Horus & Deloris Contemporary Art Space
Exhibition Dates
19th November - 16th December, 2009
Kiez: Homely/unheimliche
Chris Erlbeck, Chloe Grove, Siouxzi Mernagh & Megan Yeo
‘Kiez’ is Berliner slang for ‘neighbourhood’: a sense of homeliness in staying ‘local’. The ‘unheimliche’ can be referred to within the art world via the concept of ‘Stendhal Syndrome’ – the uncanny feeling caused in the viewer through experiencing art. The ‘uncanny’ hints at a strange proximity between the known and the unknown, either as something familiar presenting itself in an unknown shape, or as something unfamiliar revealing an element of knowingness in its features. ‘Kiez’ focuses on the ambiguous role played by feelings of the homely/ ‘unheimliche’ at the intersection of printmaking, mixed media, photography and film. It can be
interpreted in the works as a way of understanding the interrelation between possible and impossible, norm and deviation.
The artists’ cultural and creative backgrounds are diverse, however they all coincided in the city of Berlin in early 2009. ‘Kiez’ expresses this global ‘homeliness’ found by working artistically within Berlin, and then bringing
these new creative directions to the artists’ respective home cities. The result is creative collision of an uncanny and unsettling 'je ne sais quoi'.
