Power to the People
Group show featuring Julius von Bismarck

Democ­racy appears to be in crisis; the post-demo­c­ratic era has already dawned. The symp­toms are mani­fold: populist leaders, fake news, auto­cratic back­lash, total­i­tarian propa­ganda, neolib­er­alism. However, tenden­cies toward a repoliti­cized society have been palpable for some time now. Artists too are increas­ingly raising objec­tions. They create works that they see as instru­ments of crit­i­cism and which expressly pursue polit­ical inten­tions. In a major exhi­bi­tion, the SCHIRN brings together artistic posi­tions which can be read as seis­mo­graphs of contem­po­rary polit­ical activity. It focuses on funda­mental issues and the exam­i­na­tion of the phenomena and possi­bil­i­ties of polit­ical partic­i­pa­tion. The works call polit­ical posi­tions into ques­tion, illus­trate forms of protest, and set their sights on artistic involve­ment. Instal­la­tions, photographs, videos, paint­ings and sculp­tures by Phyl­lida Barlow, Andrea Bowers, Julius von Bismarck, Sam Durant, Omer Fast, Adelita Husni-Bey, Hiwa K, Ahmet Öğüt, Rirkrit Tira­vanija and Forensic Archi­tec­ture docu­ment the erosion of demo­c­ratic achieve­ments and the active pres­sure of the new mass move­ments. They analyze discourses on domi­nance and noncon­formist inter­jec­tions, develop strate­gies of oppo­si­tion, and reflect the imag­i­na­tive ways of the new protest culture.