The Human Senses
Perception in Contemporary Art
14 July to 21 October 2012
What sort of smell does art have, how does it taste, sound, and feel? We followed established accepted codes of behavior, especially in museum exhibition space, for viewing – and in the meantime also for listening to art. But they are inadequate if we wish to extend our experience of art to the senses of smell, taste, or touch.
The works of art in the Kunsthalle zu Kiel’s special exhibition occupied, to an extent, entire museum rooms. They all engaged with our faculties in a way so that we could consciously experience them. The exhibition addressed issues such as the role our body navigation systems play in contemporary art, to what extent does sensual experience have an independent artistic value, and whether its value goes beyond hedonistic experience. The show also investigated our sixth sense, subconscious perception, and the 12 senses of anthroposophy.
Erik Kessels' spectacular installation intentionally seeked to overwhelm the viewer. Kessels had downloaded around one million images that are freely accessible to the public on the internet platform flickr and literally shovelled heaps of many thousands of these pictures into the exhibition space. Visitors were made to wade through literally piles of photographic prints. Thus in 24 hrs in photos, the artist depicted how private and public spheres have become interlinked, and we were able to palpably experience the inexhaustible spate of images of our times. Heribert Friedl painted an installation on the wall that targeted our olfactory receptors. Most people didn’t even espy the artwork, but they all could distinctly smell it. Addressing our olfactory senses, Forest (Klein Elmeloo) conjured up the countryside and the flora of the site where the Kunsthalle now stands. Sonja Alhäuser's installation Ausschnitt (Slice), which was realized especially for the exhibition, was made up of edible sweets such as marzipan and chocolate. The artist enticed Kunsthalle visitors to destroy the artwork, despite its museum framework, by literally and directly digesting it, bit by bit. Via Lewandowsky too deviated from accepted and standard museum situations: In an empty room we experience no more than the buzzing of a fly. The purely acoustic perception of movement in space incited the audience to draw on the powers of the imagination. In contrast, Vadim Fishkin adressed the public very directly in his installation Snow_Show.
Besides entire-room installations, the exhibition also showed painted panels, objects, and video installations – including works by Carsten Nicolai, Tim Eitel, Louise Bourgeois, and Bill Viola. All the artworks in the exhibition could be comprehended both sensually and intellectually. This was due to the fact that every faculty that was addressed directly triggers associations that involve other senses as well.
A catalogue had been published in conjunction with the exhibition.