Past exhibitions
Am Wegesrand gehen, die Uhr tickt
04.05.2023 - 07.05.2023
04.05.2023 - 07.05.2023
Numerous books of numerous artists and authors
We move between axes of orientation, always along the coordinates of time and space. At the border of the path, at the border of the field. In an in-between space.
Making books is like walking along the wayside. Books in art are like walking by the wayside. Books are an in-between place, a territory that is always somehow off the beaten path.
In this exhibition [...] what has emerged is what in English is called desire Lines. Collectively desired paths.
Thank you to all the artists and authors involved in this exhibitio. And thank you to HfG Offenbach, Klingspor Museum, Haus der Stadtgeschichte - Offenbach, Offenbach Kultur for the kind support.
Concept by Paula Schneider, Felix Hofmann-Wissner, Malte Möller and Lena Stewens
Text by Paula Schneider
Photos by Lea Kulens
We move between axes of orientation, always along the coordinates of time and space. At the border of the path, at the border of the field. In an in-between space.
Making books is like walking along the wayside. Books in art are like walking by the wayside. Books are an in-between place, a territory that is always somehow off the beaten path.
In this exhibition [...] what has emerged is what in English is called desire Lines. Collectively desired paths.
Thank you to all the artists and authors involved in this exhibitio. And thank you to HfG Offenbach, Klingspor Museum, Haus der Stadtgeschichte - Offenbach, Offenbach Kultur for the kind support.
Concept by Paula Schneider, Felix Hofmann-Wissner, Malte Möller and Lena Stewens
Text by Paula Schneider
Photos by Lea Kulens
die hohle Hand
09.02.2023 – 05.03.2023
09.02.2023 – 05.03.2023
Jakob Francisco, Lea Klemisch, Marina Köstel, Malte Niels Möller, Johannes Schwalm, Timon Sioulvegas, Lena Stewens
The cupped hand refers to a number of ambiguities that arise from the enormous endeavor of unifying an equivocal multitude and work out its inner dynamics and resulting figurations.
Here a brief overview of the relations that materialise in the cupped hand as object as well as gesture.
The cupped hand may draw water. As a vessel it is the place of an imaginary transaction in which the hand, or the person attached to it might be offering something (an empty promise as the German title suggests?) but can also be thought to be asking, even begging for something. Whatever the intent, it is a reaching out.
The person attached to the hand thus becomes a sort of mime, shapeshifting to represent a number of sometimes conflicting interests that need to be expressed. The hand that reaches out subjectifies the addressee and is to be imagined as in a transient state that moves back and forth between object/ toolhood and subjective demand.
These are constituants of trying to gather as a group and find a common expression of sorts.
As Magma Maria, we are warmly inviting you to have a look at our works conceived as parts of our individual practices that are now set in relation as a show that aims to overcome our, and possibly your understanding of Magma Maria as mere space or mere work.
We invite you to reconsider the hand reaching out to you.
Is it not maybe a room to dwell in?
Try to make out what it is that is gathering now in the creases and folds of the cupped hand.
It is hard to see because the lights went out just now, but they might come back on in about half an hour.
Text by Timon Sioulvegas
The cupped hand refers to a number of ambiguities that arise from the enormous endeavor of unifying an equivocal multitude and work out its inner dynamics and resulting figurations.
Here a brief overview of the relations that materialise in the cupped hand as object as well as gesture.
The cupped hand may draw water. As a vessel it is the place of an imaginary transaction in which the hand, or the person attached to it might be offering something (an empty promise as the German title suggests?) but can also be thought to be asking, even begging for something. Whatever the intent, it is a reaching out.
The person attached to the hand thus becomes a sort of mime, shapeshifting to represent a number of sometimes conflicting interests that need to be expressed. The hand that reaches out subjectifies the addressee and is to be imagined as in a transient state that moves back and forth between object/ toolhood and subjective demand.
These are constituants of trying to gather as a group and find a common expression of sorts.
As Magma Maria, we are warmly inviting you to have a look at our works conceived as parts of our individual practices that are now set in relation as a show that aims to overcome our, and possibly your understanding of Magma Maria as mere space or mere work.
We invite you to reconsider the hand reaching out to you.
Is it not maybe a room to dwell in?
Try to make out what it is that is gathering now in the creases and folds of the cupped hand.
It is hard to see because the lights went out just now, but they might come back on in about half an hour.
Text by Timon Sioulvegas
Loops and Breaktroughs
23.09.2022 - 16.10.2022
23.09.2022 - 16.10.2022
Sophia
Eisenhut, Rahel Goetsch, Sonja Heim, Paula Heinrich, Marina Köstel, Wagehe
Raufi and Evelyn Roh
As part of the exhibition ”Loops and Breakthroughs“ participating artists were invited to engage with Ursula K. Le Guin’s (1929 - 2018) approach to story-telling.
The science fiction author prefers fundamentally unheroic story-telling and presents feminist alternatives to the linear, violent narratives that dominate western thinking.
The exhibition reflects on artistic positions that are formed in relation to Le Guin’s 1986 essay ”The Carrier Bag Theory Of Fiction“. While the essay serves as conceptual base, the exhibition is accompanied by a publication in which participating authors and artists have responded to it.
Reflecting on the prehistoric Neolithic Age, Le Guin’s essay suggests that the earliest cultural invention may have been a container, not a weapon. What’s the use of hunting down animals or gathering edibles if you don’t have the means to carry them home and store them, Le Guin asks. Before humans invented tools like weapons that force energy outwards, they produced devices that enable to bring energy home, she suspects. Therefore, Le Guin sees herself as an adherent of what she calls ”The Carrier Bag Theory“ of human evolution.
This consideration leads her to distinguish two historically constituted modes of story-telling. Thinking of prehistoric subsistence, images of mammoth hunters come to mind, even though collecting plant-based edibles was the primary source of ensuring survival. If there was spare time to go hunting, what mattered in the face of returning was the story, not the meat. Tales of hunting mostly revolve around male, powerful protagonists while the ”shape of the narrative“ remains that of an arrow or spear. Le Guin rejects the notion of heroism portrayed by what she calls ”the killer story“, a mode of narrating that dominates our thinking.
Le Guin contrasts this with a second mode of story-telling that she sees more in alignment with feminist approaches. Considering what may have been the first cultural invention, she prefers ascribing heroic attributes to devices that function as containers instead of weapons. According to Le Guin we’ve already heard enough stories about sticks, spears and swords. Instead she feels an urgency to tell stories from the vantage point of gathering and collecting. The ”natural, proper, fitting shape of the novel might be that of a sack, a bag“. With regards to the genre of science fiction Le Guin suggests to avoid the linear, progressive, ”killing-arrow-mode“ of story-telling and trades it for ”The Carrier Bag Theory Of Fiction“ (1986).
Curated by Paula Heinrich, Marina Köstel and Evelyn Roh
Text by Marlene Coates
As part of the exhibition ”Loops and Breakthroughs“ participating artists were invited to engage with Ursula K. Le Guin’s (1929 - 2018) approach to story-telling.
The science fiction author prefers fundamentally unheroic story-telling and presents feminist alternatives to the linear, violent narratives that dominate western thinking.
The exhibition reflects on artistic positions that are formed in relation to Le Guin’s 1986 essay ”The Carrier Bag Theory Of Fiction“. While the essay serves as conceptual base, the exhibition is accompanied by a publication in which participating authors and artists have responded to it.
Reflecting on the prehistoric Neolithic Age, Le Guin’s essay suggests that the earliest cultural invention may have been a container, not a weapon. What’s the use of hunting down animals or gathering edibles if you don’t have the means to carry them home and store them, Le Guin asks. Before humans invented tools like weapons that force energy outwards, they produced devices that enable to bring energy home, she suspects. Therefore, Le Guin sees herself as an adherent of what she calls ”The Carrier Bag Theory“ of human evolution.
This consideration leads her to distinguish two historically constituted modes of story-telling. Thinking of prehistoric subsistence, images of mammoth hunters come to mind, even though collecting plant-based edibles was the primary source of ensuring survival. If there was spare time to go hunting, what mattered in the face of returning was the story, not the meat. Tales of hunting mostly revolve around male, powerful protagonists while the ”shape of the narrative“ remains that of an arrow or spear. Le Guin rejects the notion of heroism portrayed by what she calls ”the killer story“, a mode of narrating that dominates our thinking.
Le Guin contrasts this with a second mode of story-telling that she sees more in alignment with feminist approaches. Considering what may have been the first cultural invention, she prefers ascribing heroic attributes to devices that function as containers instead of weapons. According to Le Guin we’ve already heard enough stories about sticks, spears and swords. Instead she feels an urgency to tell stories from the vantage point of gathering and collecting. The ”natural, proper, fitting shape of the novel might be that of a sack, a bag“. With regards to the genre of science fiction Le Guin suggests to avoid the linear, progressive, ”killing-arrow-mode“ of story-telling and trades it for ”The Carrier Bag Theory Of Fiction“ (1986).
Curated by Paula Heinrich, Marina Köstel and Evelyn Roh
Text by Marlene Coates
Pocket Crumbs
Publication
Publication
AdO/Aptive (Janina Weißengruber & Daniel Hüttler), Nouria Behloul, Linus Berg, Jana Dormann, Nola Fischer, Tamara Goehringer, Raha Golestani, Yeshin Lee, Julius Schwarzwälder, Catharina Szonn and Dafni Tokas
The publication „Pocket Crumbs“ was released with the exhibition of „Loops and Breakthroughs“. Writers and artists „were invited to engage with Ursula K. Le Guin’s (1929 - 2018) approach to story-telling. The science fiction author prefers fundamentally unheroic story-telling and presents feminist alternatives to the linear, violent narratives that dominate western thinking.“ -Marlene Coates
Proof reading by Paula Maß and Vivien C. Kämpf
Concept by Paula Heinrich, Marina Köstel and Evelyn Roh
Graphic design by Paula Heinrich
Write an e-mail if you are interested in a copy. Only a few left.
The publication „Pocket Crumbs“ was released with the exhibition of „Loops and Breakthroughs“. Writers and artists „were invited to engage with Ursula K. Le Guin’s (1929 - 2018) approach to story-telling. The science fiction author prefers fundamentally unheroic story-telling and presents feminist alternatives to the linear, violent narratives that dominate western thinking.“ -Marlene Coates
Proof reading by Paula Maß and Vivien C. Kämpf
Concept by Paula Heinrich, Marina Köstel and Evelyn Roh
Graphic design by Paula Heinrich
Write an e-mail if you are interested in a copy. Only a few left.