Destructions, emotions - works of art: students from the Institute of Art and Visual Culture investigated the aesthetic quality of deformations. Their works can now be seen in the "deconstruction circus" exhibition in Oldenburg. An interview with Kim Triebe and Alina Edelmann.
QUESTION: What do you find fascinating about the process of destruction?
EDELMANN: Even planned destruction is never exactly predictable - unexpected things can happen, and it is precisely this unpredictability that creates a completely new, fascinating image. The fact that nothing is as it was, combined with the search for the aesthetic in destruction, leaves its mark. Every time we have destroyed something, we have crossed an invisible boundary that we found particularly appealing.
QUESTION: What role do emotions play? Don't you have to be angry to destroy something?
TRIEBE: Anger and destruction are often the reason for deconstruction, but they are by no means necessary. Above all, we learnt to be courageous and to push our own boundaries, because sometimes there was a reluctance or even fear to destroy something. But we also had a lot of fun.
QUESTION: Is it possible to destroy something particularly "good" or "beautiful"?
EDELMANN: Good and beautiful is always subjective. But of course, destruction and its results can be very aesthetic. For us, there was an aesthetic, sophisticated image in our minds before the destruction...and after the destruction as well.
QUESTION:All the students involved designed exhibition objects. What were you guided by?
TRIEBE: We orientated ourselves on our own unwillingness, our own interests and our own curiosity. In other words, we also dared to do things that we actually disliked. But we also drew our inspiration from the deconstructing process itself, its images, its results and its traces.
QUESTION: Who are your artistic role models in this area?
EDELMANN: The Fluxus art movement, artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle, Gustav Metzger, Alain Badiou, Asger Jorn, Timm Ulrichs, John Chamberlain and Yoko Ono.
QUESTION: What things were destroyed? Were there any favourites, or are there things that you would never destroy?
TRIEBE:We have deconstructed very different things: From an upholstered chair to clothes, food and even our own bodies. With the body, it wasn't about destruction but about transforming the body, for example with the help of clothing or lettering written on the back. Destroying things with personal or financial value would certainly have a special appeal, but we deliberately left the value of the things out of the equation.
Exhibition "deconstruction circus": 24 June to 4 July at Ullmann-Haus Oldenburg (Lange Straße 91
Opening hours: 25, 27, 28, 29, June, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. each day, 1, 2, 4, July, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. each day.
