Exploring Bodies through the Spectrum of Nature
Neo-Baroque gardens such as the Körnerpark were intended
to illustrate the dominance of man (or order) over nature (chaos). If
the baroque garden is supposed to symbolise the triumph of man over
nature, what happens when asymmetry, chaos, deviation, in other words,
nature, takes over?
to illustrate the dominance of man (or order) over nature (chaos). If
the baroque garden is supposed to symbolise the triumph of man over
nature, what happens when asymmetry, chaos, deviation, in other words,
nature, takes over?
Image gallery
KEY VISUAL Unbändiger Glanz
Much of what people understand by aesthetics and design
today can be traced back to these Baroque ideas: that symmetry,
standardisation and normality are synonymous with aesthetic beauty.
What
if we looked for beauty in chaos, disorder and otherness? What if we
embraced nature and all its deviations and enjoyed the pleasure of
difference?
The exhibition presents artists who make art about the body and its
relationship to nature, gardens, plants and ecological systems. What are
their visions of the future, their potential utopias that defy the
norm? How might a paradigm shift in our understanding of nature restore
our relationship with the natural world?
The artists explore the theme
of difference as beauty in a variety of ways. Some explore the
misbehaving body, while others explore the environmental context in
which we live: nature and its cycles, the rhythms of reproduction as a
force that resists capitalist structures that harm the human body.
Unruly Splendour is curated by Kate Brehme and Kirstin
Broussard of Berlinklusion, Berlin’s network for accessibility in art
and culture, led by Dirk Sorge, Jovana Komnenic, Kirstin Broussard and
Kate Brehme. It is a collective of disabled and non-disabled artists and
art educators who aim to positively transform Berlin’s cultural
landscape by promoting inclusion and improving accessibility for
artists, cultural workers, participants and audiences with and without
disabilities.
The exhibition celebrates the aesthetics of access and promotes
exchange through accessible exhibition design. It is informed by the
curator’s experience of disability and work at the intersection of
curating and art education.
It builds on recent exhibitions such as The Space Between (CLB, Berlin, 2023) and To/From (Kommunale Galerie, Berlin, 2023-4), where the collective sourced and
selected otherwise marginalised artists, but also integrated
multi-sensory design elements into the exhibition to enable accessible
participation by our visitors.
The exhibition is accompanied by an audio guide designed by Kirstin Broussard.
Curated by Kate Brehme & Kirstin Broussard
