PROJECT INFO

We are pleased to present our upcoming project, a collaboration with the artist collective Law of Life (LoL). Under the title “CCCCCOMA Concierge”, we have invited the artists for a two month residency in a former gatehourse on Campus Esche in Berlin-Westend. Situated on former psychiatric grounds, the property is now used as a home for refugees and hosts several social projects like the Ulme35, a café and meeting point for residents and visitors.

The project includes workshops with residents on the Campus, an exhibition in and around the gatehouse and a live stream video performance by Klaubert & Kussatz, which has its premiere after the exhibition opening. The main exhibition by the collective will open under the title “echoes remain forever”. It is part of the Testival, a cooperative urban development project on Campus Esche.

CCCCCOMA CONCIERGE. ECHOES REMAIN FOREVER

Under the title “echoes remain forever” Law of Life (LoL) have transformed the former gatehouse into a house of artistic dialogue. The original use of the space as a gatehouse (in French the gatekeeper or guard building of a castle was called a conciergerie) is rethought and broken up. While in the original sense a concierge monitors incoming and outgoing people or the movement of goods in an often secured building that is only accessible to private or certain groups of people, we are trying to make the space and the world within it accessible to everyone.

In their cross-media exhibition, Law of Life (LoL) refer to the past of the history-heavy site of the former psychiatric hospital and connect it to the present time and their own mental states. The exhibition focuses on aspects such as perception, shift in reality, dreams and trauma as well as the concept of memory and its symbols. Questions about how to deal with loss and its effects play just as much a role as the potential of good memories to generate new strength in difficult times.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Law of Life (LoL) is an artist* collective which is currently based in Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig. Founded in 2018, the aim has been to create collective paths and structures for young artists  to support each other.  Therefore crosslinking and building sustainable networks through initiating a close dialogue between artists, curators and cultural workers is a crucial part of their practice.

Their first project dealt with the topic of Resistance and was shown in three successive exhibitions. These took place from 2019 to 2020 at Vunu Gallery in Kosice (SK), Frappant Gallery in Hamburg and the Center for Contemporary Art in Berlin.

LoL is interested in situations of instability and topics such as the question of visibility and perspectives, narratives of “othering” and therefore structures of gender and communication as well as the interplay of body and institution.

Currently the collective consists of the following members: Julia Lübbecke, Rahel grote Lambers, Alexander Klaubert and Francis Kussatz. They have invited Xiaofu Wang as a speciual guest for this project. Wang is a Berlin based photographer, who currently studies at Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie. Using both documentary and conceptual practice, her work explores the visible and hidden aspects of people, objects, and places.