The theme of this year’s Art and Discourse Weeks has been developed in response to current societal and cultural transformations in our globally interconnected world. At its heart are questions about the consequences political upheaval and social ruptures have on the dynamics between individuals, communities and society at large. The starting point is a curatorial concept grounded in the sociological observation that even weak social ties can open up new resources and perspectives for individuals, thereby contributing to the stability and diversity of communities. The group exhibition The Strength of Weak Ties offers an artistic approach to this inquiry. Six emerging artists from Germany and Switzerland explore the complex facets of human relationships through a range of media, artistic techniques, and narrative strategies. Between ideals and reality, Franca Behrmann, Alime Ertürk, Laura Nan, Max Prange, Aura Roig and Xiaoyi Zhang each bring their personal perspectives into play.
However, the works on display do not simply dwell on personal experience. Instead, they open up a deeper understanding of collective processes and social connections. They generate momentum, revealing how it is precisely the fragile that can give rise to the kind of resistant strength needed to confront societal challenges. From familial archives in the work of Alime Ertürk to the collective scream in Xiaoyi Zhang’s paintings, the featured works explore in different ways how fractures can give rise to new connections. These approaches also run through Franca Behrmann’s engagement with her family history, Laura Nan’s endless sleepover, Max Prange’s voices of solitude, and Aura Roig’s visual concepts of radical tenderness. The exhibition invites viewers not to fear these tensions, but rather to understand them as the seed and resource of community.
Aura Roig’s drawings and paintings are marked by a fusion of autobiographical references and a political, queer-feminist stance. Roig often personifies objects, plants, body parts or organs, using them as means of figuration and narration. This allows them to sideline gendered attributions and instead foreground the emotional depth and vulnerability of individuals through facial expression. Recurring themes include the depiction of female* bodies and nonconforming gender identities within the patriarchal system, as well as the social roles assigned in the context of care work. However, Roig’s images are far from overt political statements. They respond to broader systemic conditions through the eyes of an individual, with humour, grotesquery and radical softness.
Mateusz Dworczyk