Artist: Andrew Norman Wilson
Exhibition title: Hirngespenster
Curated by: Jule Hillgärtner, Nele Kaczmarek
Venue: Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Date: March 9 – May 5, 2019
Photography: Stefan Stark / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig
Note: Exhibition floor plan can be found here. Letter by Andrew Norman Wilson can be found here
Andrew Norman Wilson’s videos are possessed by digitally animated, hyperreal entities that dwell in the gray area between human, animal, and machine. In Ode to the Seekers 2012 we encounter a mosquito, an oil pump jack, and a syringe injecting and extracting fluid from a membrane in unison, referring to existential threats. The Unthinkable Bygone performs techniques of scientific visualization upon a bisected 3D model of Baby Sinclair, a character from the TV show the Dinosaurs, and ends up emphasizing the limits of human cognition.
These and other video works are incorporated into a scripted theme environment devoted to Helene Hollandt, the former owner of the Villa Salve Hospes, or rather her ghost, who is rumored to sporadically appear. According to her preference for the baroque, Wilson modifies the symmetry of the classical architecture, building in tunnels and barriers, further mystifying the scenario with practical special effects such as fog and mirrors. The windows are covered by large-format image panels – photorealistic yet digitally constructed still lives – that seem to embody a layered formal logic rather than symbols or allegories.
Andrew Norman Wilson (born 1983 in Potsdam, USA) lives in Los Angeles. Recent solo exhibitions include the Fotomuseum Winterthur and the Center for Contemporary Art Futura, Prague (both 2018). His video works have been screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2019), New York Film Festival (2018/2014) or Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014). Hirngespenster is Wilson’s first solo exhibition in Germany.
GUEST ROOM: ANORAK
Invited by Andrew Norman Wilson, Anorak hijack the exhibition during the weekend April 26 till April 28 with an alternative film program. Anorak is a collective based around Lukas Ludwig, Florian Model, and Johanna Markert that is dedicated to researching new sites and formats for the presentation of contemporary art.
