ON THE OTHER HAND — IN THE RACK ROOM #32
ARTHUR DEBERT
Opening SAT, APR 6, 2024, 6—9pm
APR 7 — 28, 2024, open by appointment
LAGE EGAL [IN THE RACK ROOM]
Liselotte-Herrmann-Str. 26 (HH), 10407 Berlin
Contact: sonderlage@lage-egal.net
ar.debert@gmail.com
Blue is a rare colour in the natural wardrobes of butterflies, birds and frogs. And often it is not really the colour itself that we see, but light-scattering, microscopic beads spaced in a way that every wavelength of light is cancelled out except blue.
In his solo exhibition ON THE OTHER HAND, artist Arthur Debert combines filmic techniques created to mimic the perceptual worlds of other-than-human animals with performative sculptures that can be animated by the audience during their visit. His current artistic research includes media archeology, the circulation of images and the survival of knowledge through transgression, storytelling and transmission. Informed by the History of Cinema and Animation, he translates performative aspects of objects and materials into installations, sculptures, videos and editions.
In his new video BIRD’S VIEW, the magical relationship between the making-of behind the camera and the filmic result is revealed. The clumsy movements of the artist, who imitates snakes gliding on the ground, deers walking through the forest or frogs jumping over the grass, become cinematographic enigmas that question the relationship we have to nature and how it is influenced through technology. How do we look at animals? How do they look at us? On the one hand, Debert shows how easily and gladly the human species identifies with other species, but on the other hand he shows how complex behaviours are simplified and adjusted to the superior human-animal.
Representation and manipulation also plays a key role in the series of new performative objects on display. STRINGS are sets of found gloves that might represent specific characters. By playfully activating the textiles, the audience is invited to discover relationships and connections between the animator and the animated. While the green scenery in Deberts video jumps to the eye, the light installation challenges the usual experience of light and turns the inside into a summer twilight and the outside into a golden dawn. (CAROLA UEHLKEN)
