Force majeure can mean many things in the double and triple sense of the word. The title itself reflected the subtly subversive ambiguity that is characteristic of the works of Bianca Voss and Wendelin Bottländer.
Force majeure is by definition the sudden, unforeseeable damaging event, the inevitable catastrophe, but perhaps also the unforeseeable, inevitable stroke of luck.
However, force majeure can also be understood as the use of force in the service of the higher power. The damaging event that, for example, gives birth to or exposes the beautiful. Or as the mighty, higher, i.e. divine, in general? A separation of powers was hardly possible in the case of this exhibition.
In Bianca Voss’s works, squash ball imprints on a wall of an abandoned sports studio were staged with the means of photography, finely observing, in laconic, picturesque views of the room. An unforeseeable stroke of luck, then, that for years many players in the service of the higher, the beautiful, unknowingly did preparatory work and struck with force.
In Wendelin Bottländer’s work, the disturbed digital television signal during the broadcast of the Bundesliga turned out to be an unforeseeable stroke of luck. The standardized stadium architecture and player formations were heightened into surreal images in their absurdity. Whether the force majeure arose from the annually increased TV presentation standardization or from the chaos created in his images was an unusual competition.
In a performance on the evening of the opening, Bianca Voss imitated damage to the object in front of an audience, which was immediately reversed. But: can force majeure actually be undone?
Photos: Alessandro De Matteis
