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In Between

Place: Villa Schöningen, Potsdam

Date: -

Artists: Catherine Biocca, Ceal Floyer, Isabella Fürnkäs, Marius Glauer, Annabell Häfner, Martina Kügler, Marcellvs L., Karin Sander

Curated by: Sonia González & Pola van den Hövel (Curatorial Assistant)

Works: The Red Drawings, Insomnia Drawings

In the future, works from the Döpfner Collection are set to play a central role, but “In Between” breaks away from that for now: it’s the first exhibition curated by Sonia González at the venue in which none of the works come from Döpfner’s collection. For the first time, admission is free—“an experiment,” as González puts it. And visually, this is the most radical show, not just of the year, but possibly since the villa reopened as an art center in 2009.

At the center of “In Between” is not what’s on the walls, but the walls themselves. “In Between” explores architecture—with the help of art.

In 1843, Ludwig Persius designed the villa for Kurd Wolfgang von Schöning, chamberlain to Prince Carl of Prussia. It replaced a modest boatman’s house. Built in the style of an Italian villa, with sightlines to the palaces of Glienicke and Babelsberg. Curator González already picks up Persius' trail with the entrance: this time, visitors do not enter through the main lake-facing entrance, but through a relatively small side door—just as it would have been in Persius' day.

On the upper floors, a playful approach takes over. At first glance, the rooms appear empty. If anything hangs on the walls at all, it’s placed unusually—at knee height or high above, out of reach. Especially the “Red Drawings” by Isabella Fürnkäs. A medusa-like head appears in the stairwell, where the names of past exhibitors are listed: Billy Childish, Neo Rauch, Trulee Hall. Even this seemingly absurd way of hanging is driven by architectural thinking: one floor up, in the exact same spot—gazing majestically toward the lake—stands the bust of the Prince of Prussia.

Ceal Floyer also plays with the allure of the invisible and the sense of what’s to come in “Saw.” A towering saw appears to pierce through the parquet floor. A chalk circle indicates the cut line. Even knowing that the monster driving the saw exists only in your imagination, you still feel as though the ground is about to collapse beneath you.

- Text excerpt by Lena Schneider (Tagesspiegel)

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