Der Reiniger, die Katze und der Mond
The Cleaner, the Cat, and the Moon
An exhibition with the artists' collective U5
curated by Helene Romakin and Lea Schleiffenbaum
Opening: Saturday, November 18, 2023, from 2 pm
November 18, 2023 - May 20, 2024
Location: The Museum of Utopia and Everyday Life, Eisenhüttenstadt
At the invitation of Helene Romakin and Lea Schleiffenbaum, U5 has taken a look at the Museum Utopia and Everyday Life's collection of 170,000 objects. In the exhibition The Cleaner, the Cat, and the Moon, the artists intermix objects from the museum's holdings with miniatures, sculptures, ceramics, and everyday objects from their studio. A tarot card set related to these objects, the Tarot of Small Things thereby asks the important questions of everyday life.
With the exhibition, U5 deliberately turn away from grand historical narratives and instead focuses their attention on everyday anecdotes, personal memories, and youthful longings. Which stories are told and which are forgotten? How do our personal memories and imaginations shape the perception of objects? By orienting themselves on the materiality, colors, and functions of objects, U5 dissolve habitual attributions. This opens the supposedly closed space of the past, enabling new narratives and contexts to emerge.
The Museum Utopia and Everyday Life is not only concerned with the scientific contextualization of everyday culture and art from the GDR, but also with critically questioning current discourses of memory through artistic means. In the past years, the museum has regularly invited artists to engage with it's collection.
The Cleaner, the Cat, and the Moon is a continuation of the exhibition I love Clark, which was shown earlier this year at Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam.
U5 was founded in 2007. The collective works with a range of different media and materials chosen and explored in depth according to interest and urgency. U5 deals with characteristics of collective modes of action and perception in artistic production, exhibitions as well as scientific projects. https://u5.92u.ch
The exhibition is supported by the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia and GeWi - Gebäudewirtschaft Eisenhüttenstadt GmbH.
Helene Romakin is a cultural scientist, independent curator, and author. She is currently writing her doctoral thesis on the Anthropocene and storytelling at ETH Zurich.
Lea Schleiffenbaum is an art historian and independent curator. She realizes her own projects and exhibitions in public space, among others, for Neue Auftraggeber.
