I LOVE CLARK, 2023
Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam, Germany
Solo Show

curated by Helene Romakin and Lea Schleiffenbaum

I LOVE CLARK

1989 was the year in which two cultures collided: Everyday life in the East and everyday life in the West, in the different materials and forms that shaped their respective lives. Looking back overlaps become apparent, especially in everyday objects whose design affinity is unmistakable: razors, kitchen mixers, and typewriters. While today the products of the Western world dominate the Eastern ones in public perception, the East was left with the memory of a world of objects. After the fall of the Wall, the Documentation Center of Everyday Culture of the GDR in Eisenhüttenstadt, now the Museum Utopia and Daily Life, began to collect objects from the GDR with the participation of citizens. Today, the collection contains more than 170,000 objects.


At the invitation of curators Helene Romakin and Lea Schleiffenbaum, the artists' collective U5 looked at the extensive collection. The aim was not to remeasure contemporary history but to provide new access to past realities through the morphology of objects and products. Morphology is interested in an object's form instead of its functional properties. How does the object speak to those who view or use it? What meanings does it carry?


Foto: Michael Lüder

Foto: Michael Lüder

Foto: Michael Lüder

Foto: Michael Lüder

With I love Clark, U5 embarks on a journey through associations and memories, where the overlay of realities and presences leaves room for new interpretations and interconnections. A slide box entitled "Images of Antarctica," in which the former Deutsche Zentralinstitut für Lehrmittel Berlin (German Central Institute for Teaching Materials) documented the Georg-Forster Antarctic Research Station established in 1976, forms a central starting point for U5. The station, located 15,000 km from home, continued to exist after the fall of the Berlin Wall and thus survived the state from which it was founded for several years.


In the exhibition, U5 mixes collection objects from the holdings of the Museum of Utopia and Daily Life with their miniatures, sculptures, ceramics, and non-German everyday objects. In this way, they detach the GDR objects from their historical classification. A new video work takes up the diverse narrative levels of the objects on display and describes their backgrounds. Last but not least, U5 thus poses questions about how old dialogues can be taken up differently, which stories are told and which are forgotten, and what remains of the yearnings of youth other than a scent, dripping candles, eggnog, and ozone records.


Foto: Michael Lüder

Foto: Michael Lüder

Foto: Michael Lüder

Helene Romakin is a cultural scientist, independent curator, and author. Currently, she is writing her doctoral thesis on the Anthropocene and storytelling at ETH Zurich.

Lea Schleiffenbaum is an art historian and independent curator. With a focus on projects in public space, she deals with collaborative processes, as well as the formulation of individual and collective desires and their reflection in contemporary art.

BKV Brandenburgischer Kunstverein
Potsdam e.V.
Ausstellungspavillon

auf der Freundschaftsinsel

14467 Potsdam

The exhibition is supported by the state capital of Potsdam, the Museum of Utopia and Daily Life, Beeskow and Eisenhüttenstadt, and ProHelvetia. We would also like to thank Gabriele Fritzsche from Casino Perfume Saxonia.