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Mischabbruch, Kasko, 01.03.–03.03.24

Q.U.I.C.H.E.

You hardly hear anything about poltergeists anymore. Presumably because the blurred, shoddy photographic evidence of the 20th century is no longer convincing in the age of high-resolution smartphones. The exciting thing, however, is that one of the scientific explanations for poltergeists in 1990s infotainment reports was that these phenomena could be caused by electrical charges in masonry. Electrosmog and all kinds of radiation and waves in the air have increased exponentially since then, but the poltergeists have disappeared. Perhaps the various voltages and vibrations of the WLANs and 5G radiation are cancelling each other out and the poltergeists are simply finding it a little too hectic in the penetratingly pulsating electrocloud haze that has settled over all our homes. But perhaps there is still something abstrusely magical left behind in the walls haunted by electricity.

The nomadic archive Mischabbruch was a guest at Kasko. According to the Federal Office for the Environment, mixed demolition waste is "a mixture of exclusively mineral construction waste from solid building components such as concrete, brick, sand-lime brick and natural stone masonry". In its artistic dimension, however, mixed demolition brings such architectural mineral load to life with the insertion of USB memories in demolition waste.

As if the electronic tension of the demolished buildings had become accessible through a portal created by the collective, the blocks of material distributed and wired throughout the exhibition space can now make sounds or create images. It is as if the architectural rubble can now be discharged into the world and all its secrets and memories from days gone by drip into outlets, which then make things visible to the public through artistically placed interfaces. Art as an electrical hallucination of the masonry. The artist as a mediator between other worlds and my disdainful reality is something that comes with heavy Kandinsky vibes. I should classify the media art effusions in Kasko as perhaps not a séance-like channelled necromancy of the vibrations in mineral building waste. There were hardly higher beings in the concrete commanding the top right corner of the room ((?)) to be painted black. Nor do I want to instrumentalise art for something like that. It should speak for itself.
But I miss the poltergeists.

[TL]