How To Live Together

How to live together? It’s a question that concerns every one of us: it affects our daily lives and the elaborate social, economic, and political developments that currently define them.

Old structures are disintegrating, perspectives on the past are changing, and new models for social relations are evolving. The alleged freedoms that people have to direct their own lives are determined by their position within societal structures. The fact that the individual is based on social constructions of realities—as well as the societal conditions of communal lives—is proof of the potential of individual actions.

How To Live Together approaches the subject of coexistence by looking at individual, personal circumstances, in addition to considering it as a structural category. In this light, art can be viewed to function as a medium that reproduces images of society throughout time, offering realms for reflection on lived experience. Individual stories ranging from different historical contexts form the focus, revealing the ordinary within the extraordinary, expressing the otherwise inexpressible.

Drawing from highly personal experiences, many of the positions portray inclusion, racism and exclusion, as well as solidarity and participation. In the same instance, diverse social conditions are explored, highlighting the transformations taking place between private and political spheres, stagnant and accelerated contemporary circumstances, social realities and utopian ideals. The variety of living environments presented show how society is more than the sum of its individuals.  

What does political representation mean today? To what extent do private and public life coincide? In what way are society and the individual mutually dependant, and which mechanisms play a role in this context? The ideas developed in How To Live Together link the past, the present, and the future, and pave the way for a united configuration of social coexistence.

The architectural design the Studio Miessen developed for How To Live Together also refers to a society between erosion and emergence. The allusions to ancient meeting places as well as modern building sites symbolise the necessity to rethink the realms of democracy. In this context, the Community College plays an important role as an active place of exchange. Occupying a central location, the Community College functions as a participatory platform that explores structures of learning and education, knowledge transfer and the implications politics of affects have for our society.

Artists: Bas Jan Ader, Kader Attia, Sven Augustijnen, Tina Barney, Cana Bilir-Meier, Ayzit Bostan, Mohamed Bourouissa, Kasper De Vos, Ieva Epnere, Aslan Gaisumov, Gelitin, Liam Gillick, Paul Graham, Johan Grimonprez, Binelde Hyrcan, Leon Kahane, Herlinde Koelbl, Armin Linke, Goshka Macuga, Taus Makhacheva, Pedro Moraes, Sarah Morris, Adam Pendleton, Yvonne Rainer, Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, Willem de Rooij, August Sander, Ritu Sarin / Tenzing Sonam, Augustas Serapinas, Jeremy Shaw, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel

Exhibition architecture: Studio Miessen

Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen
Curatorial assistant: Juliane Bischoff

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