Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg

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What will our life look like in the future? To what extent will our everyday lives be determined by technologies?

In the first version of the new exhibition series “Mensch. Macht. Maschine.” the 1984 in Braunschweig born artist Malte Bartsch deals with these themes under the title “AUTO MODUS 2".

As the title of the exhibition series suggests, many of Malte Bartsch's works not only deal with the manufacture of machines or the application of the latest technologies, but also with the question of possible consequences of automation and digitization and the resulting power and dependency relationships between man and machine. In addition to the ”Time Machine" in the entrance area of the exhibition, a robot installation is the focus of the exhibition. For this work, which was specially designed for Wolfsburg, Malte Bartsch works with the robot type KR 16 R1610/KRC4 from KUKA. The powerful multifunctional robots of the KR CYBERTECH series are specialized in industrial handling applications. For example, handling large components, machining, assembling, palletizing and gas-shielded welding. This means that they are used very frequently and in large numbers in automobile production. In Malte Bartsch's work presented here, the robot operates in a completely atypical environment and performs unusual actions, such as lighting birthday candles. The robot equips the cakes with several birthday candles, which it then lights with a conventional lighter. After the candles have burned for a while, the robot steps into action again and finishes the solemn ritual by blowing out all the candles and taking them one by one from the cakes and disposing of them in a waste bin. In this work, Malte Bartsch thematizes two seemingly completely contrary starting points: On the one hand, the celebration or celebration as a family, social or religious ritual in which people gather at a particular place at a particular time in order to strengthen social cohesion. These ancient customs, which are connected with a high emotionality (joy, enthusiasm, sympathy) up to ecstasy and at the same time demonstrate the extraordinary, are confronted on the other hand with the newest technology of the large industry, which represent our social aspiration for continuous optimization of work processes and highest efficiency.

In today's world, new processes are being developed more and more rapidly in order to technologically optimize, digitize and network our work and environment. In the coming years, automation and digitization will increasingly lead to structural changes in society. How these changes will go hand in hand with our necessary habits of everyday life remains open for the time being and will only become apparent in the near future. Malte Bartsch describes these opposites in his work and presents them to us with irony and wit.

In the work “Time Machine", which has been in the collection of the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg since 2016 and can be seen in the anteroom of the exhibition, a certificate (original) is printed out by pressing the red button, which increases in size depending on how long the button is held down. Become an active part of the exhibition by pressing the button and printing your own individual time certificate. This individual expression is a confirmation of your presence on site, of the unique unrepeatable action you have taken during a certain period of time. The question of our personal lifetime, how we spend it and what we do with it is a very important part of this work.

Ten of these “Time Machines" are now connected via a network. Braunschweig and Wolfsburg are also linked via this system for the duration of the exhibition. At the same time, all visitors who operate the “Time Machines" become part of a “global" network and an active part of the art on site. Within the field of tension between human and technology, time and space, action and reaction, the overall staging of the exhibitions “AUTO MODUS 1 & 2" by Malte Bartsch in Braunschweig and Wolfsburg offers plenty of space for interaction, dialogue and surprises.

Dates

• 23. April 2019 18.00 cet
  Malte Bartsch "Auto Modus 2"

  Eröffnung der ersten Präsentation in der Ausstellungsreihe "Mensch Macht Maschine".

  Es sprechen:

  Susanne Pfleger, Direktorin der Städtischen Galerie Wolfsburg

  Dennis Weilmann, Dezernent für Wirtschaft, Digitales und Kultur der Stadt Wolfsburg

  Marcus Körber, Kurator der Städtischen Galerie Wolfsburg