Open cardboard boxes are stacked in Berlin’s Kurt Kurt project space. Artist Sharon Paz uses her insides to present the work “#Distance”: From every box, the iconic image speaks of loneliness and isolation in this epidemic time.
Even the first character portrayed by Hannah Arendt – and whose book inspired Baz’s book “The Elements and Origins of Total Governance” – characterizes loneliness as a phenomenon of modernity that makes people accept totalitarian regimes.
As for other texts, Baz asked friends and acquaintances from different countries about their situations in the current pandemic and provided the symbolic characters with their votes. Visitors can contribute their ideas interactively via the QR code and thus become part of the work. The Israeli artist, who has lived in Berlin for a long time, has always dealt with social and political issues in her multimedia work.
With co-worker Micala Hildig Dahl, who was born in Denmark and also lives in Berlin, she created a very complex project room animated work titled “Space-Dot-Com”, in which artists from the home office raised questions about the relationship between the individual and society. Micala Hildig Dahl can be seen eating in her studio as all sorts of ideas critical of capitalism pass through the city, public spaces and living conditions as well as transmitting work through her head, which is communicated to the audience as an influx of language.
Everything has to do with the question of whether critical awareness and empathy are retreating by the wayside in the digital age, because language communication across generations and direct physical experience is increasingly being replaced by the network.
A window to virtual reality
Hanging sculpted Hylding Dal “(…)” in the center of the gallery: three dots in parentheses as a sign of the ellipses. With the tablet computer, visitors fix the statue and open a window to a virtual reality that is anchored to the real space.
[Kurt-Kurt, Lübecker Str. 13; bis 17. 4., Mi/Sa 16–19 Uhr u. nach Vereinbarung, Tel.: 39 74 69 42, Mail: [email protected]]
This augmented reality method, a computer-aided visualization of reality, is known by Hyldig Dal’s work in urban space. There I made visions of the wretched city tangible to the public on several occasions during my “utopia tours” that I started with tablets and smartphones.
In the exhibition titled “dot.dot”, the two artists devoted themselves to social status as well as autobiographical status in the epidemic and posing profound questions about a disturbing gift.
