There will come soft rains

Artworks

Jeronimo Voss (DE)
"Cassandra's Cave"

In his artistic practice Jeronimo Voss mostly creates installation works that can be interpreted as multilayered designs for historic and parallel worlds. By means of montages of slides and various projection methods he conjures up narrative spatial situations which are not only defined by the intermingling of the past, present, and future, but which also trace the overlapping of pictorial and social reality. Recurring focal points of his artistic exploration can be found in the cosmopolitical interpretations of astronomical hypotheses and the critical examination of neo-liberal promises of progress.

Soft Rains – 
Jeronimo Voss, Cassandra's Cave, (ongoing series), since 2018, Installation view basis 2018, Photo: Jeronimo Voss
Soft Rains – 
Jeronimo Voss, Cassandra's Cave, (ongoing series), since 2018, Installation view basis 2018, Photo: Günther Dächert

Cassandra’s Cave

Jeronimo Voss’ new work complex Cassandra’s Cave is based on the mythological figure of the seer Cassandra (1). On the basis of her striking role as a prophet whom no one around her believed in, in his work Voss pursues the pivotal question what significance the potential of utopian prospects have for concepts and actions in our addressing of the future. To this end Voss selected seven right-angled wall elements affixed to the wall at different heights in the exhibition. Whereas in their sculptural simulation of a new space the elements loosely suggest the character of a Cassandran cave, the idea of such a protected place for developing one’s own utopias can likewise be found in the motifs of the holographic images. Not only were these photos taken from bookshelves in the living rooms of acquaintances of the artist, but the literature in them also provides a detailed historic insight into the recurring phenomena of crisis, the systematics of exploitation, and the struggle for social self-determination. Numerous topics that already are featured in the myth about Cassandra are as such clearly recognizable as fundamental elements in the history of emancipatory ideas. By the way these topics have advanced over time they similarly underline the important function of alternative visions of the future. Yet whereas the previous failure of utopian ideas of society corresponds with the pessimistic image of a Cassandra despairing at their own reality, Voss’ work at this point opens up a further prospect. Because the great overlapping of content on different people’s bookshelves ultimately makes the individual legible as part of a collective process, which contains the real potential of having a changing effect on social reality. At the same time, however, the background to Cassandra’s fate likewise illustrates a deeper-lying insight: although a different mindset with regard to the future is always based on the development of new knowledge concepts, the realization of these is never possible without defining new forms of action.

(1) In Greek mythology, Apollo gave Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam of Troy, the power of prophecy. However, after she had rejected Apollo’s advances on several occasions, he put a curse on her, upon which no one believed her prophecies any longer. Though in the battle for Troy that ensued shortly afterwards she predicted the Greeks’ war list, her knowledge could not be put to any practical benefit against the threatened destruction. For Cassandra, the community of women headed by Arisbe, which lived in a cave on Scamander River and led a life based on friendship and truthfulness, was an important retreat from a society increasingly brutalized by the war. Following the conquest of Troy, Cassandra finally made it to Mycene as a slave of King Agamemnon, where on account of her great beauty she was murdered by his jealous wife Clytemnestra.

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Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Julian Charrière (CH)
„Iroojrilik“, „Pacific Fiction—Study for a Monument“

Stones, or natural elements such as lithium and salt, say a lot about human behavior and history. Julian Charrière travels around the world in order to play with these elements in a deeply poetic way. He has climbed an iceberg off the coast of Iceland, confronted radioactive regions in Kazakhstan, and crossed a desert in the south of Bolivia. Inspired by science-fiction visions such as “The Terminal Beach” by J. G. Ballard, he has developed a corpus of work that explores broadly the consequences of atomic power and radioactivity.
Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Pinar Yoldas (TR)
„Ecosystem of Excess“

In her roles as artist, designer and scientist Pinar Yoldas takes an interdisciplinary approach to the field of biological phenomena, as well as to the use of digital technologies. She creates extensive installations, kinetic objects and film-based works focused on contemporary issues surrounding post-humanism, eco-nihilism and a feminist-oriented techno-science.
Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Mario Pfeifer (DE)
„#BLACKTIVIST“

Mario Pfeifer’s artistic practice is expressed in filmic works and video installations, by means of which he sheds light on representational systems and socio-political backgrounds from a number of different cultures. His works relate to specific questions about society, the wider contexts of which he explores and documents through extensive local research. At the same time the musical and acoustic dimensions of his works assume a special role, being frequently closely linked to the works’ thematic and visual aspects.
Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Marcela Armas (ME)
„TSINAMEKUTA“

Decolonization is not always only a matter of identity and roots, but also may involve the liberation of environment and nature. It is no secret that even today, western globalist companies are impacting the cultures, societies, and environments of Latin American countries. This imbrication of consequences are essential aspects of Marcela Armas’s artistic research. Through installations, handmade technological apparatuses, and films she investigates the mechanisms and processes of de- and re-territorialization.
Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Carolina Caycedo (EN)
„Esto no es agua / This Is Not Water“, „Foresight Filaments“

Carolina Caycedo’s artistic practice unites activism and art. She translates her research, interviews, and documentation into objects, drawings, and videos meant to be shown in exhibition contexts. Territorial resistance, the fight for the rights of indigenous populations and their environment, is a central aspect of her work. Through visual forms, sounds, and lectures she spotlights unspoken realities and ecocides around the world and opens up space for potential discussions and paradigm shifts. Water elements have become particularly central in her work; as Caycedo has stated, “In Indigenous cosmogonies of the Americas, all bodies of water are connected. Rivers are the veins of the planet, their waters associate communities and ecosystems.” In a subtle way, she brings the public’s attention to some of the biggest environmental catastrophes of our time— affecting rivers, indigenous populations, and ecosystems in South America, from Colombia to Brazil—and thus mediates the voices of the local population directly affected by the unrestrained exploitation of natural resources through methods like mining and hydropower. Although the latter is often considered a source of green energy, some countries have become aware of the ecological risks and damage caused by dams and have begun to dismantle them. Nevertheless, while Western countries have started this process on their own land, the same companies have started to develop massive plants in the Global South: no less than 250 new constructions have been planned for South America, which will affect the entire biotope.
Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Superflex (DNK)
„Flooded McDonald's“

Superflex is a collective comprised of the Danish artists Jacob Fenger (b. 1968), Rasmus Nielsen (b. 1969), and Bjørnstjerne Reuter Christiansen (b. 1969), who have been working together since 1993. They consider their works as a way to question systems of power, capitalism, and the potential of artistic practice in different social fields. They have received international attention with their provocative political initiatives such as their 2007 campaign to include Palestine in the “Eurovision Song Contest”, and their cooperation with Brazilian farmers to create an energy drink called “Guaraná Power”. More recently, in 2017, they exhibited fully functional medical equipment, which was subsequently sent to a hospital in the western Syrian city of Salamiyah. In exchange for purchasing this work, the potential collector receives a photograph of this post-readymade in its original exhibition setting.
Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Uriel Orlow (CH)
„Remnants of The Future“

Uriel Orlow’s artistic practice is defined by a research- and process-oriented approach and the recurring use of the media film, photography, drawing, and sound. Using these he designs multimedia installations in which he relates different image regimes and narrative modes. His interest centers on the exploration of concealed micro-histories, whose specific locations and spatial inscriptions he reveals and investigates in his works.
Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Hicham Berrada (MAR)
„Celeste“

Hicham Berrada’s artistic approach centers on the experimental use of chemical substances as materials. In his installations, performances and film-based works he relies on these chemicals to provoke reactions, which often evoke associations of microscopic, ephemeral forms of natural organisms and landscapes. The artist not only places the focus on the poetry of spontaneously occurring processes with his works, but also critically explores the late-modernist view of a nature that can be dominated by science and technology.
Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Galina Leonova (RUS)
„Air“

In her artistic work Galina Leonova explores the transformation of social and moral value systems and the epistemological grasp of our reality against the backdrop of current technological advances. She particularly addresses this thematic field in the context of installations and filmic works in which she reflects upon the specific points of intersection between our human lifeworld and the new media in an experimental manner. At the same time, her artistic approach involves a recurrent exploration of various forms of future scenarios, which serve her as a fictional point of reflection for analyzing current developments.
Artworks
Soft Rains – 

Andreas Greiner (DE) & Tyler Friedman (US)
„Study 01“, „The Molecular Ordering Of Computational Plants“

The collaboration between Andreas Greiner and Tyler Friedman started in 2014 and can be seen as an ongoing project of sharing thoughts and combining skills and knowledge. With an interest in speculative biology, their works are a trajectory in progress, charting a thought experiment that proposes organic-cellular structures as hyper-complex computational devices, contributing to an imaginary strain of futurology in which intergalatic- space is quantum and life is electric. To this end, Andreas’ visual elements combine with Tylers’ sound and science fiction offers reflection on living sculpture, rendering a multi-sensory experience in the exhibition space.