NeuhausNeuhaus

Is a scientific 'discovery' not merely a question of learning to observe better? The presentation Matter consists of a series of installations that facilitate meetings between humans and matter.

Specially for Neuhaus, Matter is bringing various works by artist duo Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand together. In their installations, these artists facilitate unmediated, real-time meetings between humans and matter. Instead of using recording techniques or fixing natural phenomena in a medium, Domnitch and Gelfand facilitate ongoing experience of the phenomenon. By immersing themselves in a kind of observatory, visitors can experience close up things that people seldom experience in a conscious way. An appeal is made to a wider sensory repertoire and more intense observation. Science and rationality, or art and sensory awareness? This 'rendezvous' with matter makes it clear that this distinction is often small, and that matter is so much more than just latent material.

With thanks to Asmus Tietchens (sound Memory Vapour) and Francisco López (sound Aerobiome).

On 14 March 2019 Evelina Domnitch gave a lecture at Het Nieuwe Instituut.

Laboratory of Electronic Ageing (male grooming) is a contribution by multimedia artist Dani Ploeger, who, in his practice, researches contemporary consumer society - and in particular the eagerness with which new technology is constantly consumed - and tries to bring it into disarray. By using, abusing or even demolishing run-of-the-mill household appliances in alternative ways, Ploeger reveals their unexpected physical (material) beauty and political potential.

In this specific project, he examines the material nature of high-tech shavers. These are praised and sold at trade fairs as the pinnacle of innovation, but the tests they are subjected to in this laboratory setup make it clear where they really begin and end: before it was cast in the form of the newest gadget, it was already matter, and long after it lost its function, it will remain so.