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If the story we
are drawing
now will be a
tragedy,
we must
redraw the
story.

Exhibition

The exhibition Redraw Tragedy will take place from January 16th to February 23rd 2022 at Künstlerforum Bonn.

Artists of the exhibition are:

• Roberto Uribe Castro
• Bruno Hadjih
• Hiroyuki Kobayashi
• Gaby Kutz
• Grit Ruhland
• Rie Tanji
• Wie-yi T. Lauw
• Natalia Wehler

History and consequences of past tragic events, recreated and told through exhibits, connect all participants. As different as the personal consternation, the artistic approach and the focal points are, the telling and remembering of a terrible story, the approach to objective catastrophes and inconceivable events, finding testimonies of other people and living with the consequences are common themes. Sometimes a coming to terms, legitimizing, not wanting to remember. Sometimes a story of normality, sometimes a more “live on anyway”. Sometimes a desire to shout out the truth. To define and document the aftermath, all the effects that unfold only in the course of history with all its facets. The course of small stories and their effects on the big story, the interplay of one’s own history with the history of other people and landscapes, the confrontation with acute tragedies as well as insidious catastrophes. Can art show this field of tension that is so difficult to grasp? 

How are terrible events reflected in one’s own experience, also in one’s own artistic approach? Is it about coping? Is it about forgetting? Are there patterns in how we grasp the incomprehensible and implement it artistically?

Already in the materials and conceptual approaches, exciting dialogues can be expected on the work level: The works of Kobayashi, Ruhland, Uribe, Lauw, Hadjih, and Wehler, for example, address the question of imaging/multiplying found testimonies of tragedies and catastrophes with different media (frottage, cast, print, media). What happens in the image, in the print, and why do we choose this expression?

The works experience a clear linkage in the context of landscape and space, which is an important topic for all exhibiting artists. Sometimes represented in found objects as in the case of Lauw & Uribe and Kobayashi, sometimes in the demarcation of the self from the outside as in the case of Tanji, sometimes in the almost geographical exploration of landscape and people as in the case of Ruhland, Hadjih and Wehler.

Finally, it is also about the dialogue, the discussion, about getting involved and asking questions. Visualizing the invisible and the incomprehensible. In many cases, normality and dealing with pain inflicted on people and societies are close to each other.

How do the artistic confrontations of the participating artists interact in the space of the Artists’ Forum? What possibilities are offered by the particularly visible exhibition room, which allows visual connections to be made evident in space as well?