Curator: Lukas Sterzenbach
We live in a time defined by multitudinous, entangled crises: climate change, political fragmentation, social inequalities, digital disruption, and systemic exploitation. Daily life is increasingly shaped by rapid technological developments and an overwhelming flood of images, creating a complexity that can feel disorienting. In the face of current wars, environmental challenges, and social injustices, humanity is confronted with an acute sense of uncertainty.
This exhibition embodies a form of resistance. An active stance against the perceived constraints of our globally entangled crises. Through their work, these young German artists and art students critically explore the power of creativity to question identity, consumption, politics, and social structures. The artworks on display navigate the tension between reflection and action, offering space for dialogue, awareness, and transformation. They remind us that art is not only a mirror of our times but also a tool for imagining alternatives.
The exhibition begins with a reflective space between past and future, before leading into the immediacy and complexity of the present. (Link). It is precisely through the diversity of the submitted works and perspectives that this narrative unfolds, allowing the central themes of the exhibition to take shape and resonate across the different perspectives.
LEVEL 1 — Tracing Pasts, Imagining Futures
By looking back and exploring traces of the past, the origins of problems and conditions begin to appear. Patterns that continue to repeat in the present and remain deeply rooted in our identities, shaping the ways we understand ourselves and our surroundings. At the same time, these traces invite us to imagine what lies ahead. The future we wish to live in is often clouded by the weight of daily life and the growing complexity of our world. These works create a space to reflect, imagine, and lay the ground for a future we can desire.
