Deep Deep Down

Curators: Shirana Shahbazi and Tirdad Zolghadr. In collaboration with Manuel Krebs.

Collections are only exhibited to a small extent. Much of the art rarely sees the light of day. What if we rendered more obvious a collection’s natural state of being instead? Not to mourn its life in the shadows but to make it understandable and sensational. In every sense of the term. To do so, one would use quantitative criteria instead of thematic or formal ones. One would also embrace the backstage tools—crates, Excel files, jpegs, backstage devices—as clearly visible parts of the curatorial process. This in an attempt to turn a public collection into something you can grasp intellectually and physically. In short, we decided to exhibit as much of the collection as possible.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean we had free reign. Resources are obviously limited. And simply cramming the rooms with art is a more biased affair than finding clear parameters, step by step. Which is why we proposed the below criteria. 

–First of all, we retained only one work per artist; the one that appears first in the indexical listing. We then excluded work with hanging instructions (e.g. frames or specific lighting) or unclear documentation. 
–From the remaining items, we began with the smallest, thereby producing a Paranuss-Effekt: smaller elements separate from larger ones to create a new visual arrangement almost of their own accord. 
–The smallest of the remaining two-dimensional items are displayed in the East Gallery. More two-dimensional works are displayed in alphabetical order (by artist surname) in the West Gallery. Sculptural work—again beginning with the smallest—is also displayed in the West Gallery. The remaining audiovisual work—beginning with the shortest—is projected in the Auditorium.
–As much of the remaining items as possible are exhibited within crates. These are entrusted with an aesthetic function beyond a strictly protective one. In some cases, the crates tell stories of travel, and wear and tear. With their help we create a scenography that serves as a stage for discussion, programming and more. 

Shirana Shahbazi first studied photography at the Fachhochschule, Dortmund before joining the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zürich. Her work has been the subject of monographic exhibitions in numerous institutions, notably Kunsthaus Hamburg (2018); Instituto Svizzero, Milan (2018); Museum Fotogalleriet, Oslo (2017); KINDL, Berlin (2017), and Kunsthalle Bern (2014). In 2005, she participated in the 51st Venice Biennial. Her work is part of the collections of Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Museum, New York; MoMA, New York, and Migros Museum, Zürich, among others. In 2019, Shahbazi was awarded the Meret Oppenheim Prize. She lives and works in Zürich.

Tirdad Zolghadr is a curator and writer. He teaches at the Graduate School, University of the Arts Berlin. His writing includes fiction as well as publications based on extensive curatorial research, such as REALTY: Beyond the Traditional Blueprints of Art & Gentrification (Hatje Cantz, 2022). Recent curatorial work includes an associate curatorship at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2017-20), but also biennals, as well as long-term collective initiatives.


Programme

Deeper Down
June 30, 11am
An introduction to the exhibition Deep Deep Down, including guest curators Tirdad Zolghadr and Shirana Shahbazi, but also collaborators Manuel Krebs, Marie-Noëlle Farcy and Vanessa Lecomte, curators of Mudam collection, followed by contributions by Bassam El Baroni and Suhail Malik. What are the institutional politics at play? What does the experiment reveal about curating-at-large in today’s context? The event will also address options of curation beyond traditional premises such as heritage or quality. As we look for institutional precedents, we also look to speculative scenarios for the near future. 

The Effect of the Paranuss-Effekt: Man Ray, Edward Steichen
June 30, 2–3:30pm 
In keeping with the spirit of Deep Deep Down, a proposition that avoids a theme to the benefit of numeric and logistical parameters, Tirdad Zolghadr and Emmanuelle de l’Écotais will lead a roundtable conversation on the smallest exhibited artwork on display: Man Ray’s portrait of Edward Steichen. The roundtable will include a contribution by de L’Écotais on the photography of Man Ray as well as a contribution by Zolghadr on his research as co-curator of the 2011 conference The Human Snapshot, which addressed Steichen’s seminal exhibition The Family of Man.