"THE END OF SOMETHING"

Clemens Wilhelm

“THE END OF SOMETHING”

09.-24.11.23

Solo Exhibition at Galeria Skala Poznan

Opening: 09. November 2023, 6 pm

Galeria Skala Poznan presents the solo show “THE END OF SOMETHING” by Clemens Wilhelm. The show features an installation of the video of the same title, accompanied by two video screening events.

“YOU CHILDREN WILL LEARN TO LIVE THERE”

10. Nov 2023 | 7 pm

VIDEO SCREENING PROGRAM
50 min

with works by

John Butler
Ale Bachlechner
Juliane Henrich
Nicolás Rupcich

presented by Clemens Wilhelm

How to raise your children to inhabit a world that will look radically different from what you know? Should you embrace technology, and apply the logic of data mining to your own self? How much self-reflection and how much sharing is still healthy? How do the algorithms of big internet corporations steer your wants and needs, and how did we come to this new form of digital existence in the last decades? How do you argue with nature in the face of the climate catastrophe, or are we just doomed? At which point should you stop calling it a crisis and start calling it a collapse?

This video program brings together four artists who think deeply about these issues and address these questions, and many more. A sense of uncanny premonitions and impending doom runs through these works. The grasp of technology on our lives and the effects of data extraction tools become tangible.
The concepts of the private and the public have severely shifted. Where does my “self” end and where does “the outside” start? Are we a part of “nature”, or are we opposed to it and want to exist removed from it?
Is the extinction of humans inevitable if we keep destroying our habitable zone on this planet? Is data the new oil? Am I a mine? Is technology the “death of mankind” or is it our “only hope” for survival?

We may not find out the answers but – as the uncanny narrator of John Butler’s “Children of the Null” reminds us – “you children will learn to live there”.

“Clemens Wilhelm: THE TOURIST & THE LOSS OF THE REAL”

16. Nov 2023 | 7 pm

VIDEO SCREENING (61 min) + TALK
 with Clemens Wilhelm & Kris Lukomski

about Clemens Wilhelm’s 4 videos:

THE TOURIST
4 min
Iceland
2011

A white naked man in the vast landscapes of Iceland. An ambiguous symbolic action somewhere between romanticism, tourism, fetishism, performance art and pornography: a man uniting with nature. The visual language of porno clashes with National Geographic and Caspar David Friedrich. Absurdity in the face of beauty.

CONTACT
15 min
Czech Republic
2014

A man and a woman meet in real life after meeting online. They get close to each other but the contact is quite unreal. Substitutes replace the “real thing” in the name of security. A computer camera watches the scene. All they can talk about is the beauty of Prague.

SIMULACRA
32 min
China
2015

SIMULACRA was shot in the “Window of the World” Entertainment Park in Shenzhen (China) which presents 140 copies of the world’s most famous tourist attractions. A tour through the park simulates a journey around the world: the Gizeh Pyramids, Stonehenge, San Marco, the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls, the Taj Mahal, Mount Fuji, etc. However, all of them are dwarfed by the replica of the Eiffel Tower. What do these iconic buildings mean when they are taken out of their original contexts?

THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED MAN IN BERLIN
10 min excerpt | Original 50 min
Berlin
2016

In 2014, Clemens Wilhelm attempted to become a Berlin tourist attraction. He sat in front of the Berlin Wall for four hours every day for two month, holding a sign that said: THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED MAN IN BERLIN. After 1000 photos of him had been posted on Facebook, the performance ended. During the performance more than 10.000 photos were taken, more than 250.000 people saw the performance on Facebook.