I SAY A FLOWER
15-22 December 2023 at Kontor80 Leipzig
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Exhibition: Birgit Brenner, Valde Gredo, Mailand / Innenhof, Sven Johne, Tianxu Liu, Alexander Kluge, Charlotte Ruppert, Santiago Sierra, Clara Winter
Performance: Friedrich Hartung
Lecture: Martin Dornis
Music: IMMI, Dj A-tila
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Exhibition view - video wall
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I SAY A FLOWER - Reification and art
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According to the theorist Georg Lukács, reification describes the absolute subjection of all parts of society to the relationship of thing-relations. The cause of reification can be found in the modern, industrial mode of production, which grew out of the emergence of bourgeois society and its subsequent crisis - capitalism. All human and social processes are rationalized, the human being becomes a number, a small component in the comprehensive machinery of production. Through the mathematically perfected optimization of work operations, reification processes enter the human consciousness and shape its relationship to the world. The result is a profound alienation, both from oneself and from other people. People turn themselves into commodities, relationships between people become relationships between things.
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The reified consciousness has neither reason nor interest in becoming aware of its reification. How it is even possible to question the status quo and think beyond it under these conditions is open to debate. Are we still capable of stepping back from ourselves and reflect on these structures? According to Lukács, there is also emancipatory potential in reification. Only when total reification is completed, freedom becomes conceivable again. What about art - how does the structure of reification manifest itself here? As part of society, the sphere of art is also subject to reification processes. How could art examine itself in a self-critical way? After all, its task is to advance criticism - right?
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Exhibition view - video wall 02
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Exhibition view - photo works
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Exhibition view - video wall 03
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Exhibition view - photo works 02
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"The slavery of things - reification in capitalist society, its aesthetic refraction"
Lecture by Martin Dornis as part of the opening event of I SAY A FLOWER.
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Snapshot of the Performance of Friedrich Hartung as part of the opening event
.
I SAY A FLOWER
15-22 December 2023 at Kontor80 Leipzig
.
Exhibition: Birgit Brenner, Valde Gredo, Mailand / Innenhof, Sven Johne, Tianxu Liu, Alexander Kluge, Charlotte Ruppert, Santiago Sierra, Clara Winter
Performance: Friedrich Hartung
Lecture: Martin Dornis
Music: IMMI, Dj A-tila
.
Exhibition view - video wall
.
.
I SAY A FLOWER - Reification and art
.
According to the theorist Georg Lukács, reification describes the absolute subjection of all parts of society to the relationship of thing-relations. The cause of reification can be found in the modern, industrial mode of production, which grew out of the emergence of bourgeois society and its subsequent crisis - capitalism. All human and social processes are rationalized, the human being becomes a number, a small component in the comprehensive machinery of production. Through the mathematically perfected optimization of work operations, reification processes enter the human consciousness and shape its relationship to the world. The result is a profound alienation, both from oneself and from other people. People turn themselves into commodities, relationships between people become relationships between things.
.
The reified consciousness has neither reason nor interest in becoming aware of its reification. How it is even possible to question the status quo and think beyond it under these conditions is open to debate. Are we still capable of stepping back from ourselves and reflect on these structures? According to Lukács, there is also emancipatory potential in reification. Only when total reification is completed, freedom becomes conceivable again. What about art - how does the structure of reification manifest itself here? As part of society, the sphere of art is also subject to reification processes. How could art examine itself in a self-critical way? After all, its task is to advance criticism - right?
.
Exhibition view - video wall 02
.
Exhibition view - photo works
.
Exhibition view - video wall 03
.
Exhibition view - photo works 02
.
"The slavery of things - reification in capitalist society, its aesthetic refraction"
Lecture by Martin Dornis as part of the opening event of I SAY A FLOWER.
.
Snapshot of the Performance of Friedrich Hartung as part of the opening event
.