The exhibition, “…AND QUIETLY THE NIGHT ARRIVES.”, presents twelve international artists exploring perspectives on the aesthetics of darkness, melancholy, mythology, and imagination. In a symbolic and surreal way, the night serves as a metaphor where ordinary modes of perception are disrupted and hidden aspects of existence are revealed. As described by Jean-Luc Nancy in his book The Ground of the Image, the nocturnal is the space where forms slip their anchorages and, to a certain extent, become invisible. In this realm, the impossibility of seeing coincides with the possibility of imagining, and our perceptions are challenged to open up to alternative ways of thinking and understanding.
With the imagination unleashed and the boundaries of reality blurred, these artists delve into the depths of thoughts, dreams, the sub-conscious, and memories through various strategies of creation, re-contextualization, manipulation, and appropriation. By employing rich resources of interest, a strong pictorial sense and a high level of craftsmanship, they challenge well-defined truths, and emphasize the value of creating new contexts and identities.
Through their thought-provoking and visually captivating artwork they explore the intriguing interplay between fantasy and reality, the conscious and subconscious, past and present, authenticity and imitation, as well as the ever-shifting boundaries of identity. Poetically, yet powerfully, they shine light into humanity’s mysterious and obscure corners, with the themes of prevailing power structures, social inequality, and the complex relationship between humans, history, and nature.
The ephemeral and intense situations portray figures in an odd space continuum that is seemingly out of linear and passing time. They wander without clear storylines, meanings, or directions, reflecting the contradictory moods in society, and feelings of estrangement, vulnerability, and melancholy. Such feelings are described by Theodor Adorno in Minima Moralia as a response to the contradictions and injustices inherent in the social order. The impact of the capitalist structure and bureaucratic systems can be sensed in the mourning for the loss of genuine human connection, the suppression of creativity, and the loss of individuality in the face of a homogenizing culture. Along these lines, artists unravel an intricate connection between a deeply individual experience and the societal forces of life.
The artwork presented in this exhibition sparks curiosity, thereby enlivening the imagination, jumpstarting critical thinking, and creating departures from the familiar, the conventional, the known. The artists open up a captivating space where the symbolic of night allows us to escape from the confines of the everyday and explore its deepest creative and transformational potential. They reveal the hidden aspects of existence that appear in the darkness, and challenge us to look beyond the easily visible surface. In this intensity and immediacy, a gap is created, where known reality collapses, and new possibilities emerge.