Life in the Bubble. Video Works

Life in the Bubble. Video Works

January 21 – March 4, 2017
Opening January 20, 6-9 pm
Lindenstrasse 34, Berlin, Germany

The fragility of daily life revealed in video art.

Artists:
Yvon Chabrowski, Territory, 2016, Touching The Images, 2016, An Interview With H.R.H The Princess Of Wales, 2008
Olivier Cheval, The Museum Is Free, 2015
Björn Drenkwitz, Atem, 2009 (Breath)
Clare Langan, Flight from the City, 2015
Martin Mlecko, Die Unzertrennlichen, 2004 (Lovebirds)
Daragh Reeves, Money Clock, 2005
Julia Charlotte Richter, Promised Land I + II, 2013
Annegret Soltau, Body Drawing, 1976, 2 pieces
Pernilla Zetterman, Exercise No 4, 2012 (image)

In daily life, each of us is governed by personally created “life bubbles” in which we relate to a social network we have chosen, by which we are linked to people who think and act similarly. This becomes particularly clear in our choice of friends, whether in the real or virtual world. In our increasingly global society this supposedly protected space is becoming more and more threatened by the outside world, creating fears which in turn lead to behavioural changes.

In the exhibition LIFE IN THE BUBBLE in the Grundemark Nilsson Gallery, nine international video artists present twelve works which consider this societal phenomenon from several perspectives and at different meta-levels:

Fear as a challenge to the individual’s sheltered space

A “bubble” begins to develop from birth, first with our immediate environment (such as our own family), then external circumstances (such as in our educational and professional life) and (social) media (see Yvon Chabrowski, An Interview with H.R.H The Princess of Wales, 2008). At the same time society requires each of us to move, in the course of our life, from one bubble to the next and to function in each (see Julia Charlotte Richter, Promised Land I, 2013).

One element which we can‘t ignore in these bubbles is the influence of external fears. What happens if we stay permanently trapped in our environment (see Pernilla Zetterman, Exercise No 4, 2012) Is escape ever possible (see Martin Mlecko, Die Unzertrennlichen/Love Birds, 2004) What if we are suddenly afraid for the existence of our self-constructed bubble? That our bubble and all its concomitant structures, goals and dreams could burst is one of the worst, the greatest of all human fears (see Julia Charlotte Richter, Promised Land II, 2013). Our bubbles represent a paradoxical construct where the individual wants to remain and yet to escape.

Fear is an important aspect both of our everyday life and as part of a global society. It is for the most part an unpleasant, disturbing feeling with many forms and faces. In the world today, more shaped/ penetrated than ever by terror, war and death, we humans feel fear, whether real or unreal. Yet fear can be a feeling which motivates us to continue working under pressure, or which unleashes energy to prevent failure, for instance. In this context, our bubbles can be a refuge, a secure retreat. They can protect or even seal us off, but also keep us imprisoned. “Our world is a lot less painful than the real world.” (from the film Nocturnal Animals, 2016)

This exhibition is a joint cooperation with Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt am Main.