Networking and connectivity have a greater influence on social contacts than ever before. In the competition for attention, an abundance of information on individuals, events or products flows through countless channels. During this process, images as smooth as glass arise; behind their façade, all issues of an insecure, sensitive or awkward nature remain hidden. The omnipresence of the media creates empty spaces: identities without substance, connection without connectedness.
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The exhibition by Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff, Flaka Haliti and Hanne Lippard observes what effect the formatting of the self and the continual adaptation of forms of appearance and behaviour has on personal and professional relationships. In an impressively objective, poetic and humorous way, the artists examine their own roles within their social, discursive and urban environment. Introducing displacements at the interface between subjectivity and projection, they discuss questions of representation, isolation and proximity, capitulation and resilience. Their biographies provide important points of reference, without becoming the actual subject of the works.[…]In the work of Flaka Haliti, the idea of belonging takes on an additional meaning. In her installations she deals with the boundaries that separate states and people. They can be politically defined and under military surveillance, or run along private and social relationships, being constantly redrawn in an almost imperceptible way. Her interest is directed equally towards processes of migration and the status of the artist. Whilst addressing the conflict of freedom and constraint, recognition and endurance, she also reveals the complicated relationship between longing, expectations and misunderstandings in human relationships.[…]Since 1953, the ars viva prize for visual arts has been awarded to young artists on an annual basis by the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e. V. (Cultural Committee of German Business of the Federation of German Industries). It is presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig (GfZK) for the second time. The large exhibition of works ars viva 2016 shows central works by this year’s prizewinners Flaka Haliti, Hanne Lippard, Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff.Curated by Franciska ZólyomText: ars vivaPhotos: Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
