Down to Earth Tomás Saraceno is an Argentinian architect, performance and installation artist. He lives and works in Berlin. His practice moves toward the entanglement of diverse threads of thought, including art, life science and the social sciences. Enmeshed at the junction of these worlds, his floating sculptures, community projects and interactive installations propose and explore new, sustainable ways of inhabiting and sensing the environment, especially our atmosphere. His profound interest in spiders and their webs led to the formation of the Arachnophilia team at his studio: With an emphasis on collaborative interaction he also became the first person to scan, reconstruct and reimagine spiders’ weaved spatial habitats, and possesses the only three-dimensional spider web collection in existence. In the Gropius Bau, Saraceno orchestrates the existing cobwebs with the help of rays of light entering the room. Protected from pesticides and saved from extinction, the spiders occupied the rooms in the building long before the exhibition was set up. The cobwebs are their homes and we are their guests – just as we are guests of the planet. The webbings, which become visible through daylight, invite us to think about sympoietic futures and to sharpen our view of how living and non-living entities are connected.
Tino Tino Sehgal wurde in London geboren und studierte VolkswirtSehgal schaftslehre sowie Tanz in Berlin und Essen. Seit 20 Jahren realisiert er seine Arbeiten weltweit auf Kunstbiennalen und in namhaften Museen. Nach seiner Einzelausstellung im Gropius Bau 2015 wird Tino Sehgal im Rahmen von „Down to Earth“ ein weiteres Mal „This Situation“ als Teil des Ausstellungsparcours präsentieren. Als Werke der bildenden Kunst existieren Sehgals Arbeiten im Raum und permanent. Die bewegten, sprechenden Körper und ihre Verlangsamung schließen die Besucher*innen in die Situation ein und stellen die konventionelle Beziehung zwischen Objekt, Subjekt und Ausstellung in Frage. In „This Situation“ konstruiert Sehgal Begegnungen zwischen den Menschen in einer Kulturinstitution – und gibt den Besucher*innen die Möglichkeit, mit seinen Interpret*innen über gesellschaftliche Themen wie Ökonomie und Ökologie in Austausch zu treten. Die Institution der Zukunft wird auf diese Weise zum Begegnungsort, Tageslicht löst den White Cube auf. Welcome to this Situation. Tino Sehgal was born in London and studied Economics and Dance in Berlin und Essen. For 20 years he has been producing his work worldwide at art biennials and prestigious museums. Following his solo exhibition at the Gropius Bau in 2015 Tino Sehgal will present “This Situation” once again as part of a walk-through exhibition in “Down to Earth”. As fine art works, Sehgal’s pieces exist in space and are permanent. The animated, speaking bodies and their deceleration include the visitors in a situation while challenging the conventional relationship between object, subject and exhibition. In “This Situation” Sehgal constructs encounters between people in a cultural institution – and gives visitors the chance to enter an exchange with his performers on social themes 40
