Unselfing

ASSUME VIVID ASTRO FOCUS (AVAF), YAEL BARTANA, CEVDET EREK, JA JESS, JESSY RAZAFIMANDIMBY, DAVID REIBER OTÁLORA, LILLIAN SCHWARTZ, YURI YEFANOV

04 February – 12 May 2024

Considering the self as a continuous experience and distinct entity is an achievement of the human brain and at the same time serves culturally as an important basis for the individualism that dominates Western societies. This assumption is challenged by the influence of social developments and technical means such as social media, artificial intelligence and neuroscience. Questioning it through the means of “unselfing”, as suggested by the Irish philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) in the early 1970ies, can provide a guideline for contemporary challenges and enable a position of both artistic and personal resistance.

With newly developed performances, installations and interactive formats as well as videos and paintings, the exhibition explores the experience of self-dissolution: Possibilities of fluid identities, the death of one part of the self and the transformation of another, as well as feelings of empathy and oneness with the surrounding world—with humans or other species and nature. From mingled authorship and absorption in the collective, to physically and psychologically dissociating experiences through meditation, trance, pain or chemical substances, the exhibition seeks to outline a path and state of self-laterality, empathy and happiness.

Curated by Rebekka Seubert

 



The program is kindly supported by

The program is kindly supported by

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PROGRAM

SAT, 03 FEBRUARY, 6 PM
OPENING
PERFORMANCE assume vivid astro focus – always vomit after formalities
DJ SET Aa Sudd

FRI, 22 MARCH, 6 PM
CURATOR'S TOUR

THU, 25 APRIL, 7 PM
IN FOCUS: UNSELFING
Prof. Dr. Albert Newen (Professor of Philosophy of Mind, Ruhr University Bochum): Who am I? – Transformations of the Self and Memories of Experiences of Boundlessness

SUN, 05 MAY, 3-4 PM
INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP
Yuri Yefanov – Sounds of Hympendahl, specifically humans

SAT + SUN, 11 + 12 MAY, 12-6 PM
KULTURMEILE

SAT, 11 MAY
PERFORMANCE DAY+EVENING
Ja Jess – by the use of its displays
Zoe Williams & Guests – Algol Dissolved: blood, pain and seafoam
assume vivid astro focus  – all videos are floating

JAHRESGABE

ARTIST PUBLICATION