SYNTHETIC EXISTENCE: THE GAZE OF THE CIRCUITED COLLECTIVE

With SYNTHETIC EXISTENCE: THE GAZE OF THE CIRCUITED COLLECTIVE, the G2 Kunsthalle presents a solo exhibition by the painter Jana Schröder. Schröder’s work is shaped by an intuitive practice from which pictorial worlds emerge, which condense through the interplay of repetition, chance, and conception into largely non-figurative landscapes. These resist unambiguous interpretation while repeatedly evoking associations with figurative objects familiar to the viewer. In the context of the exhibition at the G2 Kunsthalle, the artist engages with the visual language of science fiction films from the 1960s and 1970s. Schröder’s works take up these representations and address encounters with the alien or unfamiliar. The exhibition is arranged so that the works surround the viewer. This encounter generates ambivalent feelings: the forms can appear repulsive, threatening, or dangerous, yet they can also spark curiosity and a desire to explore and understand the unknown. A tension arises between attraction and aversion, keeping the viewer’s perception in constant motion. The exhibition unfolds an ambivalent space of resonance in which organic and technological imaginaries, as well as fascination and threat, are interwoven. Against the backdrop of current social, political, and ecological crises, Schröder’s pictorial strategies gain contemporary relevance, linking past, present, and future. Jana Schröder (*1983 in Brilon) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the class of Albert Oehlen from 2005 to 2009. Her works are included in the following public collections, among others: the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, LB; the Friedrichs Foundation, Bonn / Weidingen, DE; and the Miettinen Collection, Helsinki, FI / Berlin, DE. The artist lives and works in Düsseldorf.