Good Space! Communities or the Promise of Happiness

Community presumes deprivation. This stated the daily Esslinger Zeitung with a headline for the opening of the superb show Good Space. The show is a playfully sensory and experi-entially intensive exhibition essay, focusing on the formation of communities from perspectives of contemporary art. The cohesion of societies is characterized by a unifying element, whether this is shared- values, concepts of identity, norms or rules. But also inherent to mutual connection is an aspect of delimitation and exclusion. The question as to what constitutes the sense of we is loaded with explosive power, also with -regard to politics, so the works of art navigate along power structures with an eye to the grave and pervasive consequences of colonialism. Configurations of space and time in which technology and spirituality intersect also come into play. The works question the idea that our life is free, self-determined and filled with possibilities of self-fulfillment and happiness; they call for an unconditional respect for the rights of animals and shed light on the connection between culture and nature with an inspection of plant communities; they also witness paradoxical scenes in residential concepts of buildings designed by Brutalism; they direct our attention to the fact that films engender vivid communal experiences not just in the screening room as we -accompany the tiny, isolated community of the crew on a submarine. The exhibition essay conceives of itself as the call for a cooperative stance character-ized by curiosity, respect and mutual esteem, one which constantly redefines needs and negotiates differences. In 2016 Good Space dealt with space and wasteland; now, Good Space enters into the question how to vitalize this space and how communities function because the political atmosphere did not change significantly, only by the migration debate.