Ich weiß schon längst nicht mehr, was relevant ist oder nicht

The idea behind the exhibition "I no longer know what is relevant or not" was to highlight that alongside the endless stream of information processed by our digital devices, we are also surrounded by an abundance of material objects. We have become a society driven by addiction. On average, each of us has 8,000 to 10,000 things at home. A century ago, the average European household contained around 180 items. During the summer preceding the exhibition, as part of the "Calle Libre" festival, I created a mural where I painted the phrase "Positive Society of Constant Comparison" hundreds of times, resulting in a massive building facade (meters long and 4 meters high). The repetition of these words symbolizes the thousands of pieces of information that our digital devices process daily. We have long lost track of what is relevant or not. In front of this wall, artist Katharina Kawalle performed, resulting in a one-hour video that became the starting point of the exhibition. According to the philosopher Byung-Chul Han, the Positive Society is characterized by constant pressure for positive thinking and comparison, denying the concept of death. He refers to this as the "tyranny of the positive." Similarly, our purchasing behavior reflects this pattern. We often buy as a form of self-reward, without truly valuing the objects. Uncontrolled consumption leads to a culture of waste and excess, which can undermine human well-being and social cohesion. In response to these themes, I experimented with assemblages for the first time, collecting objects both from people's homes and through online orders from the vast and absurd product range of the World Wide Web. For instance, in the piece "Kathi Power," I gathered hundreds of objects from artist Katharina Kawalle's apartment over three days, creating a portrait of her through these items. This process revealed our tendency to accumulate unnecessary possessions. Another pillar of the exhibition is an installation featuring 1000 plush toys, representing the first emotionally charged objects of childhood and our entry into a society driven by addiction and waste. I decapitated these toys to better fit them into jars, symbolizing both a form of liberation and the societal paradox of cleanliness and excess. Overall, the exhibition prompts viewers to contemplate the consequences of our consumerist culture, inviting them to delve deeper into the search for meaning in a world overwhelmed by material possessions and digital information.