For Better Or Worse at Kunstverein Göttingen

Artists: Josefin Arnell, Akinola Davies Jr., Isabella Fürnkäs, Sylbee Kim, Lorna Mills, Rory Pilgrim

Exhibition title: For Better Or Worse

Curated by: Tomke Braun and Daniela Seitz

Venue: Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Date: July 14 – September 8, 2019

Photography: All images copyright and courtesy of the artists and © Kunstverein Göttingen

The Kunstverein Göttingen will open the group exhibition For Better Or Worse on 14 July at 12.00 noon, which will then be shown in the Old Town Hall until 8 September. The exhibition was curated by Tomke Braun, curator of the Kunstverein Göttingen, and Daniela Seitz, freelance curator and cultural manager from Berlin, and shows works by the artists Josefin Arnell, Akinola Davies Jr., Isabella Fürnkäs, Sylbee Kim, Lorna Mills and Rory Pilgrim.

The artists deal in their works with social relationships, their internal value systems, desires and ideals. Whilst, in the course of digitalization, resentments, accusations of alienation, and immersion in artificial worlds quickly become loud, For Better Or Worse, embarks on an endless search for new models of togetherness, interaction, family, friendship, and other social connections. If some of the works open up new perspectives on togetherness, others make the potential for conflict of normative attributions perceptible. The increasing ambivalence of distance and closeness, as well as reality and fiction in the digital age, become apparent.

In addition to video, sculpture, installation, photography and drawings, a special focus of the exhibition is the integration of music as an affective medium. For example, Rory Pilgrim shows an excerpt from his long-term project and song of the same name, „The Resounding Bell“, in which he initiates an intergenerational dialogue. Josefin Arnell, on the other hand, has worked with her mother for many years on creating a radical aesthetic of womanhood and family that lies outside the societal norm. In a video work, Akinola Davies Jr. deals with the symbiotic relationship towards counterfeit luxury brands, which conveys a demarcation from other social strata and confirms a personal, social identity. A multipart sound installation by the artist Isabella Fürnkäs embodies the gaps that arise when feelings of isolation and separation are nurtured despite interpersonal encounter and interaction. With her humorous, and at the same time disturbing GIF installations, Lorna Mills reflects on behavior in social media and provides an uncensored commentary on digital communication. In her video installation, Sylbee Kim also addresses socio-political processes by juxtaposing archaic and utopian social concepts, combining the pursuit of technological progress with a belief in eternal life and spirituality.

The exhibition For Better Or Worse explores how contemporary and artists with an affinity for the Internet express themes of friendship, love and togetherness, and aims to critically question current developments and stereotypes while emphasizing potentials for social coexistence.