08.05.– 17.07.2022
Villa Merkel, Esslingen
curated by Benedikt Johannes Seeriederwith James Gregory Atkinson, Trisha Baga, Bianca Baldi, Coven Berlin, Christa Joo Hyun D'Angelo, Ed Fornieles, Harry Hachmeister, Aslı Özdemir, Phung-Tien Phan, Przemek Pyszczek, Yves Scherer, Britta Thie, Peter Wächtler, Grace Weaver
In the former guest rooms of Villa Merkel, Harry Hachmeister presents a double reinterpretation of formerly clearly occupied spaces and the ways of life associated with them. He opens with a kind of historical cabinet that brings together a printed wallpaper with framed pictures. The wallpaper not only mirrors the artist's body in every conceivable direction, but also becomes a Rorschach test for the artist's own thought patterns. Framed reverse glass paintings are hung on the wallpaper. In Hachmeister's work, however, their otherwise often contemplative motifs are lusty and queer.
But what efforts are needed to emancipate oneself from historically grown role attributions? In the back room there is a home gym where traditional body schemes are loosened. Here, atypical proportions and delicate colors replace the silver-grey monochrome of conventional gyms. Dumbbells become playful bodies, which seem to invite to be touched due to their fine haptics and delicate impression. They promise a turn towards gentleness – both with the objects and with oneself. The presented elements do not feel obliged to their usual purpose, but through material change, delicacy and play they achieve a detachment from normative reality - they formulate an invitation to allow feelings through emotional training and thereby show strength.
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villa-merkel.de
Exhibition views: Frank Kleinbach