How can the boundaries between artists and their audience, the portrayers and their subjects be broken down? "UN1TY" is a multimedia group exhibition dedicated to the question of how artistic processes can be democratized and de-hierarchized in the community. The exhibition focuses on the art of portraiture - from studio photography, retouched and augmented imagery, collage, moving image to AI-generated photography and live interaction for a fuller artistic expression. As well as the representation of the self as home. Which environment do the portrayed subjects experience as their home? And what role does the urban space play in the question of belonging? In the course of a workshop, which is open to both the artists and the public, the exhibition works are developed and selected in a unity. Based on the structures of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO), the curation will be guided by the work of all participants as well as their votes in an election process.
In the first part of the workshop on May 14 at B-Part Exhibition, a guided discussion between the artists and the audience will explore the portrait as a creative genre, the use of new tech along with emerging questions of copyright and accessibility, and potential approaches to creating democratic structures in art. In the second half of the workshop, all participants will dedicate themselves to the practical creation of an AI portrait by using different working methods. Through the application of tokens used in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations both as currency and as a vote in electoral processes, all participants take initiative in curating the artworks for the exhibition. In this way, not only are the traditional barriers between curator and artist broken down, but the audience also gains deeper insights into the organization of an exhibition and can actively participate in it.
The exhibition opening on May 19 will present the multimedia portraits created in group sessions of the artists as well as in the workshop together with the audience. Furthermore, the works will be enhanced by live performance and interaction in space by the artists present and made a multi-sensory experience. On the following day, the works will be exhibited as visual pieces only in the B-Part Exhibition.
UN1TY artists are: Aconite, Andreas Schimanski, Claire Saint Marc, Cloaking, Danny Muster, Kyoka, Lady Gaby, Noura Hafelia, Olcan Akçay and Shoxxx.
Concept by: Nadia Says (Your Mom's Agency)
Art direction B-Part Exhibition: Rüdiger Lange
Project coordination & Text: Sophie Boche
The B-Part Exhibition space accompanies the future development of the Urbane Mitte Am Gleisdreieck with artistic autonomy and thus at the same time enters into a dialogue with the overarching themes of the overall project - forms of New Work, Co-working, Culture and Sport - and creates synergies between artistic, cultural and social approaches. The artistic director of the B-Part Exhibition is Rüdiger Lange (loop - raum für aktuelle kunst).