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The group exhibition For Better Or Worse shows artistic positions by Josefin Arnell, Akinola Davies Jr., Isabella Fürnkäs, Sylbee Kim, Lorna Mills and Rory Pilgrim that deal with social relationships, their internal value systems, desires and ideals. Whilst, in the course of digitalization, resentments, accusations of alienation, and immersion in artificial worlds quickly become loud, For Better Or Worse, embarks on an endless search for new models of togetherness, interaction, family, friendship, and other social connections. If some of the works open up new perspectives on togetherness, others make the potential for conflict of normative attributions perceptible. The increasing ambivalence of distance and closeness, as well as reality and fiction in the digital age, become apparent.

In addition to video, sculpture, installation, photography and drawings, a special focus of the exhibition is the integration of music as an affective medium. For example, Rory Pilgrim shows an excerpt from his long-term project and song of the same name, “The Resounding Bell”, in which he initiates an intergenerational dialogue. Josefin Arnell, on the other hand, has worked with her mother for many years on creating a radical aesthetic of womanhood and family that lies outside the societal norm. In a video work, Akinola Davies Jr. deals with the symbiotic relationship towards counterfeit luxury brands, which conveys a demarcation from other social strata and confirms a personal, social identity. A multi-part sound installation by the artist Isabella Fürnkäs embodies the gaps that arise when feelings of isolation and separation are nurtured despite interpersonal encounter and interaction. With her humorous, and at the same time disturbing GIF installations, Lorna Mills reflects on behavior in social media and provides an uncensored commentary on digital communication. In her video installation, Sylbee Kim also addresses socio-political processes by juxtaposing archaic and utopian social concepts, combining the pursuit of technological progress with a belief in eternal life and spirituality.

The exhibition For Better Or Worse, explores how contemporary and artists with an affinity for the Internet express themes of friendship, love and togetherness, and aims to critically question current developments and stereotypes while emphasizing potentials for social coexistence.

Curated by
Tomke Braun and Daniela Seitz

Program of events

 Thursday, August 15, 2019, 6pm
Thursday Dialogs
“Thursday Dialogs” offer the opportunity to explore the exhibition together with our art educators following work, or as a pleasant end or beginning to an evening.

Sunday, September 8, 2019, 3pm
Tour of the exhibition
with art historian Lara Siegers.
In German

Image: Sylbee Kim, Trinity: Finance-Credo-Spirituality, 2019 (video still)

The group exhibition For Better Or Worse shows artistic positions by Josefin Arnell, Akinola Davies Jr., Isabella Fürnkäs, Sylbee Kim, Lorna Mills and Rory Pilgrim that deal with social relationships, their internal value systems, desires and ideals. Whilst, in the course of digitalization, resentments, accusations of alienation, and immersion in artificial worlds quickly become loud, For Better Or Worse, embarks on an endless search for new models of togetherness, interaction, family, friendship, and other social connections. If some of the works open up new perspectives on togetherness, others make the potential for conflict of normative attributions perceptible. The increasing ambivalence of distance and closeness, as well as reality and fiction in the digital age, become apparent.

In addition to video, sculpture, installation, photography and drawings, a special focus of the exhibition is the integration of music as an affective medium. For example, Rory Pilgrim shows an excerpt from his long-term project and song of the same name, “The Resounding Bell”, in which he initiates an intergenerational dialogue. Josefin Arnell, on the other hand, has worked with her mother for many years on creating a radical aesthetic of womanhood and family that lies outside the societal norm. In a video work, Akinola Davies Jr. deals with the symbiotic relationship towards counterfeit luxury brands, which conveys a demarcation from other social strata and confirms a personal, social identity. A multi-part sound installation by the artist Isabella Fürnkäs embodies the gaps that arise when feelings of isolation and separation are nurtured despite interpersonal encounter and interaction. With her humorous, and at the same time disturbing GIF installations, Lorna Mills reflects on behavior in social media and provides an uncensored commentary on digital communication. In her video installation, Sylbee Kim also addresses socio-political processes by juxtaposing archaic and utopian social concepts, combining the pursuit of technological progress with a belief in eternal life and spirituality.

The exhibition For Better Or Worse, explores how contemporary and artists with an affinity for the Internet express themes of friendship, love and togetherness, and aims to critically question current developments and stereotypes while emphasizing potentials for social coexistence.

Curated by
Tomke Braun and Daniela Seitz

Program of events

 Thursday, August 15, 2019, 6pm
Thursday Dialogs
“Thursday Dialogs” offer the opportunity to explore the exhibition together with our art educators following work, or as a pleasant end or beginning to an evening.

Sunday, September 8, 2019, 3pm
Tour of the exhibition
with art historian Lara Siegers.
In German

Image: Sylbee Kim, Trinity: Finance-Credo-Spirituality, 2019 (video still)

Do plants have memory? Shira Wachsmann’s artistic research-based practice deals with questions of perception and the memory of plants. Within this context, she developed the “Memory-Machine”, which is connected to the roots and leaves of a plant via electrodes. These absorb the plant’s frequencies and translate them into imagery with the help of a visual programming language. Using the sound waves as a starting point, the artist collects data about the reactions of plants, in order to investigate their connection to historical memory and traumata, in the long term. In Göttingen, she will present her artistic research by means of the Alte Linde (old lime tree) by the city wall. Court-, dance- and village lime trees used to be key gathering places and bore witness to all important occurrences of village life. In reference to this, Shira Wachsmann has designed a bench, which invites the visitor to sit and contemplate humankind’s communication with the plant world.

Shira Wachsmann (b. 1984 in Tel Aviv) is an artist, living and working in Berlin. In her work, she focuses on the notion of “land”, in both senses of the word: Land as material, as soil, and land as a place, as territory; land as natural and cultural, political and historical.  She has participated in exhibitions at Display Berlin (2019); Kersan Art Foundation and OFCA International Yogyakarta (2018); Kindl – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst (2018); Galerie cubus-m, Berlin (2016); MWW Muzeum Współczesne, Wroclaw (2015) und Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2014), amongst others. Wachsmann is doing a PhD at The Royal College of Art in London.