“Then came the problem, assuming I explain to someone that this is a model of an exhibition, and they say, but why, there‘s something hanging on the wall, a picture, that‘s something.”¹
– Michael Krebber
How do you issue an invitation? Perhaps the best way is to be direct. For four years we have been organizing this exhibition space, the great void, which always presents itself to the public like a doll‘s house and is constantly being refilled with new content. In our history, the T B H exhibition can be read as an open question that approaches staking out processes: What does it mean to fill a space? From the artists‘ point of view, one could ask what it means to engage in an exhibition. Along the walls of this exhibition you will find the artists‘ answers to the invitation we sent out to exhibit in our space.
We have divided the space into smaller units, scaled them down and multiplied them. The result is a show of dioramas whose aspect ratios quote our space and which can be found along the walls. Not quite solo exhibitions, not quite miniatures, these new productions negotiate frameworks that are familiar to the artists within the exhibition parameters, namely having to position and contextualize their works within architectural conditions. On the other hand, these dimensions entail completely new shifts for all those involved when talking about the relationship between art and framing.
As you move through the room, past the rooms so to speak, you are drawn into new worlds from work to work. These are mental journeys through continuums, some of which are positioned like self-contained units and some of which open up in such a way that they suggest endless extensions. These variations mediate content, maintain it or produce it anew. They tell of impossibilities and possibilities that could be realized in a 1:1 conversion if resources were not a factor, but also do not necessarily need to exist in this dimension as to be considered a finished concept. Above all, and this is what unites the works beyond the framework of the model, they tell their own story when you gaze into these display showcases.
To be honest, it is a group exhibition that plays with grandeur and yet very directly refers to the love of detail.
¹Diedrich Diederichsen, „Mein Material ist der Papagei. Ein Gespräch mit Michael Krebber“, in: Werner Lippert et al. (Hg.), Präsentation und Re-Präsentation. Über das Ausstellbare und die Ausstellbarkeit, Jahresring, Nr. 37, München 1990, P. 134-169.