raumlaborberlin

„Connected Alienation“ explores various aspects of working collaboratively in pandemic times. The exhibit highlights the limits of digital togetherness, and the loneliness that can arise when virtual experiences and spaces suddenly replace in-person contact and shared physical experience. The telematic tools that mediate this online togetherness, which are rarely noticed or placed centre stage, occasionally shine through the works.

For the exhibition raumlabor created a simple and minimalist scenography from reinforced cardboard and wooden laths. The method of construction is kept as elementary as possible to ensure that the material can be reused once the exhibit is dismantled.

The exhibition is reopening after a two-year covid break. This year the approach to the scenography is more simple and minimalistic. The materials used will be mainly limited to reinforced cardboard and wooden laths. The method of construction will be as elementary as possible to ensure that the material can be reused once the exhibit is dismantled again.

Through a few built structures, a number of narrow corridors are created, which generate new ways of moving through the gallery. The strongly illuminated passageways fit just one individual, giving the visitor an experience of solitude and a visual distance when entering the long corridors. Simultaneously, the thin cardboard walls make the structure seem lightweight and since sounds easily penetrate the material, the connection to the outside remains and it always seems close from within the corridors. Each corridor has its own features and qualities defined by color, light and patterns, yet remains part of an overall typography.

Most of the artistic content of the exhibition this year is video and sound. The surfaces for projections are placed centrally in each room, dividing the room into a front and back space. Behind the main projection, in the back space, there is a secondary projection. Through this the scenography encourages exploration of the concealed spaces in the exhibition.

For raumlaborberlin the CTM festival traditionally starts off the year. The opening exhibition of the CTM has taken place annually, with a few exceptions since 2013. For a short period each year, the Kunstraum Bethanien undergoes a radical transformation, the result of intensive days of building and planning. Each year has been a practice in creating a visually and spatially playful scenography that corresponds to the vision of the CTM festival. A close collaboration within a dynamic team of volunteers, technicians, graphic designers, builders, painters, producers and artists is key for setting up the opening exhibition of CTM.

with works by: Ale Hop, Ali Eslami & Mamali Shafahi, Dana Gingras / Animals of Distinction, Hugo Esquinca, Ibrahim Quraishi