The graduates and masterstudents at the Kunsthochschule Kassel are presenting their graduate exhibition EXAMEN, unique in Germany, at the documenta Halle. The exhibition brings together final projects from the departments of Visual Arts, Visual Communication, Product Design, and Art History and Aesthetics. The works cover a broad conceptual and creative spectrum, ranging from painting and sculpture, film and performance, to innovative products and multimedia installations.
This year’s graduate exhibition, curated by Philipp Lange, bears the title EXAMEN 24 – The Plant through the Asphalt. The poetic subtitle is not only reminiscent of the many hurdles to be overcome in the course of one’s studies, but also refers to the time in which we are living. Wars, climate change, and the intensifying political situation in Germany as well as worldwide convey the feeling that the earth is becoming increasingly uninhabitable. But even on seemingly hermetically closed surfaces, covered with concrete, even on polluted and devastated terrain, fissures appear from which new life can sprout. The plant that breaks through the asphalt symbolizes the inner driving force, creating hope for a positive future.
In their works, the graduates and master students thematize social conditions, personal experiences, or collective events. They create spaces of encounter, of learning, of contemplation, and of sense perception. The roughly 50 positions burst forth in full bloom, individually and independent of the categories assigned to them, with each work asserting itself in its own coherent, sometimes surprising place in the documenta Halle. And despite this independence, the works are found in immediate vicinity to one another, thus forming a collective whole. Even a plant that breaks through the asphalt is part of a living and above all changeable ecosystem, and so EXAMEN 24 can be understood as a snapshot in time: a short pause to bloom before moving on – with the promise of a tomorrow full of opportunity, the will to accept and to come together in care and concern.
Philipp Lange (b. 1992) is a curator, art historian, and cultural manager. After studying art history, communication design, and curatorial studies in Berlin, Paris, Halle/Saale, and Frankfurt am Main he was a curatorial fellow at the Goethe Institut and curator-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. He has created numerous exhibitions, including at Spoiler, Mouches Volantes, Galerie Met, and for the UdK Berlin. He has also served as assistant curator at the Brücke Museum and Schinkel Pavillon as well as curatorial assistant at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. He regularly writes texts for exhibitions, catalogs, and art magazines. Since 2024 he has also been the director of KW Freunde e.V.
The cdw Foundation supports EXAMEN, and together with the Kunsthochschule sponsors the award given as part of the exhibition.
Curator of EXAMEN 2024:
Philipp Lange
Dates:
December 11-15
Opening and award ceremony:
December 11, 6:00 p.m.
Opening hours:
Th, Fr, Sa: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. / Su: 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Location:
documenta-Halle
Du-Ry-Straße 1
34117 Kassel