World’s Rainbow—Graduation Exhibition

“World’s Rainbow.” What comes to your mind? Imagine a planet (ours or another) embraced by a ring of colors. The clouds that loop around the sphere have pastel colors and they playfully form figures. The winds caressing the oceans produce a calming sound, like an intimate whisper spoken to all animals and humans and plants. One can sense some microscopic life smiling at us. A safe space, a caring space, a joyful space, a trusting space, a common space. This is what this exhibition is. What do these artists have in common? They all graduated this summer. They all pursued their studies during these pandemic times. They all care immensely for each other and have managed to produce a response to a situation that demanded imagination and nerve in the form of an artwork. What was that situation? A health crisis, yes, but also the sense of a large transformation happening in the world of culture. We sense a shift, an end to some formats and forms of interactions, an end to a certain sense of relevance. But we also expect much more in terms of justice, impact, climate, responsibility, language, and care. Do we also experience precarity? We do.

The scarcity of resources and opportunities, the rise of complete control by capital, the indifference toward the impoverishment of the public sector, the segregation of the social… What should one expect in this exhibition, in this rainbow, in this world? Attentiveness. If there is a trait common to all the artworks offered here, it is a delicate approach to the processes that condition perception and touch. The possibility of presence emerges hand-in-hand in the exhibition with the responsibility toward life. The exhibition emerges as a place in which to exercise the senses while thinking about the role that art and artists play helps to maintain a sense of freedom. Freedom… The word is no scream, no code for further violence and bias, the idea is not ideologically presented to you. It is something you feel in your skin, you wish everyone would sense, keep, cherish, fight for even in a time when energy is so low. Oh! I forgot! The works are charged. Yes, they do emanate a force that bonds us to them, creating a flow inside the space that reminds us that a quality of young art is to believe in the continuation of the discipline and to find new forms for it. We should move into a new intersectional world. Artists of different generations having their studios in public schools, in hospitals, in elderly homes… every neighborhood possessing a small place to exhibit, artists-in-residency in myriad residences. Every mall, every supermarket, every garden should include artworks. We should populate the world with rainbows. It is not a fantasy but an antidote to stop the incrementation of the technocratic colonialism that is being superimposed on every process that claims to manage our public and private life. Make space for art, we need it.

We extend our gratitude to the Kunsthaus Baselland, its director Ines Goldbach, and her team for collaborating with us to host our graduation exhibition for the sixth time. We would also like to thank the entire team of the Art Institute for all their support, from conceptually guiding the students to realizing the exhibition.

—Claire Hoffmann and Chus Martínez