Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee at Berthold Pott

Artists: Thomas Bayrle, Rebekka Benzenberg, Joseph Beuys, Lucas Blalock, Nathaniel de Large, Samuel Francois, Henry Gunderson, Georg Herold, Anna K.E., Matt Keegan, Florian Meisenberg, Anne Neukamp, Marina Pinsky

Exhibition title: Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee

Curated by: Florian Meisenberg

Venue: Berthold Pott, Cologne, Germany

Date: August 30 – October 15, 2024

Photography: Images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Berthold Pott, Cologne

Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee

In the quiet of the night, a rhythmic sound I hear,

A gentle pulse, a whisper close, the heartbeat in my ear.

It echoes through the chambers of my restless mind,

A steady cadence, an arousal humming, a torment I find.

 

Following the memories of a recurring nightmare during his childhood,

Florian Meisenberg curated a multi-layered exhibition on the theme of “repetition”. Aiming to create a dialogue and to discover a space between, the works of the participating artists are put under stress by combining, recontextualizing and placing them in close proximity to each other.

The works explore the phenomenon of repetition in different ways and with a wide variety of media.

Joseph Beuys’ work Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee echoes through the space like a mantra and gives the exhibition its title.

Deleuze argued that pure repetition is impossible because each instance of repetition contains difference. He saw repetition as a creative force that produces variation and newness, rather than mere sameness. Joseph Beuys Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee, Nee which despite actually repeating these exact words for almost 60 min. never seems to mean the same and thus almost casually unfolds a whole new narrative.

A large wallpaper print by Thomas Bayrle acting as the backdrop provides the rhythm for the entire exhibition, a visual morse code shimmering in moiré. In psychoanalysis, Freud introduced the concept of repetition compulsion, where individuals repeat traumatic events or patterns, unconsciously attempting to master or resolve them: as experienced in the 2 self portraits by Lucas Blalock contemplating the fragility of existence and in the transparent mythical spinal cord made out of mass produced tights by Rebekka Benzenberg that occupies one corner of the gallery like a spider webb.

Time-consciousness involves the idea of retention (holding onto the just-past) and protention (anticipating the just-about-to-be) according to Husserl, which creates a kind of repetitive structure in our experience of time. As can be sensed in the series of black and white photographs by Marina Pinsky that she calls a manual and the Senna work by Georg Herold that visualizes space and time but ultimately reminds us of our own mortality.

Historicism and Repetition: Walter Benjamin explored how history repeats itself, but with variations, he was particularly interested in how the past continually informs and shapes the present.

Anne Neukamps paintings that appear like double twins and attempt to capture a pose and purpose for the given objects. Aswell in the work by Samuel Francois, that seemingly by memory attempts to be a window, even looks like a window but fails to fulfill major features of being a window.

Camus’s interpretation of the Sisyphus myth deals with the absurdity of repetitive existence. He argues that one must imagine Sisyphus happy in his endless task, finding meaning in the struggle itself. As experienced in Anna K.E. s video works, that examine a possible liberation via repetition and Nathaniel de Large works that discover mystical or almost magical potential in the banality of every day.

Nietzsche proposed the idea that the universe and all existence recurs infinitely. He posed this as a thought experiment: if you were told that you would have to relive your life exactly as it is, over and over for eternity, how would you react? Nietzsche saw this as a test of one’s attitude towards life and a potential path to affirming existence. As experienced in Matt Keegans pieces: a mantra that self-destructs a photo within a photo within a photo that excludes any personal information of the person and a special mandala shedding light on the endless quest of understanding where we come from and why we are how we are.

All these experiments, phenomenons, thoughts and statements strike themselves and engage in an ongoing search for something beyond, within the repetition of narratives. Florian Meisenbergs work deals with the effects of repetition: a concerned, but disillusioned stare into the abyss and a long horizon that stretches and defines the space, marking and leveling the given – obstructing an open view – while pointing towards you – towards a chamber of growth: Kierkegaard saw repetition as a forward-moving process of recovering what has been, in contrast to mere recollection. For him, repetition was a way of renewing and deepening one’s engagement with life, particularly in relation to faith and love.