How much dependency is healthy?

The Cowboy lights up a cigarette. Almost you think you can stand in front of a poster. But the Marlboro man is an oil Painting, painted by Hannes Schmid, the shot as a photographer, those images burned as a dream of freedom into the collective memory. Those of the Smoking man, rides through endless Expanses of ends. This is freedom, this is independence. And a myth? Cigarettes make depends on how many other things in our daily life. But this is just bad? The questions the new exhibition at Vögele Kulturzentrum in Pfäffikon, and goes far beyond the aspect of the search .

"relationships of dependence are often invisible," says Mirjam Bayer villages, one of the two curators. In order to make them tangible, tense, the Vögele cultural center, along with former and current students of the F+F school for art and Design in Zurich. The searches resulted in seven stations, the fathom should, who, how, by whom or what to depend on.

every Day we are surrounded by advertising . What would fill the space, if you would be there? Photo: Joshua Geiger, ad-free, 2019, photography

what we would think about what to shop for, when we promise the happiness of the would be exposed to advertising, asks Joshua Geiger in his work "ad-free" and the content of advertising space in public places will disappear. Further back, in a showcase of Swiss vote booklet, with light pen, popular terms are marked: "Superior", "freedom", "self-determined".

By the middle of the room, you hear how it sounds, if everyone would like to determine in a society. In a Video Punks play "trip to Jerusalem", without respecting the rules of the game, but probably more, depends. The Video is loud, chaotic.

dependencies will be shown here, neither negative nor simply as a chain of causalities, which continues in one direction.

Ordered, however, the ways in which the visitors are guided through the exhibition. They are inspired by pads, one of which is space-dependent. Escape routes, green-painted corridors made of wood, in two intersecting axes pass through the centre of the room.

you can escape from a bit of Overwork, comes, one thinks of all the dependencies that characterize our everyday life. A Cup of coffee, the alarm clock, the car. Networks of relationships among friends, work colleagues, family. In the latter, one feels, in the ideal case, but also repealed, to be understood, to feel community. Dependencies are neither negative nor simply as a chain of causalities, which continues in a direction shown. You were reading in a circle, so the curator Bayer villages.

Like a cat biting its own tail – Tonjaschja eagle view dependencies. Photo: Katharina Wernli

But what about conditions with exploitative work, which is in the upper floors seem to be clear to Say about employees? The company is not dependent on investors, the so-called employer, but from those that really work, those who are considered "employees", you can hear national councillor and entrepreneur Jacqueline Badran on one of the audio stations.

Angry and at the same time, the humorous, the large black letters of Tonjaschja eagle ABC of the impossibilities of this circle, in which nothing is what it seems, across the wall – "I can, wants to and is not allowed to", it says on the first of the three images. drag No matter how you put the emphasis, the ABC holds a prisoner.

The most touching is probably the one of Gianluca Trifilo, placed in a room full of enticements and status symbols that we consume, in order to form our identity. It starts off innocently enough, with a piece of luxury fashion, it ends up in the hard world of drug withdrawal. The Latter work revolves Trifilos. He shows extracts from the correspondence around Dependent. Letters from insurance companies, from the prison, of Doctors. Each gram of methadone in the substitution program is recorded, each negative urine sample will be documented, every relapse.

A whole network of institutions communicated about the Addiction, only the addict self in the correspondence no voice. Gianluca Trifilos work over dependency. Photo: Katharina Wernli

You could be the stations of the exhibition, probably to infinity will continue, in the collections of all erdenklicher dependencies lose. However, the makers were clear boundaries, illuminate conscious of the individual aspects. Above all, they manage to provoke Thought, not least because of the diverse implementation. This creates space for some convenient, but also many uncomfortable truths about yourself, your own relationship network, the company.

Quickly, you will feel tempted to wish for in that dream world, where it is believed to be free, in the wide horizon and the infinite steppes. The Marlboro man is already there – a prisoner of his cigarette and his job, to sell us independence.

Join in the exhibition

Visit can think of during the exhibition, of which they are dependent. The answers are collected in a Studio at the back of the exhibition, and later by members of the research group in the green escape routes posted. How do you recognize that addiction is at risk? Together with the addiction prevention of the city of Zurich, the makers of the exhibition have developed a questionnaire to provide answers and should stimulate to take his or her own behavior without bias under the magnifying glass. A Cup of coffee in vain gets, who dares to the table without the legs. At least two people must take place, of course, you can't set independently of each other. Right next door is the Installation of "Coffee seeks its own level" by Allan Wexler is waiting. The four coffee cups are connected with hoses. A single Cup of raise, the other to Overflow. Coordination is required.

"an addict? Who, how, by whom or what", Vögele cultural centre, Pfäffikon SZ, to 22. March 2020. More information: birds, culture.ch

Created: 19.11.2019, 17:05 p.m.