Ridiculously Yours! – Intro 

One of the most important attitudes or feelings underlying modern and contemporary art is enthusiastic awkwardness. In modernism since the 19th century in general and the classical avant-gardes of the early 20th century in particular, a very specific dialectic is at work: on the one hand, bold innovations, radical negation and aesthetic dogmas — but on the other, a certain kind of laughter that formed the basis for the creation of this exhibition. It is a laughter that is fun and at the same time — without only wanting to scandalise — undermines all conservatism, bigotry, moral concepts and not least avant-garde dogmatisms. By opposing the use of culture to intimidate, to secure unearned privileges, this laughter shows how authority loses its grip, how the pompous gesture and the image of the hero are invalidated.


Enthusiastic awkwardness, or clumsiness, has been at the base of much art production up through the present and going back at least well into the 19th century, and arguably much further into history: we find it in literature (from Aristophanes through Villon, Rabelais to Cervantes, Swift and Voltaire); in the reversal rituals of Carnival since the Middle Ages (where social roles are inverted — or even suspended — and mocked for a short period of celebration); occasionally, in early modern art (as in the works of Hieronymus Bosch, and especially those of Pieter Bruegel the Elder); and in the rise of modern caricature and satirical cartoons.


Ridiculously Yours! gives importance to experimentation and active, undogmatic communication not only in the works, but in the structure of the entire project. In that sense, as an aesthetic practice, the show implies a conscious form of intuition that takes the risk of ambivalence of meaning, of misunderstanding. A philosophy that tickles the intellectual mind but opposes formalist intellectualism.


The exhibition will bring together challenging works encompassing a multitude of artistic strategies, ranging from historic/​modernist works to new productions. These works, together with a collection of artefacts will be immersed in unorthodox ways within a specific environment. Following the logic of a B‑movie storyboard, the exhibition itself is conceived to be like a walk-through movie, with an opening scene, followed by different ​“acts” and ​“plot points.” In terms of display, the main idea is to create an environment that will ultimately guide the viewer through routes containing six different chapters of our main narrative.


This exhibition project was initiated and conceived by Jörg Heiser and Cristina Ricupero.