Inside Outside
19.11.2021 – 08.01.2022

«The last time you went out the snow lay on the ground. You now on your back in the dark stand that morning on the sill having pulled the door gently to behind you. You lean back against the door with bowed head making ready to set out. By the time you open your eyes your feet have disappeared and the skirts of your greatcoat come to rest on the surface of the snow.»*

The occasion for this exhibition was an envelope that we received from France a few months ago. The sender did not give his name. The envelope contained 10 family photos, each pasted facedown with double-sided tape on white cardboards, and a small note with the following text:

«I have no talent for any artistic activity. Talent precedes the need to create. Without it, there is no satisfaction. Everything I started was abruptly stopped by the mediocrity of the draft and immediately destroyed, like a drawer that can only be opened from the inside. I recently attached the front of some old family photos to white cardboard with double-sided tape. Thus, only the pink paper remnants could be seen on the back of these photos. My mother detached them from two different albums and I inherited them after her death. These upturned photos are the sum of my failure. You will find them in this envelope.»

This exhibition asks about absence, replacement, withdrawal, longing, dispossession, and failure with 14 artists, 15 works, and the 10 white cardboards of this anonymous person. Each work is accompanied by a short text either by the artist or the curator, or borrowed from existing texts.

With works by: ANONYMOUS. MIMMO CATANIA. JOY DRURY COX. JACOB EL HANANI. RICHARD HAMILTON. ZORAN MUSIC. HARALD NAEGELI. EMMANUELLE RAPIN. FRANZ RIEDL. DIETER ROTH. SIMON SCHUBERT. BRIAN SMITH. PIERRE TAL COAT. JIŘÍ VALOCH.

* Extract from: Company by Samuel Beckett