The exhibition ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ at Keramion, Frechen, was a group exhibition with international artists who approach the theme of nature and mankind from a wide variety of perspectives. The exhibition enabled visitors to discover the fascinating diversity of artistic ceramic interpretations. They offered viewers a deep understanding of the complexity and beauty of nature and inspired reflection on the relationship between humans and the environment.
Parallel to the ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ exhibition, the museum was presenting the artistic results of a series of workshops organised in collaboration with the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Works of the KHM participants explored new artistic trends through the combination of media art and diverse ceramic techniques. The participants were: Sihan Chen, Lenia Friedrich, Heike Geltsch, Tongtong Li, Karin Lingnau, Alexandra Nikitina, Laura Jazmin Rojas, Mingxi Yang, Gao Yuantian, Beibei Zhang.
*
Beibei Zhang
Circle, ceramics
This ceramic piece from me captures the life cycle of tropical rainforest plants, from their birth to decay, showcasing the beauty of nature’s vitality and impermanence.
*
Bobby Heiek
Title/ text following soon, ceramics, text, paper
*
Lex Nikitina
Armoured Bjära, ceramics, threads, metal
Armoured Bjära’ is a kinetic ceramic piece or an armour, wrapping around a non existent body, reflecting on the militarisation of robotics in a metaphorical war jungle, an imaginary disputed land occupied by non humans species in some distant speculative past. The concept of unattained mystical creatures embodying the concept of the unknown and the human ways of dealing with it be it colonised land culture or non human species.
*
Mingxi Yang
Schicksalhafte Verflechtung, ceramics, threads
This sculpture series depicts three intertwined conjoined babies, inspired by the natural phenomenon of “strangling” among banyan trees in the tropical rainforest of Xishuangbanna. The trees compete for nutrients, and this work incorporates elements of Yunnan voodoo to showcase the mysterious and symbiotic force of life.
*
Jazmin Rojas Forero
Amphibious singing, terracotta ceramics, microphones, water, clay slag.
Amphibious singing provokes and amplifies the sound of dry clay fading into the water. It invokes the frog, a sacred animal for the indigenous communities of the Andes, as it announces the rain.
*
Lenia Friedrich
Distorted memories predicting the future (Verzerrte Erinnerungen sagen die Zukunft voraus), ceramic glazenware, AR, ink, paper
Here, fortune-telling on saucers is combined with the depiction of distorting memories.
*
Sihan Chen
Vase Vase, ceramics, UV-paint
Eleven stars and two horses. (Elf Sterne und zwei Pferde.)
*
Tongtong Li
Aborigine, glazed ceramics
If it comes down here again, please look at it and stop praying. (Wenn es erneut hier herabkommt, betrachten Sie es bitte und hören Sie auf zu beten.)
*
Yuantian Gao
Echoes, ceramics, soot
Fragmented remnants of a forgotten sanctuary, embodying the silent aftermath of a fiery past.
*
Karin Lingnau
Aquilithochitonaria, ceramics, copper, map, text, various dimensions
The species Aquilithochitonaria serves as an example from the research branch on futurofossils of the Institute for Diachronic Artifacts (IDiA). As a fictional research platform for artifacts, materialities and identities from the future, IDiA collects and analyses objects and states of different origins and media of future scenarios and contextualizes them using archival methods. The platform serves as a tool for reflecting on current developments and constructions in society.
*
Initiated by Saeyun Jung
Supervised by Saeyun Jung and Karin Lingnau