In This Layered World, All Perception Is Real

With its new digital exhibition platform, In This Layered World, All Perception Is Real, the Kunstverein Bielefeld has established a new format for online exhibition. In collaboration with the I: project space in Beijing, the online platform will display international artists whose work addresses the contemporary significance of digital image production. Beginning on May 15, 2020, at 7 pm, the platform will host a weekly series featuring the works of Gottfried Jäger (b. 1937 in Burg, lives and works in Bielefeld), Shuang Li (b. 1990 in Wuyishan, China, lives and works in Yiwu, China), Lin Ke (b. 1984 in Wenzhou, China, lives and works in Hangzhou and Shanghai, China), Rachele Maistrello (b. 1986 in Vittorio Veneto, Italien), Sarah Ortmeyer (b. 1980 in Frankfurt am Main) and Pete Jiadong Qiang (b. 1991 in Xingping, China, lives and works in London).

In the contemporary world, it is no longer possible to assess images solely by technical, material or traditional art-historical criteria. Digital images are code and form at one and the same time. They circulate within modifiable dataset configurations and are subject to fundamentally altered modes of production and reception. Within this context, In This Layered World, All Perception Is Real addresses the experience which goes along with this entanglement of real and virtual, material and imaginary, physical and mental. The invited artists tap the expressive potential of our changing reality, mapping its new image worlds while abandoning any claims to realness, authenticity or originality.

The new online project is closely associated with Digital Media and Experiment, a course offered by the Fachhochschule Bielefeld, the city’s University of Applied Sciences. Taking the conditions of online space as their starting point, students develop their own contributions to the platform.