Artists: Bianca Baldi, Yael Bartana, Kasia Fudakowski, Philipp Grünewald, Sven Johne, Pe- les Empire, Thomas and Renée Rapedius, Ani Schulze, Slavs and Tatars, Florian Slotawa, Heimo Zobernig
Exhibition title: OPEN HOUSE – A Group Show on Hospitality
Venue: Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Date: September 12 – November 22, 2015
Photography: Stefan Stark , images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Petzel Gallery, New York; Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam; Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; Chert, Berlin; Private Collection; Galerie Nagel Draxler, Köln/Berlin; Wentrup, Berlin; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin. Images by Stefan Stark and Thomas & Renée Rapedius
For the first time since 2007, the gallery spaces in the Villa Salve Hospes are being filled with a thematic group exhibition: OPEN HOUSE – A Group Show on Hospitality brings together eleven international artistic positions whose works provide commentaries on hospitality as a social, cultural and political phenomenon.
The very inscription “Salve Hospes“ (lat. “Be welcome, guest”), which stands like a motto above the main entrance of the exhibition building, already suggests the dedication of a show on hospitality in the Kunstverein Braunschweig. And indeed, the original distribution of the rooms arranged by architect Peter Joseph Krahe provides for several rooms that are intended for hospitality: reception area, ceremonial hall, guest rooms. But beyond concrete reference to this particular location, hospitality in general can serve as a characteristic feature of the art world, where artists are invited to stage on-site exhibitions. An atmosphere has to be created, where the artist-guests feel “at home”, where they feel comfortable, so that they can develop their work and ultimately present it at an exhibition.
OPEN HOUSE is furthermore intended as an invitation to artists and public alike to engage in questions of what it means to be a guest or a host and to deal with the specific perspectives and contexts that result from this difference. The many facets of hospitality unfold between hotel room walls, linguistic differences and bridging gaps, traces left behind by guests in addition to references to exile, colonialism and refugee policies. OPEN HOUSE depicts hospitality – which is per se tied to conditions and consequently in contradiction to the central idea – in its ambivalence between welcoming warmth and exertion. The theme demonstrates its multidimensional nature and its complexity in installations, sculpture, video and photographic work, which for the most part have been produced especially for this exhibition.
