Epiphany and Apophenia (curated by Wil Aballe), as part of the exhibition “What Remains”

The Kitchen
Auf der Höhe 12
CH 4144 Arlesheim
thekitchen(at)aufderhoehe.com
+41 61 703 70 50

“Butterfly Farm”, 2020, dyed silk painting by Jeff Hallbauer
“The Door”, 2020, cyanotype print by Dawn Nilo
“Untitled” 2017, wall painting by Patrick Müllerschön and Johannes Nilo
“Dot Drawings” 2020 by Johannes Nilo
Chair designed by Rudolf Steiner, 1911
Moss from Squamish collected by Dawn Nilo, placed in a Northwest Coast-designed tourist box and brought into Switzerland

“What Remains” combines artworks and artefacts from the daily life of Dawn and Johannes, with contributions from eighteen curators. Each has performed a “Curatorial Choreography” (either on site or via video conferencing) as a format for installing and creating new constellations of work. The performative process in space took place June 20–28 in Arlesheim Switzerland and the exhibition continues online through August 15, 2020, with additions and transformations in photography, remote performances, guided tours and emerging texts.

The exhibition structure is performative and process-oriented, chaotic and ordered at the same time, exploring what is possible in transition on the threshold between two new worlds – the old (that we have re-membered) and the becoming, as well as the physically present and the remotely transmitted. The end products of installations and new works allow well developed and formulated concepts to cross with open experiments. What remains is impossible to predict. Strong, decisive positions have no better or less a chance of survival than spontaneous impulses. A seemingly accidental pencil stroke or a dead bee can develop great charisma, a sculpture can be taken down to reveal the pedestal, a picture removed to expose the wall. It is an experiment in finding ways to honour the given work (the world as it was/is) while making room for the as yet unseen (the world as it can become).

Curatorial Choreography by Dawn Nilo:
1. Objects from the remains of life at The Kitchen Aufderhoehe, as well as artworks by Dawn and Johannes Nilo, will be left in the emptied apartment in various states of composition.
2. Each curator will bring an artwork, object, text or concept and, in collaboration with the artists, curate it as a part of an installation, with and in relation to the other objects. The result will be photographed and becomes a work that will be published online. The curator’s object will be returned at the end of the exhibition.
3. Each work may be either designated as fixed (so that it remains intact and in place “as is” throughout the exhibition) or fluid (so that it can be changed by other curators).

Curators:

Wil Aballe
Isabel Balzer
Jasper Bock
Ralph Bürgin
Peter Burleigh
Martin Chramosta
Sigrún Gunnarsdóttir
Bert Houbrechts
Sophie Jung
Irini Karayannopoulou
Aida Kidane
Chus Martinez
Patrick Müllerschön
Yolanda E. Natsch
Rahel Schrohe
Alex Silber
Yota Tsotra
Poka-Yio