Traces follow us and we follow traces, constantly. Impressions, material sediments – relics that point to a former presence. No matter where we are, we are always confronted with the remains of other people, creatures and events. They all produce recognisable traces. Our mere presence in a place can later be reconstructed on the basis of signs unintentionally left behind. In seeing signs and trying to interpret or follow them, we become trace-readers. Yet at the same time we are all traceleavers, for as soon as we move on we automatically leave behind traces. Finally, the inattention of the trace-leaver provokes the heightened attention of the trace-reader.

The exhibition Fische hinterlassen keine Spuren (Fish Leave No Traces) focuses on the phenomenon of the trace in contemporary art. It unites different artistic positions so as to follow these sometimes visible, sometimes intangible signs. Trace leaver or reader, observer, actor or interpreter – these all have one thing in common: an evident engagement with the different visible forms of the trace, and the use of the tactics of the trace-leaver by the artists. They bait the viewers, enticing them to pursue the trace left and thereby drawing them into events, letting them literally become trace readers themselves.

PROGRAM

04 March 2010, 7 p.m. Das fehlende i – Charles Arnold & A ‘Decade of Californian Color’
Lecture by Galerie C&V, Hamburg
15 April 2010, 7 p.m. Die Lockmittel der Spur und die Kunst des Verfolgens. Francis Alÿs’, Sophie Calles und Janet Cardiffs Zeichnung des öffentlichen Raums,
PD Dr. Mirjam Schaub, z.Zt. Visiting Research Fellow an der University of Edinburgh, Philosophin und freie Kunstkritikerin

Guided tours: 24 March 2010, 7 p.m.; 28 April 2010, 7 p.m.

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