Taking my Thoughts for a Walk (presented by Dortmunder Kunstverein and Urbane Künste Ruhr)

Artists: Esther Adam, Salon Atelier, Daihatsu Rooftop Gallery with works by Gabriele Edlbauer, Helmut Heiss and Wolfgang Obermair, Etienne, FORT, Laura Leppert, Yoshinori Niwa, Phung-Tien Phan, David Reiber-Otálora, Angharad Williams, wormhole among others with works by Mikołaj Sobczak, Alison Yip, Mira Mann, Anna R. Winder

Exhibition title: Taking my Thoughts for a Walk

Presented by: Dortmunder Kunstverein and Urbane Künste Ruhr

Venue: Outdoors Exhibition, Dortmund, Germany

Date: February 27 – March 21, 2021

Photography: Roland Baege / all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Dortmunder Kunstverein and Urbane Künste Ruhr

Let’s take our thoughts for a walk*: when actions and decisions are determined by facts and forecasts, the space of our possibilities seems to shrink before reality. Travel, encounters and living spaces are becoming increasingly virtual, while feelings and somatic reality remain physical. How can balance be restored so that we feel at home in the world? Are we not, since the dawn of humanity, seeking a home in our heads and dreams anyway, as the French philosopher Michel Serres (1930-2019) suggests in his book “Atlas”?

The artworks placed along a 1,200-meter route between the West and East of Dortmund’s city center express the fragility of urban familiarities: they spin both fictional and quite real stories.

Taking my Thoughts for a Walk has been jointly initiated by Dortmunder Kunstverein and Urbane Künste Ruhr.

*The title is borrowed from a work by Esther Adam.

Esther Adam, Part of the Series Perspectives, Windowcolor on glass, 2021

Angharad Williams, Part of Eraser, sticker on glass, 2021

Esther Adam, Part of the Series Perspectives, Windowcolor on glass, 2021

David Reiber Otálora, …a Long Way From Home, sticker on glass, 2021

Esther Adam, Part of the Series Perspectives, Windowcolor on glass, 2021

Phung-Tien Phan, Cosmopolit, acrylic on canvas, wood, espresso machine, flowers, 2021

Esther Adam, Part of the Series Perspectives, Windowcolor on glass, 2021

Etienne Dietzel, Displacement, C-Print on Vinyl, 2021

Esther Adam, Part of the Series Perspectives, Windowcolor on glass, 2021

wormhole Magazine, Dortmund Special, edited by Mira Mann & Anna R Winder, with contributions by Lisa Tracy Michalik, Arisa Purkpong Carl Brandi, Jonas Schug, Úlfur Logason, Steven Sander, Mikołaj Sobczak, Alison Yip, 2021