we humans cannot exist alone on earth. we need the other living beings. our ruthlessness and lack of understanding endanger our future.
Tougher days are coming.
The time, adjourned until revocation
is becoming visible on the horizon.
(Ingeborg Bachmann 1953)
Selected photos from a b/w photo essay done in my home country’s capital Tokyo immediately after returning from my posting in Africa for the agency.
»Difference« wants the viewers to think about double standards concerning the socially judgement of different religions instead of tolerating them to coexist.
In summer 2019 we were in Los Angeles to produce the Slanted issue #35. At THE BROAD Museum we visited the exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963–1983. We apologize for not being able to identify all artists and to give credits for the respective works.
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963–1983 shines a bright light on the vital contribution of Black artists made over two decades, beginning in 1963 at the height of the civil rights movement. Soul of a Nation explores how social justice movements, as well as stylistic evolutions in visual art (such as Minimalism and abstraction), were powerfully expressed in the work of artists including Romare Bearden, Barkley Hendricks, Noah Purifoy, Martin Puryear, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Alma Thomas, Charles White, and William T. Williams. Los Angeles-based artists appear throughout Soul of a Nation, and more deeply in three specific galleries, foregrounding the significant role of Los Angeles in the art and history of the civil rights movement and the subsequent activist era, and the critical influence and sustained originality of the city’s artists, many of whom have lacked wider recognition.
Featuring the work of more than 60 influential artists and including vibrant paintings, powerful sculptures, street photography, murals, and more, this landmark exhibition is a rare opportunity to see era-defining artworks that changed the face of art in America.
Going through some weird times, lately, we, the people have learnt to appreciate living together a little bit more. At least, let’s suppose we tried so.
However, we are used to live in a repetition. Going back and forth, forgetting easy and making a wrong twice knowing is not the right one.
Let’s be positive.
It’s necessary to eliminate the toxicity between us as we need to prevent the pollution of the environment.
Brighter days will come, stay safe, trust actions not just words.
WE LIVE in a natural system composed of different species. WE WANT to create a path of sharing where each of us counts in its own diversity and can contribute and receive in the same way. WE NEED to coexist to improve all together, because we are all in this together.
The Path 1:
Coexisting is not always an easy path. It’s lined with obstacles, either created by humans or by nature. But it’s up to us to learn and always thrive to coexist with whatever is in our way. Like in the minesweeper game we just need to find the way!
The Path 2:
This little poem is a reflection of the past. Will we ever learn from the past and change our ways? I hope so. The space before the end of the sentence is there to make you read it again, turn it around in your head and remind ourselves that it is on us to change history’s course, our course.
coexistence: never the same, a term hard to tame,
all whirling around
in my tiny ass brain.
for me, there’s two parts to it:
firstly, coexistence involving more than one person/thing/letter.
but also: coexistence from within, which i tried to display visually in a very intuitive way.
coexistence does not always work. on the one hand there is the mask we wear, our outer shell; and on the other hand there are the thoughts we carry inside of us (that for me is coexistence as well): trying to find a balance between the two; self doubt and growth.
an E, a face, myself? it’s what we make of it.
This piece of work relates to my interest in advertising and its appropriation of social commentary. Whether it’s the disastrous Kendall Jenner Pepsi advert back in 2017, or the infamous ‘Hilltop’ coke advert that nods to the hippy movement of the late sixties.
This appropriation by brands contains within it a bizarre contradiction, its very existence means that people’s values are such that to be seen promoting them is commercially wise, yet they are weathercocks, shifting in the proverbial wind of public trends.
I wanted to highlight this paradox, by getting my inspiration for coexistence from an old advert, an idea that the advert itself had appropriated to sell cigarettes.
The image is taken from the performance in public space “Disjunkte Mengen” in Vienna on the 29th of May 2019. It deals with the topic of social distance in an interconnected system. The RGB-colour circles form together a unit, but are also single elements in coexistence with each other.
The drop-like shape reminds of the google maps location sign. The performative route could be tracked live via link on google maps. The intervention in public space raises the question of privacy policy during quarantine, in which groups of people were tracked through their mobile phones. The term “disjunkt” is taken from mathematics, describing sets without a common intersection.
The image is taken from the performance in public space “Disjunkte Mengen” in Vienna on the 29th of May 2019. It deals with the topic of social distance in an interconnected system. The RGB-colour circles form together a unit, but are also single elements in coexistence with each other.
The drop-like shape reminds of the google maps location sign. The performative route could be tracked live via link on google maps. The intervention in public space raises the question of privacy policy during quarantine, in which groups of people were tracked through their mobile phones. The term “disjunkt” is taken from mathematics, describing sets without a common intersection.
UK. Boston. 4th March 2016
A mass given in Polish at a Catholic Church in Boston. The town is home to many migrant agricultural workers from Eastern Europe whose lives were thrown into uncertainty by the Brexit vote. In the years since the referendum many have left the area and for the last three years UK fruit harvesters have been unable to attract enough workers, leaving fruit and vegetables rotting in the fields.The town of Boston recorded the highest Brexit vote in Britain with 75.6% voting to leave the European Union.
facts and false reports will always coexist. In a digital world no blind trust helps
In human terms, our aim is to make everyone feel that they are part of a unique group.
One person can do a lot, but people together can devote themselves and make us rise: sharing our knowledge, our skills, our experience, and our emotions with others is fundamental. The synergy and, mainly, the reciprocal respect are important to build cohesion and live together.
So far people have been acting as if natural resources were infinite. We have been drawing on them selfishly again and again. Now we need to face the fact that some results of expansion of our civilisation are irreversible. Are we going to start to respect other lifes; those of people, animals and plants? Or will we extinct as a result of our greed?
The broken hourglass shows that time of abusing natural resources in the name of economical growth has ended. Will it be possible to play the game of conquerring nature again? I doubt it.
So far people have been acting as if natural resources were infinite. We have been drawing on them selfishly again and again. Now we need to face the fact that some results of expansion of our civilisation are irreversible. Are we going to start to respect other lifes; those of people, animals and plants? Or will we extinct as a result of our greed?
The skull, referring to the one held by prince Hamlet, is composed of chimney producing smoke, cut trees and coins. It is also a reminder that humans’ actions of nature abusing lead to the end of our civilisation.
So far people have been acting as if natural resources were infinite. We have been drawing on them selfishly again and again. Now we need to face the fact that some results of expansion of our civilisation are irreversible. Are we going to start to respect other lifes; those of people, animals and plants? Or will we extinct as a result of our greed?
Hand grabs the coin from a tree just as Eve had grabbed an apple from tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden. The reference to this cliché image aims at showing that perhaps we are about to loose the current paradise of life in well-developped countries very soon.
It’s coexistence or no existence – B. Russell
The SCHIRN MAG has established itself as an important medium in the contemporary art and culture scene in the ten years since its launch. Starting with the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt’s exhibitions and themes, the spectrum of contributions to the online magazine has continued to evolve. The SCHIRN MAG is therefore now presenting itself in an entirely new design and layout.
With its permanent columns, the SCHIRN MAG provides insights into the contemporary art scene, in German and English. “Context” includes essays, features, portraits, and soundtracks about current exhibitions and themes at the Schirn. Since 2015, “Schirn Podcast” has been offering art to listen to—the first ever German podcast by an art institution. In “Interview,” artists explain their works, and experts open up new points of view. Contemporary video art and portraits of artists from the Schirn’s monthly series DOUBLE FEATURE make up a special focus of the rubric “Video Art.” Selected highlights and events of the contemporary art and culture scene as well as film and book discoveries can be found under “Schirn Tip.” In the column “069,” the Schirn introduces protagonists from Frankfurt’s creative scene and their living and working environments. Finally, “What’s Cooking” combines art and culinary delights from different perspectives.
The focus of the SCHIRN MAG’s new design format is deliberately placed on a simple graphic presentation whose optimized font size gives priority to high-quality contents and heightens readability. The homepage of the online magazine, laid out as a display window, offers readers a clear overview of the whole range of multifaceted offers and themes. Full-screen chapter markers provide readers with a clear structure and clearly distinguish text contributions, videos, and podcasts. Image areas that are alternately large and small, make for liveliness and extend an invitation to explore. The Schirn is reacting to the altered reader behavior since the last relaunch as well as to the current viewing habits of its readers. At the same time, the SCHIRN MAG’s appearance is gaining more independence from the Schirn website. The new magazine design was developed and implemented by Henne / Ordnung in close collaboration with the team of the Schirn.
Philipp Demandt, Director of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, explains: “The SCHIRN MAG is a success story and has been an integral part of our digital strategy for the last ten years. With its new design, we are placing even more focus on its contents. With the SCHIRN MAG, we are opening up space for the examination of public discourses and the exchange of views on art from different perspectives, beyond the spatial boundaries of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.”
The SCHIRN MAG provides its readers with the opportunity to receive new articles, videos, podcasts, tips, and specials directly on their mobile phones via the app Notify and the Telegram Messenger service. Additional information is available at SCHIRN MAG NEWS.
Ten Years of SCHIRN MAG
Online Magazine of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
Design: Henne / Ordnung
Coexistence means existing in the same place and time, in peace and harmony. But it also means that each part depends on another. When one is breaking the construction gets weaker and falls apart, it wouldn’t work anymore. Coexistence means together. And together we build a strong unity.
That is the power of mankind.
“Merge” is the first word that came to my mind when I thought about “coexistence”.
The idea behind it is the concept that we are all connected, and that everything depends on everything else. The acceptance of all living things being interlinked would lead to the ideal coexistence – In the end, we are all “one”.