FRONTIERS OF OUR I

Our psycho-social existence has been so very much attuned to boundaries and differences within and without our I. Not only do we have the physical boundary of the skin, which separates our interior from the exterior but also have we built virtual frontiers within ourselves as well as non-virtual barriers without ourselves.

Internal barriers
Emotional difficulties are known to put our internal unity asunder. The effects might range over many shades from discomfort, non-productivity to aggression, which are further reflected to our environment in the form of fear, shame, violence etc. Another common internal barrier, of which the causes and courses are as well multiple, is a personality conflict. This not only leads to a swanking of humours… from melancholic, sanguine, choleric to phlegmatic but expresses itself further as frustration, intimidation, societal misfit, unreliability etc and thus a personality complex of the napoleonic order as viewed by Alfred Adler or of the narcissistic order as defined by Erich Fromm or Sigmund Freud. These all culminate to other grave consequences that might build a bridge to external barriers like wars, racism, and colonisation.

External barriers
Apart from building boundaries between countries, tribes and races, we misuse the internal difficulties and complexes of our I as masks to justify our prejudices and misconceptions. As much as Iuvenalis’ “Mens sana in corpore sano” is of validity, so too is “an unhealthy esprit in an unhealthy body” valid and this resonates in the immediate environment as frontiers of all kinds. Ideological debates about Turkish women wearing headscarves or not, if Africans rob Germans of their jobs and women, if all Arabs are sympathisers of Al-Qaida, if Poles rob Germans of their cars and jobs, if juvenile delinquent Germans of foreign origin should be deported, if the black sheep in Switzerland are responsible for >70% of rapes and other criminal offences, if some human beings are superior to others just because of the colour of their skin, etc are just a few of these external barriers that arise from our deep-rooted inner disruption.

Exhibition
This exhibition toils on very subjective views of these internal and external boundaries. It focuses on mankind’s ignorance and arrogance towards his/her kind and nature, on the masks we all carry around to compensate for our inner rupture, on how we reduce our existence to our temperaments, on consequences of egoism, victimisation and exploitation, as well as on ART.

Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung

THIS 'WORLD' IS NOT MY 'HOME'

It sounds like a tautology, as we usually associate our home to our world and vice versa. The phrase “this is my world” is often used as a reference to the four walls that define our home, our country or on a larger scale, a continent. Yet, it also has a contradictory connotation, as this world is actually a habitat to a wide variety of living beings and umbrella to our many small homes.

Identification
The need to confine our own living space harbours sentiments like pride, patriotism and belonging. Thus, a need for identification. This concept of identification is defined by languages or traditions of a place, where we were born, grew up or for some reason, feel particularly, physically and/or sentimentally affiliated to. The feeling of belonging to or owning a world is on the other side of the coin, accompanied by a habit of protection, which expresses itself in different ways; e.g., the tendency of xenophobia, which comes from the Greek “xenos”- foreigner and “phobos”-fear, arises as a protective measure to secure our base. This could lead to contempt to all that is strange and that might intrude our space. So is the case with racism, when the common denominator is colour of the skin, eye or hair, bringing about reproaches to otherness and “métissage”. The yearn to create small worlds for ourselves, to feel at ‘home’, does not only meet with our social needs but also resonates to seclusion and segregation.

Relationship
Our relationship to the world can be likened to a subject-object relationship, in which the subject perpetually consumes the object. While being the subjects and acting as ‘masters’ of the world, we put less value on respect towards other living beings, who share the same environment as we do. This can be illustrated by the following examples: the building of dams to provide us with energy, but also leads to the displacement and vitiation of nature; the deforestation to supply us with wood is still a disaster to natural habitats of millions of other living beings; the ecosystem is still afflicted by oil spills for our energy needs; the numerous scientific trials on animals for our cosmetics and medicines; And how are we yet to cope with our weaponry of mass destruction? If this world is our home, how can we walk in it without considering the scars we leave behind? If this world is our home, how can we be so nonchalant to other co-inhabitants of this home?

Exhibition
This group exhibition invites artists of diverse nationalities to pose questions, without an immediate urge for answers. It beckons artists to express themselves on issues such as togetherness, identification, phobia, nature or in short our psycho-social conditions. An appropriate line from a gospel hymn says: “this world is not my home, I am just passing through”.

Curator: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung Co-organiser: Fong Ponto, Silvio Streddi Telefon (Germany): 004917628781966 Telefon (France): 0033685148860 Email: ndikungen@gmx.de www.soh-bonny.com http://www.artou.de/magazine/berichte-thisworldisnotmyhome.html

CONSUME SOCIETY – CONSUMED SOCIETY
(KONSUMGESELLSCHAFT – KONSUMIERTE GESELLSCHAFT)

Wir befinden uns in einer 3,4 Millionen-Metropole, Berlin. Eine Gesellschaft mit einer Hülle und Fülle an Kultur und Geschichte und auch ein Knotenpunkt der Medien, Politik, Wirtschaft und vor allem der Kunst, Kultur und den Menschen aus aller Welt.

Metropolen sind meist von dieser Vielfalt gesegnet aber diese Vielfalt, um das Leben des modernen Menschen bequem zu gestalten, hat als Begleiterscheinung, die logische Folgerung: Konsum. Unter Konsum wird in der Volkswirtschaftslehre der Erwerb oder Verbrauch von Waren (Langenscheidts) zur Befriedigung persönlicher Bedürfnisse verstanden. Diese Bedürfnisse, die durch den Konsum gestillt werden sollen, reichen von den Grundbedürfnissen nach Maslow: [1) körperliche Grundbedürfnisse z.B Atmung und Essen; 2)Sicherheit z.B. Unterkunft und Gesundheit; 3)Soziale Beziehungen z.B. Freundeskreis und Liebe] (A.H. Maslov, A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review 50 (1943):370- 96.) bis zum Luxus [Verhaltensweisen, Aufwendungen oder Ausstattungen, welche über das übliche Maß hinausgehen, die für einen großen Teil einer Bezugsgruppe zwar erstrebenswert sind, aber nicht erreichbar]. Natürlich funktioniert Konsum gemäß den wirtschaftlichen Prinzipien der „Nachfrage und Angebot“, was als Motor jeder Gesellschaft heutzutage gilt.

Dass Konsum oft eine negative Conotation hat, liegt nicht nur an der Tendenz des übersteigerten Konsumverhaltens unserer Gesellschaft (Pier Paolo Pasolini (1975), Freibeuterschriften. Die Zerstörung der Kultur des Einzelnen durch die Konsumgesellschaft, Berlin 1975) sondern auch an der Gefahr selbst von Konsum konsumiert zu werden. Dieses Phänomen wird bei den Konsumkritikern als „Affluenza“ (Influenza + Affluence) bezeichnet, eine Art Überflusskrankheit mit Symptomen wie Schulden, Unmengen an Müll, Angstzuständen, Gefühlen der Entfremdung und Verzweiflung, Abhängigkeit oder auch Bolemie etc. Ferner funktioniert Konsum auch nach dem Prinzip des Ausbeutens, z.B. wenn einer auf Kosten eines anderen konsumiert (z.B. Diebstahl oder politischer Mißbrauch). Trotzdem leben wir in einer Zeit, in der Konsum unabdingbar ist, da wir einen fast unersättlichen Hunger nach Mode, Fernsehen, Kunst, Großraum, Macht, Stolz, Ruf, Geld, Einfluß, Liebe etc. haben und so mehr oder weniger vom Konsum konsumiert worden sind. So kann Konsum als eine Art nicht-demokratisches Phänomen, das uns regiert, beschrieben werden.

Diese Ausstellung lädt zehn internationale Künstler mit verschiedenen Schwerpunkten (Malerei, Photographie, Installation, Perfomance) ein, ihre Eindrücke zu dem Thema „Consume society – consumed society“ darzustellen. Das Vorhaben der Ausstellung ist nicht eine Bühne zur Kritik des Konsums anzubieten sondern ein Podium zu offerieren, auf dem Künstler und „Nicht-Künstler“ sich mit dem Thema Konsum auseinandersetzen können und über „Konsum“ und „konsumiert werden“ als zwei Seiten derselben Münze nachdenken können.

Eingeladen sind folgende Künstler: