Stretching Materialities. Negotiating Boundaries in Exhibition Research

Abstract

Stretching Materialities is an experimental approach to rethinking exhibitions in terms of “active matter”: not as a presentation of material knowledge and practices per se, but as an interactive and participatory research approach to new forms of activity emerging from the poiesis of the material. The interdisciplinary exhibition at Tieranatomisches Theater (TA T) Berlin experimented with curatorial processes, the existing environment and its material-energetic resources, sound performances as well as the interweaving of physical and virtual matter. The group of researchers, made up of designers, architects, art historians, computer scientists and anthropologists, expanded materiality into temporal-spatial dimensions and new sensory experiences. Beyond the exhibition, the publication now reflects on the process of “stretching” close to the material itself. The insights gained are interwoven with current contexts at the interfaces of artistic, research and technological knowledge practices. The six independent essays are supplemented by interviews (intermezzi) with participating artists and scientists.