Nile Koetting at Kunstverein Göttingen

Artist: Nile Koetting

Exhibition title: Remain Calm

Curated by: Tomke Braun

Venue: Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Date: March 29 – 31, 2019

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

Welcome

The exhibition is on hold for the time being, the time being immanent, indeterminate and heterogenous. Kunstverein Göttingen will be hermetically sealed off from the surpassing disaster. However, as the storm rages on beyond the gallery walls, the rumble of thunder cannot be ignored. Your very presence here has been interpreted as an active step towards enduring together.

The flood is washing away the complacency and near-sightedness of our former present. Within these rooms, a programme of activities attends to the range of emotions and sensations that might arise as a result of the inundation. The attention to atmosphere is directed towards our current weather event; we must remember to enquire after the troposphere. There is no one most distinguished guest here. We all dedicate our bodies to the situation. Engage all senses – of smell, of hearing, of touch, of humour, of responsibility. This might just be a drill, but we hope that it penetrates.

Visitors taking part in an evacuation drill are requested to arrive punctually at the site of the breach. The event to which we will be responding requires the following equipment: a high-visibility vest, a whistle, a smartphone, and a waterproof bag. The Kunstverein facilities will be reduced during the drill, which is expected to last for one hour. It is advised that visitors relieve themselves of all bodily requirements prior to the scheduled alarm. When the sirens come, please: remain calm.

– Text by Miriam Stoney

Nile Koetting, Remain Calm, March 29 – March 31, 2019, Kunstverein Göttingen

Text, performance, programmed light, programmed videos, 6 hour sound composition, scents, clothes from audience, CCTV, puzzle, stage, water, carpet, piezo disc, swimming suits, towel, print on perspex, tea ceremony kit, evacuation air mattress, daily arranged flowers

“Remain Calm” is a three-day performative exhibition by artist Nile Koetting for Kunstverein Göttingen, curated by Tomke Braun. Visitors can immerse themselves in a scenography in which Koetting deals with evacuation and security procedures that become routine in the face of seemingly constantly threatening catastrophes. Koetting creates a multi-sensual spatial experience for which the writer Miriam Stoney sets the narrative rhythm and the composer Nozomu Matsumoto has designed a soundscape. Nile Koetting (*1989, Japan), lives and works between Tokyo and Berlin. His work has been presented at Somerset House, London (2018), Moscow Biennale, Tretyakov Gallery, Russia (2017), Kunstverein Hannover (2017), ZKM Karlsruhe (2016), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2016), Maison Hermès, Tokyo, Japan (2016) and 3hd Festival, Berlin (2016). He is currently resident at Cité des Internationale Paris and has been awarded the Overseas Study Program for Artists by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Government. Remain Calm will be performed in April 2019 in a modified form at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

Team „Remain Calm“
Sound: Nozomu Matsumoto
Script and text: Miriam Stoney
Video: Yoshihiro Inada
Performed with and by: Djibril Sall, Simone Gisela Weber, Miriam Stoney, Nile Koetting, Avrina Jos, Vreneli Harborth
Performance concepting: Felipe Amaya Gonzalez
Program: Kanai Tomomitsu
Photographer: Marius Land

Nile Koetting, Remain Calm, 2019, exhibition view, Kunstverein Göttingen