East of Eden

Humanity is virtually surrounded by intensifying problems such as global warming, globalisation, environmental pollution, the loss of biodiversity, the scarcity of resources, forced migration and armed conflicts.

Painting as an ancient cultural technique is the subject of critical discourse today and is challenged by a flood of machine-generated images and controlled image production. Images like those from 11 September are etched into our collective memory, perhaps in a similar way to Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People from 1830. How can today's artworks have an impact that can withstand these iconic images? Can a ‘propaganda of openness’ be formulated with traditional art forms that lures viewers out of their hermetic echo chambers and catalyses collective action?

As those expelled through their own fault from the paradise of an intact environment, we fight – like Cain and Abel – against each other, or rather our destructive ego fights against the preserving partiality of a greater whole. Cain becomes the first murderer of humanity. He moves to a place ‘east of Eden’, which raises the question: Where can we go?

The exhibition takes aim at the human tendency towards the familiar and seeks to confront the routine of conditions, that which prevents us from reacting appropriately to crises. It seeks to offer artistic resistance in the face of real threats to culture.

East of Eden recognises the anthropocene status quo, but the artists want to create a change of perspective and instigate self-empowerment by confronting what seems destructive, what is drifting apart and what hurts.

Circling around the three areas of catastrophe (dystopia) – resistance to the crisis – visions of the future (utopia), artists from the MalerinnenNetzWerk Berlin-Leipzig (a network of female painters) contribute a female-feminist perspective, while seven guest artists complement the exhibition.