Revolte

The world changed drastically last year after Brexit and Trump's election, all while the Syrian conflict continues to escalate. In these bleak times the question of artistic political commitment urgently resurfaced. But, can art alone change the world? Arguably, the answer is no. And yet contemporary artists are not shying away from their deep ambivalence about our socio-economic situation.

Six extraordinary artists come together for EIGEN & ART's 2017 summer group show—Revolt—to explore the ambivalent and ambiguous relationship between aesthetics and social reality, power and democracy. These artists—Birgit Brenner, Stef Heidhues, Christine Hill, Lada Nakonechna, Ricarda Roggan and, the only men among them, Jörg Herold—refuse to drown in despair while recognizing disempowerment. Through their works, these artists navigate the problem of sustaining a critical moment of aesthetic experience without legitimising mass culture, mass production—or its supposed opposite—art for its own sake. Their shared medium is ambivalence.