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Home is an ambivalent place: on the one hand, it provides protection and retreat; on the other hand, family expectations can make it overwhelming and oppressive. In its exhibition No Place like Home the Sammlung Goetz explores this wide range of intra-family relationships.
With Sue de Beer, Teresa Hubbard/Alexander Birchler, Zilla Leutenegger, Matthias Müller, Hans Op de Beeck, Gabriel Orozco, Patricia Pearson, Anri Sala, Laurie Simmons, Lorenz Straßl, Frank Stürmer, Veronika Veit and Karen Yasinsky.
The term "home" is associated with the idea of a place where one feels protected and accepted, and where traditions are lived and identity can unfold. Yet home is often also the place where power struggles are played out and where unspoken hostilities make life difficult. The ninth media art exhibition in the former air-raid shelter of Haus der Kunst presents 14 works from the Sammlung Goetz that explore the home environment and the emotions associated with it. The works focus on a variety of intra-family conflicts, thereby revealing social conventions and enabling us to look into the depths of human relationships.
Disappointment over unredeemed expectations is negotiated in the film Eight by Hubbard/Birchler. In it, a little girl experiences how her carefully planned eighth birthday party literally falls to pieces. Ten years later, the two artists made a new film with the same protagonist, who now stands at the threshold of adulthood. In Eighteen they illustrate the challenges the girl faces after leaving the sheltered parental home as she strives to find a new role for herself. Established structures, however, can also be perceived as rigid, cold and emotionless. With its emblematic images, in his film Alpsee, Matthias Müller provides a disturbing view into a 1960s childhood. The topic of destructive parent-child relationships is broached by Patricia Pearson and Veronika Veit in their films. A slide projection by Lorenz Straßl shows unpopulated areas where inhabitants seem to have left perplexing traces. Here the home is no longer a place to live, but a reflection of personal feelings.
Curated by Susanne Touw
