unit: V.D.E – Vor dem Essen

For this exhibition, the atrium of the Thaersaal at Invalidenstraße 42 will function as an exhibition space. Thaer taught at the Humboldt University, and is known as a founder of modern agricultural science. A sculpture in the Thaersaal now honours his legacy.

This year’s exhibition at Thaersaal unit: V.D.E – Vor dem Essen, revolves around issues of food consumption in relation to temporality and space and forms part of the unselect exhibition festival. unit: V.D.E – Vor dem Essen shows an interactive installation and performance by Pascale Komarnicki, titled “V.D.E – Vor dem Essen”.

V.D.E. – Vor dem Essen is a conceptual work taking the compositional form of a Get-together-gathering. The work’s realization depends on public participation, as audiences can freely walk around in the piece and interact with its objects and materials. In addition to the performance, food constitutes a central medium of the work. The gaseous, liquid and solid conditions of water-based food, as well as the other work materials, form part of this process, which has an open entry and exit. Audiences partake in the performance through the ways in which they use and select within the setting.

Through her artwork, Pascale Komarnicki is devoted to researching opportunities of unfolding within predetermined conditions anchored in time and space. The medium of the Get-together-gathering is the surface for interactive strategies. It considers and spurs the observation of behaviour, consciousness, language, gesture and affect within selected artistic parameters. This pertains, for example, to questions of social, political and cultural developments, which negotiate individual topics on a collective basis. On the site, basic conditions of existence and their inherent possibilities are examined, among other things. The starting point of each new workpiece results from the recognitions of previous ones. “Vor dem Essen”, is temporarily set up for twelve hours. In this regard, construction and dismantling are integral phases of this work, in addition to its activation over 90min. with participants. The invited persons are free to participate interactively. Nine of them will use the opportunity to create footage in one take. Two cameras, mobile phones and video projection accompany the scene, serving to document, and in a sense fragment, the performance.

The theme of temporal selection constitutes a central aspect of this installation: divisions of and interactions in time, vis-à-vis analogue and virtual space, serve to raise questions concerning experiences of time and temporality.

The everyday form of restriction within time and space imply possibilities of boundlessness. The choice between the two results in a position. This is freely selectable at best, and follows questioning the forms of possibilites.

Programme

Performance by Pascale Komarnicki

Artists

Pascale Komarnicki

Curated by Benedek Hrutka and Maya Komarnicki