Every Romance Is a Repair

Isabel Lewis, Dirk Bell

22.6.–1.9.2024

In Repair (2023) is a continuation of the spatial strategies and concepts that Bell and Lewis (who are partners in life as well as art) have developed in previous exhibitions and works. This new installation articulates their shared interest in aesthetic gestures that address the body and all its senses, while also referring to the enactment of situations within the already enacted area of an exhibition. The performance Total Romance: Partial Repair plays with strategies of presentation and representation and proposes alternative ways of exploring spaces, architecture, the self, and community. The origins of European humanism and alternative concepts of the human are addressed here. Lewis and Bell look at the aesthetic techniques of the Baroque and they deconstruct, heighten, and critically investigate its subversive potential and its limits.

Beginning with the attraction that strategies and techniques of ornamentalism have for Baroque theater stages and their fantastic scenography, Bell and Lewis have developed a number of painted mobile canvases. Instead of taking up one privileged perspective, these canvases, as paintings that have neither a front nor a reverse side, offer several different views, while also constantly playing with light, transparency, and the acts of concealing and revealing. These mobile walls are porous membranes that flirt with the architecture and the space they are in and that invite visitors to participate actively instead of distancing and isolating them. These so-called Screens are a means to create spatial solutions, irrespective of whether this is in the context of exhibitions, theaters, or other situations. The artists see them as ​“hosts” sharing something with the ​“audience” via the situations they create on many different levels, while also often making that audience part of the work.

Dominican-American choreographer and artist Isabel Lewis trained in dance, literary criticism, and philosophy. She works on the aesthetics of experience and creates spaces for encounters between human and non-human protagonists. Lewis sees a radical potential in taking time, collecting oneself, exchanging physical experiences and knowledge, and intensively exploring oneself, others, and our built environments. Her works unfold a dramaturgy that adapts to dynamic live situations and that can be seen as a format for contemporary forms of storytelling. She sees herself as a host and her audience as the guests.

Exploring the medium of painting, artist Dirk Bell came to a degree to abandon the medium in its habitual manifestations and to address it via other artistic means. The result is impressive works with high levels of craftsmanship and also frequently suggestive and fantastic qualities, bringing together very different elements such as drawing, objects, and installations. This ultimately leads to exhibition situations that have a very marked performative character.

This project can be seen as a continuation and further development of the performance series Give Rise To… and it endeavors to very actively and specifically address questions concerning the archiving and temporality of performance.

Curator: Jan Tappe