ESSENziell

with works by Peter Grosshauser, Kira Kohnen, Julia Neuenhausen, Claudia Simon, Uli Westphal

Opening: Friday, March 30, 2012, 7:30 PM Exhibition duration: March 31 to April 29, 2012
Finissage with a snack happening and artist talk: Sunday, April 29, 2012, 7:30 PM

The edible and its sensory experience, as well as its metaphorical significance, are at the heart of an exhibition at kunstraum t27. The artists and curators are engaged in various fields beyond the art world. They approach the theme of food and our relationship with it on different conceptual levels and through a variety of media. The processual nature and decay are inherent to the works in different ways. Their impact often relies on optical illusions that the viewer only recognizes after prolonged observation, yet are omnipresent in relation to food in our society.

Uli Westphal explores the influence of industrial food production on our perception of nourishment. In his photo-documentary work Lycopersicum, he makes the once abundant and now forgotten diversity of varieties and forms sensually accessible again.

Claudia Simon addresses the necessity of table culture in precarious living conditions in her installation "arm und sexy." Her thesis posits that style and aesthetics, even when implemented with simple means, contribute to greater dignity and self-worth, enabling better responses to societal and institutional pressures.

Peter Grosshauser presents a miniature landscape under a glass dome, crafted with processed cheese and model figures, which undergoes constant change through organic processes and seems to grow.

Kira Kohnen's series "Paper Frites" emerges from collaboration and mutual inspiration with musicians after a shared meal. The act of cooking motivates the resulting sound collages, with food appearing in the nearly textless illustration of the recipes.

Julia Neuenhausen engages with processes of transformation. In her installation, she uses various materials alongside a kombucha mushroom culture. This culture continuously forms new, wondrous, and visually captivating shapes, evoking the image of the "primordial soup" in a poetic and aesthetic manner.

Additional event date as part of the exhibition:

Thursday, April 19, 2012, 7:30 PM
"Projections" on the theme of food, curated by Deborah Phillips Featuring works by Pat O'Neill, Telemach Wiesinger, Jakob Kichheim, Karola Schlegelmilch, Dagie Brundert, and Deborah Phillips