Art Exhibit with paintings, tapestry, textile art, sculpture, collage, installation, games and video art by Riika Hyvönen, Ellen Schinderman, Natalie Baxter, Spencer Chalk-Levy, Jim Avignon, Philip Crawford, Mathieu Brohan, Simon Thiel, Audrey Nervi and more.
Live Performance by Lello Li
Live Tattoos by Blacky Rixdorf
Talks and other events tba
There is no definitive region of the brain that is in charge of pain. As Kathryn Weiner, the director of the American Academy of Pain management says: „Pain is complex and defies our ability to establish a clear definition. Pain is far more than neural transmission and sensory transduction. Pain is a complex mixture of emotions, culture, experience, spirit, and sensation.“ To process and experience pain involves a complex network of interacting pulses that is based on the nature, intensity, emotional reaction and intellectual assessment of stimuli; a complex system that proves difficult to define or even identify one aspect of pain in regard to another.
Pain – both physical and psychological – is a constant reality, a steady companion. An undeniable facet of life, or perhaps even a proof of being alive. Inevitable and extremely personal, all the while wholly universal. Pain can teach, bring people together, warn, inspire, teach and strengthen. Emotional Pain can become physical. Physical pain can be a symptom of emotional, societal or psychological troubles. It can also act as a therapeutic remedy, a release of sorts.
The exhibition aims to explore the effects, agency, and interaction between pain and pleasure. Power and vulnerability. Attraction and compensation. Inspiration and triumph. What are the indicators of pain? Which memories do they bring? What stories lie behind the scars? How do painful experiences influence the relationship to pain itself and how do people deal with pain? Why does one purposefully put oneself in situations that inevitably will be painful? What makes it attractive? How can strange, uncomfortable or even painful experiences create intimacy, empathy, creativity or authenticity?
The artists in this exhibition play with pain; focussing on it as an integral part of life. The pain of conformity, societal pain, rite de passages, Lustschmerz, trophies, lessons, desires, stimulation, liberation, triumph, self-expression. Self-inflicted, unwanted or as a part of rituals and societal structure, battle scars, even entertainment.
No pain, no gain?