Research project and show
Württembergischer Kunstverein
Stuttgart

Opening with a talk by Keller Easterling
Athens and Stuttgart, 2015

Spuren spuren can be translated into tracing traces, meaning both, the material sign and the process of its production. Spuren is something we find and leave at the same time, it is a mutual process of transformation during the project in Athens and Stuttgart.

Text by Württembergische Kunstverein:

Spuren spuren applies the concept of collecting and producing traces at the same time. In an in-between state of collection and production, events and interventions are both recorded as well as triggered. Two snakes, capital (crisis), beach huts, a desert, and Hölderlin traverse these events and thus challenge strict oppositions between subject and object, between origin and derivative.

The question is raised, whether traces can be linked to any localities at all. Can this only happen at the place of origin or is it possible to do so by a reference or model within an exhibition? In addition it is being emphasized that localizations are difficult to maintain in the age of the Internet, which enables complete medial connectedness and diffusion.
Spuren spuren is not conceptualized as static misé-en-scene. Besides a presentation within the exhibition-space the latter becomes a subject of production in itself. The Querungen are transformed into the locality of an ongoing process. During the exhibition a travel agency is installed, Greek language courses are offered. A course on the golden ratio is taking place. The exhibition becomes an open space. Package holidays and Ouzo refer to Germany´s post-war period clichés concerning Greece. The golden ratio makes reference to the concepts of ideal beauty, which originate in Greek Antiquity.

The inclusive situation is part confrontation with well-known clichés while at the same time opportunity to get involved in conversations about the present.