PREVIEW:I only work with lost and found

The exhibition “I only work with lost and found” brings together individual and heterogeneous works by 15 artists. Despite their diversity, these works are united by themes evoked in the exhibition’s title: cyclical processes of artistic work, as well as examinations of aesthetic, narrative, historical, and political ruptures and continuities.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kunstraum Kreuzberg Archive

Lost and found refers to the actions of unlearning and losing, to what is hidden or repressed, and at the same time hints at a wide range of possibilities for rediscovering, intervening, and reassembling. At the heart of many of the works shown is the identification and rediscovery of buried knowledge, the confrontation with memory and loss, as well as the development of activist strategies within and beyond the field of art. The title “I only work with lost and found” poses questions that are echoed in many of the works themselves: Is it actually possible to work with something that is not lost or found? Doesn’t every material, every concept also tell its own story? And doesn’t the artistic process and synthesis of material and concept always result in something new that both overlays the previous history and, at the same time, reveals what was once concealed? Who do things and ideas belong to when they are lost and found anew? Facilitating such explorations and ensuring their accessibility to as diverse an audience as possible are central goals of the exhibition, which was organized by artist, curator, and Goldrausch alumna Mona Hermann in collaboration with art scholar Hannah Kruse. The exhibition includes paintings, photography and multimedia installations, process- based experimental arrangements, performances, research-based assemblages, and sculptures. Many of the works combine genres to defy categorization and are based on a cumulative, sustainable, exploratory approach to nature, sources, and material. The exhibiting artists speak with a polyphonic, collective, acting “I” that emphasizes work – in the sense of both artistic creation and professional activity. Work, for these artists, is a matter of process, of making the concealed visible, transitions and connections tangible. It is therefore also concerned with actively expanding the canon to include new and previously unnoticed positions. The group exhibition is a cooperation between the Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt and the Department of Culture and History of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg District Office of Berlin. Work, the successful combination of artistic work and profession, is the core theme of the Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt. Founded in 1989, this renowned program seeks to create equal visibility for the artistic positions of women. Its one-year course supports women* visual artists both in developing professional know-how in a spirit of solidarity and in bringing their work to the public.

Participating Artists: Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner, Isabelle Heske, Leonie Kellein, Jeanna Kolesova, Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky, Mizi Lee, Marei Loellmann, Gülsah Mursaloglu, Laura Nitsch, Egle Otto, Evelina Reiter, Noor us Sabah Saeed, Dior Thiam, Cora Wöllenstein, Sofiia Yesakova

Photo: Cora Wöllenstein, To Breathe In/Out, 2023, various textiles, sipper, hat wire, wooden chair, 55 x 50 x 160 cm, photo: Cora Wöllenstein

Info: Curators: Mona Hermann and Hannah Kruse, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2, Berlin, Germany, Duration: 30/8-3/11/2024, Days & Hours: Mon-Wed & Sum 10:00-20:00, Thu-Sat 10:00-22:00, https://kunstraumkreuzberg.de/