“Routes of Empathy” — Group exhibition
Kirstin Burckhardt
Susanne Bürner
Lizza May David
Nadine Fecht
Stella Geppert
Special Guests
Teboho Edkins
Hanna Hennenkemper
Mohammed Laouli
Sandra Man
Katrin Ströbel
Concept by Stella Geppert
Exhibition support by Anna Redeker & Anja Spitzer
Program support by Daniela von Damaros
The group exhibition Routes of Empathy presents artistic positions whose works deal with theempathic in the artistic process on different levels. The basis of all empathic action is a form of “being touched”: it is the ability to put oneself in the physical and/or emotional position of one’s counterpart without pursuing one’s own interests. This empathic state is often hindered by conflicting economic policies and the abuse of power. As a result, empathic action increasingly shifts into the realm of the precarious or is even entirely faked in order to pursue one’s own economic interests.
The exhibition expands on the view of artistic activity as a social activity. Routes of Empathy addresses the question to which extent the body, politics, and empathy are intertwined. In doing so, both a positive side that nourishes society, its creative and subversive potential and possible negative sides in the context of the abuse of power and strategic action are made visible. What position can empathy have, specifically in terms of shaping the body in the wake of profound, international, and biopolitical actions taken during the global pandemic?
From a number of different perspectives, the artists in the exhibition address the empathic in a society in which physical proximity is fraught with danger and the human aura may no longer be influenced or even touched. With the ability to “put oneself into the state of the other person”, the artists show how the current situation can be responded to artistically.
In the context of performances, screenings, and lectures by the participating special guests Teboho Edkins, Hanna Hennenkemper, Mohammed Laouli, and Sandra Man, the exhibition will evolve during its duration and will be complemented further by a series of interviews conducted by Stella Geppert with the social ethnologist Dr. Stefanie Bognitz and the philosopher Dr. Susanne Schmetkamp, focusing the view of the conceptualities and artistic considerations of the project.
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