upcoming: participation at DC Open

Suspension of Disbelief II continues the exploration of perception, illusion, and emotional projection initiated in July 2025 through the work of Julian Heuser, expanding the conceptual framework into a polyphonic group exhibition marking the season’s opening. Curated by Aileen Treusch, the show brings together works who examine and broaden the theme from diverse artistic viewpoints.

Although formally diverse — ranging from painting, drawing, and photography to sculpture and installation — all contributions share a critical engagement with the processes through which meaning is constructed, interrupted, and ultimately felt on an emotional level. How is meaning generated? Where do fractures occur that disrupt our perception? And in what ways does emotional resonance shape our understanding of the world?

Through the artworks, the exhibition establishes a focused curatorial emphasis at the intersection of perception and projection. It concentrates on how narrative structures maintain, shift, or dissolve within the tension between “surface and depth.” What stories lie hidden beyond the visible? When does surface become façade, and when is a concealed depth revealed? In this way, the presentation opens a space where the ambivalence of meaning and perception is deliberately addressed — without offering straightforward interpretations or final conclusions.

The title refers to the media-theoretical concept of “suspension of disbelief”: the conscious choice to temporarily accept fiction as reality.

Together, the five perspectives create a permeable field of tension between fiction and documentation, surface and depth, visibility and erasure. What function does disbelief serve in the act of perceiving? How can the deliberate suspension of doubt expand our capacity for openness and awareness? Rather than providing explanations, the exhibition aims to generate an experiential space where these questions become tangible and lived.