17–01–2024 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.
03–01–2024 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.
15–12–2023 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 𝘜𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦: 𝘚𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘺 𝘉𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘫𝘪 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴 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]
26–10–2023 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?
18–10–2023 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.
24–09–2023 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.
10–09–2023 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.
01–09–2023 Dreaming of Heffalumps: Upholstered Anxieties DAS GERICHT, Frankfurt am Main In her review, Miriam Wierzchoslawska explores the solo show 𝘙𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘦𝘴 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.
21–08–2023 Careful Transgressions Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito While in Japan, Arash Shahali visited the thought-provoking exhibition 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘈𝘳𝘵 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.
02–08–2023 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.
16–07–2023 On the Threshold of Now and (potentially very) Soon Art Encounters Foundation Timișoara, Romania In her latest review, Teodora Talhoș walks us through some marking moments of the Art Encounters Biennial in Timișoara, 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.
04–07–2023 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.
04–02–2023 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.
01–02–2023 Look at a car Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf In her brilliant text on Angharad William's solo show "Eraser" at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Gabriella Acha combines the exhibited works with Zadie Smith's The Guardian article on JG Ballard's Crash.
29–01–2023 Portal to a Place Beyond the Physical World Bielefelder Kunstverein Sequoia Scavullo's solo show „The Taste Of Your Fireplace“ invites visitors to repeatedly witness these moments of transformation, be it through encounters with deceased ancestors or imaginary lovers, odorous chemicals from moths' corpses, or the changes from water to mist and fire to ash. Like a portal, the exhibition leads to a place beyond the physical world, evoking a sense of transcendence within us.
14–12–2022 No Place for Our Quick Stuff Lothringer 13 Halle Sophie Paul reviews *Eccentric 80s*, reviving the practices of Tabea Blumenschein, Hilka Nordhausen, and Rabe perplexum, with contemporary responses from Ergül Cengiz, Philipp Gufler, and Angela Stiegler.
11–12–2022 Texturen des Begehrens FRAGILE, Berlin Unsere Autorin Marie-Sophie Dorsch spürt der bittersüßen Erfahrung des Begehrens in Leda Bourgognes Einzelausstellung "Tyranny of Tenderness" nach.
24–11–2022 A Red Blouse as a Glimpse of a World Looking Forward Our editor-at-large, Sonja Borstner, traces projects not to miss during Vienna Art Week 2022
11–11–2022 Windows in our hands EXILE Gallery Read Robin Waart’s piercing impressions from *Rare Earth Magnet*, Gwenn Thomas' exhibition at Vienna’s EXILE, with inserts by David Gruber and Alexander Jackson Wyatt.
04–11–2022 High Tides Busan Biennale, South Korea Guilherme Vilhena Martins shares his impressions and reflections from the Busan Biennale in South Korea’s second-largest city.
