PEE IN PEACE

Anouk Kruithof’s new work Pee in Peace (installation against ignorance) (2018) combines sentences made out of various protest-signs with the cheerful tradition of handmade papel picado (perforated paper), which is a Mexican folk art craft of paper-cuts into elaborate decorative designs. After collecting over 1000 photos from internet of handmade protest-signs taken on demonstrations about a huge range of topics all of the world, Kruithof overtyped these statements, printed and separated them to be rearranged into new significant statements, questions and poems by herself and others during studio-visits in her studio in Mexico City in 2017 and in her artist-in-residence at Kleine Humboldt Galerie, Berlin. Fellow artists, friends, curators, students and unknown visitors were invited to make these new re-arrangements and/or cut some papel picado out of white A4 papers. These “new edited voices” are presenting both surprisingly funny as well as thoughtful new messages.

At first sight the new statements seem lost in the translation, but while taking a closer look at the impressive installation the genuine contents are still recognizable and beyond it’s aesthetic value, Kruithof’s work gives a wide, but still clear overview of the political issues concerning the problems of humanity from the past few years.

Alternately the scans of the rethought protest signs and the various designs of papel picado are connected on strings as a chain. The 64 strings together form a light and airy curtain that shapes an opened room, which invites the visitors to go inside, read, peak through the holes and engage with transparency.

On the opening a 4 minute long performance by Kruithof and the eleven curator students of Kleine Humboldt Galerie will be held, where they collectively whisper-read the messages and during the exhibition Kruithof will also record individuals out of the public to whisper-read in her installation to develop a sound piece out of these recordings later on.

EXHIBITION