liminal space
liminal space
liminal space
liminal space
liminal space
liminal space
liminal space
liminal space
liminal space
liminal space
19.11.22 –05.02.23

„works, repeatedly glazed, bent and contorted, beaten, shot with lasers…“
(Alex Leo Freier)

 

Liminality refers to a state of transition. The term finds its origin in the rite of passage, classically in the initiation rite from infancy to adulthood. As an extended concept, liminality can be understood spatially as well as temporally: Liminal spaces would then be threshold spaces, non-places of transit that are not intended for prolonged stays. These can be corridors, waiting rooms, train stations, airports – all typically modern spatial formations that stand for the restless age in which we find ourselves every day. In a participatory observation, Julie Mia and Philipp Naujoks translate this great transition into the language of art. Elaborate painting techniques intertwine in the complex process of production. The delicate, clean aesthetics conceal the most violent measures: the works are repeatedly glazed, bent and contorted, beaten, shot with lasers. Despite this brute force, they have something childishly naive. The folding ruler, a mere measuring instrument, becomes a toy in the artist’s hand, and with lasers, drawings are happily scribbled onto the canvas. Thus, these threshold images seem strangely harmonious. While the world “out there” reveals itself more and more as an unworld that we, unruly, cease to recognize, Julie Mia and Phillipp Naujoks calibrate a different space, practicing, at its threshold, their own peculiar rites of passage.