Castle for Rent I-III.

Schönwalder Strasse 44 Projektraum

curated by Pia vom Ende, Christian Kölbl

involved Artists Episode I.: Patricia Detmering, Christian Holze, Dennis Rudolph

involved Artists Episode II.: Anna Ehrenstein, Michael Riedel, Dagmar Schürrer

involved Artists Episode III.: Stine Deja, Lola Zoido

How do exhibitions function at a time when many people’s lives are increasingly taking place in the digital sphere? And what are the functions of art shows today, if the prestigious event culture that once surrounded them no longer has to take place in the exhibition space itself, but rather on the social media profiles of those who participate in them?

As curators of the series exhibition “Castle for Rent,” Pia vom Ende and Christian Kölbl address the most current trends in art exhibiting and marketing. They take a critical look at the ambivalences and paradoxes involved in exhibiting in the digital space as well as the shift of art purchases to the World Wide Web.

Extended to a showroom within a showroom, the absurdity of this affirmatic logic of the art market is thus taken to extremes. Presented in an environment that uses a formal language of Minimal Art, for instance imitating the geometric sculptures of Robert Morris and So LeWitt, the actual exhibition takes place in the Metaverse, which visitors can enter with the help of virtual reality technology - VR glasses.

The curators’ decision not to mark the white cube itself as a place of art, but to decoratively integrate the art into the interior of a virtual luxury apartment tour, is anything but arbitrary. The works fit into the overall artwork of a purely digitally conceived exhibition space and are not only supposedly absorbed into it, but almost submerged.

- Naomi Rado (excerpt from the text “The beautiful appearance may be luxury” published on the occasion of the exhibition)

Read full text here (german)

Review Passe-avant (german)

Review Gallerytalk (german)