The group exhibition There is no sea but the sea revolves thematically around the interplay of and boundary lines between reality as given, reality as construct, and truth. It raises the issue of the extent to which given reality can be all-encompassing and experienceable by all people in like manner – thus making reference to the brittleness that has since time immemorial dogged the human need for certainty. In an age in which opinions and assertions are being turned into truths, reflection, argumentative debate and subjective interpretation are among the most important resources that art has at its disposal. The works of art on display in the current exhibition result from a preoccupation with and a re-shaping of the données of the real world. One consequence of this is the emergence of artistic strategies that rely on the thoroughgoing scrutiny of their initial material – a scrutiny which, despite its utmost accuracy in detail, leads ultimately to the constructed reality being at odds with its likeness and seeming strangely abstracted. The opposite of this objectification is unbound imagining: pictorial worlds that develop a legitimacy of their own, in which a desire for escapism and re-definition find expression. At times, however, it suffices to adopt a documentary approach and to direct the gaze to what immediately surrounds us. An observation of the world conducted over a substantial period of time reveals the world’s relativity and ongoing transformation, which is profoundly linked to the selectivity of our own perception. In this way, the exhibition also raises the question as to the cusp or threshold where reality as construct tips over into subjective truth. The field of tension that is thereby created links up with a metaphysics that was established in Surrealism, Magical Realism and New Objectivity and is currently being revived by a young generation of international artists. In the post-factual age, the works demonstrate impressively that the reality is by no means given but must be forever re-constituted – a situation that can be understood as a productive starting point for bringing about favourable change.

Text: Sebastian Schneider
Translation: Richard Humphrey