What material does an artist select, and for what reasons? The international group exhibition Living in the Material World examines the role of materials in contemporary art. It brings together important positions in contemporary art including - in Theaster Gates - a participant at dOCUMENTA (13) 2012 in Kassel, and contributors to the two most recent Venice Biennales in Lara Almarcegui, Karla Black, Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Oscar Tuazon.
The twelve artists invited to participate here focus on the characteristics and narrative potential of such diverse materials as fabric, concrete, wood, ceramics, glass, plastic or paper. While it was still important during the 1960s to assimilate random materials once considered alien to art into fine art at all, and so to oppose traditional material hierarchies and art-historical conventions, today the use of such an artistic repertoire is no longer a trigger of outrage. The materials being used here are familiar – in the exhibition space as well. The artistic focus is less on the discovery of new materials and more on a re-dedication of the familiar, giving it a novel function.

Lara Almárcegui - Michael Beutler - Karla Black - Berta Fischer - Theaster Gates - Ane Mette Hol - Jessica Jackson Hutchins - David Jablonowski - Markus Karstieß - Alicja Kwade - Marie Lund - Oscar Tuazon -
Curator Beate Ermacora -