What material does an artist select, and for what reasons? The international group exhibition Living in the Material World examines the role of materials in contemporary art. The aspect of materiality has again come to represent a key concept for a young generation of artists today.
In the 1960s the definition of art was expanded radically due to the questioning and re-evaluation of various materials. However, the possibilities of digital technology led to a reduction in the importance of concrete materials at the end of the 20th century. In contemporary art the aspect of materiality is being addressed once more against the background of current social and cultural developments, and is even being elaborated further, and transformed. The twelve artists invited to participate in the exhibition focus on the characteristics and narrative potential of such diverse materials as concrete, wood, ceramics, glass, plastic or paper. They take up artisanal traditions and industrial production methods, are occupied with recycling and do-it-yourself, devote themselves to material analysis and the reconstruction of specific places and objects, or develop fragile architectonic constructions.
Catalogue Living in the Material World With texts (Germ./Engl.) by Andrea Brauckmann, Julia Brennacher, Lotte Dinse, Beate Ermacora, Susanne Figner, Robert Fleck, Sylvia Martin, Gunnar Schmidt and Jürgen Tabor Snoeck Verlag, Cologne 2014