transgressions Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito While in Japan, Arash Shahali visited the thought-provoking exhibition ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ณ๐ต at the Contemporary Art Gallery of the Art Tower Mito. With gentle awareness he shares his encounter with the works and their generative power in renegotiating politics of care.
02โ08โ2023 All Fanced Up and Nowhere To Go Kunstverein Göttingen Editor-at-large Ben Livne Weitzman took a glimpse at Andy Fitz’s intimately delirious exhibition Stumped! Again! currently on view at the Kunstverein Göttingen. Wandering across Fitz’s domestic landscape, he reflects upon the tensions that reside in the rebellious splits and twists of their sculptures and installations.
16โ07โ2023 On the Threshold of Now and (potentially very) Soon Art Encounters Foundation Timiศoara, Romania In her latest review, Teodora Talhoศ walks us through some marking moments of the Art Encounters Biennial in Timiศoara, Romania. Read her critical reflection on the realities nested in the allegorical figure of the rhinoceros and on art's capacity to translate today's geopolitical urgencies through imagination.
04โ07โ2023 Reverberating Ioannina Onassis Stegi, Ioannina, Greece Beyond the dark screen, out in the open – PASSE-AVANT’s editor-at-large Ben Livne Weitzman recently traveled to the lakeside city of Ioannina, Greece, where he wrote about the public exhibition *Plásmata ΙΙ* by Onassis Stegi. Read his thoughts on the potential of digital art in invoking local narratives and new forms of participation.
04โ02โ2023 Recentering The West SculptureCenter, New York SculptureCenter in New York is currently showing „Re-Education“, Henrike Naumann's first exhibition in the USA. Based on the show, our author Katelynn Dunn writes about Naumann's artistic exploration of America's political divisiveness, centrism as a construct and extreme capitalism.