“Anyone who currently thinks about the utopian dimension must necessarily also consider its opposite, the dystopian. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the term dystopia – previously reserved for literature and film – has increasingly been used to describe our everyday experiences. Given the current wars and a 'capitalism of fragmentation' (Quinn Slobodian), we are witnessing dehumanization everywhere. And we are observing that efforts to achieve supranational regulations, as well as democracy itself, are reaching their limits.

Both utopia and dystopia are constructs that enable us to reflect on our current situation from a different critical point of view. The description of our present as dystopian essentially implies the alternative concept of a better world. The utopian dimension means this implicit presence of the utopian in the now experienced as dystopian - utopia as a force that can orient us towards a more desirable future.

Rethinking utopias in a place like the Academy of Arts is a challenge, as the battles that were fought here for symbolic power in earlier times reverberate in the rooms of the institution. This exhibition attempts to make the ideals of modernity fruitful for the present by showing works by selected artists who engage in an implicit dialogue with the memory of the place within the programmatic framework designed by Jeanine Meerapfel.

Reflecting on the concept of utopia and its possible role takes us back to Walter Benjamin and his views on modernity, history and the idea of ​​time, to Theodor W. Adorno and his ideas on the philosophy of the future and the limitations of modernity, and to Thought of Fredric Jameson, Slavoj Žižek and other contemporary intellectuals.

Can it be possible to understand modernity as an unfinished project and to revive its various utopian ideas with the help of art? Ultimately, every past is rewritten in the present, so it could be productive to open up some of these utopian dimensions in new and different ways through questioning. The selected works are able to show different levels of meaning of dreams and utopias in the present. The key concepts underlying the selection include time, memory, resistance and persistence.

By drawing on the utopian dimensions of modernity, the exhibition aims to invite reflection. Its aim is to offer a provocative critical impetus to reveal possible horizons for a modern humanism that must constantly be reoriented and challenged in an ever-changing world.”

Diana Wechsler