Sophie Utikal: Inbetween, 2020, Photo by️ Joanna Leggid
Wiktoria, Mobile Stones, 2021, Photo by Wiktoria Wojciechowska
Caline Aoun, Infinite Energy, Finite Time and Traces of Unseeable Excess, 2019, Photo by Mathias Schormann
Judith Hopf, Phone User, 2021, Photo by Ulrich Gebert/ Courtesy of the artist and Deborah Schamoni
Jeppe Hein, INHALE HOLD EXHALE, 2016, Photo by Studio Jeppe Hein/ Hendrik Hähner/ Courtesy KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, 303 Gallery, New York, and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
Martin Parr: New Brighton, England, 1983-85 © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
11 July - 5 October 2025
Opening: Thursday, 10 July, 7 pm
(K)eine Pause - Ausruhen im digitalen Zeitalter
((Not) a break – resting in the digital age)
Caline Aoun, Patrizio di Massimo, Jeppe Hein, Judith Hopf, Moritz Jekat, Anna Jermolaewa, Thomas Liu Le Lann, Martin Parr, Sophie Utikal, Bill Viola, Wiktoria
The exhibition deals with resting as a necessity and metaphor in a fast-paced world. There has long been an entire industry in the western world that revolves around resting in digital and analogue space. Resting is associated with work-life balance and functions as a means of self-optimisation. At the same time, it is a physiological and psychological necessity that is often denied to homeless people, refugees or precariously employed people, for example. The exhibition examines this topic using a broad range of artistic positions and a wide variety of media. At the same time, quiet spaces will be created in the Villa Merkel itself and a varied accompanying programme will be offered.
Moritz Jekat, Wetlands of Pharmacology, 2023, Videostill
Since February 2019
BELLE & APHRODITE
Augmented Reality
by Barbara Herold
In the app BELLE & APHRODITE for smartphone or tablet, it is possible to experience a walk-in audio-visual metamorphosis of virtual plants.
The 3D plant BELLE extends across the entire Merkelpark. As an interactive form-cloud, it leads visitors, on the basis of data regarding their location and movement, to a virtual rose at the centre of the park.
APHRODITE was designed for the skylit atrium. In recurrent audio-visual loops, the 3D installation develops into a Phalaenopsis, a familiar type of orchid. APHRODITE can be viewed from all perspectives and, in its overlapping of simulation space and actual space, plays with the experience of abstraction, proportional relationships, proximity and distance.
Barbara Herold (*1977) directs her attention to the shaping of reality through the media. She investigates structures and phenomena which have established themselves through the influence of media technology on society; she develops her own systems on the basis of prevalent design practices such as computation and algorithms. Her works arise in the dynamic field between analogue and digital technology.
Download App BELLE - APHRODITE
