ON SHOWING AND HIDING
Institute for Art Pedagogy, JLU Gießen (SS 2012)

Many things have both an outside and an inside. In this seminar objects and installations are developed that focus on the connection and relationship between these two spheres. The principle of showing and hiding, which is a matter of course in the world of fashion, is ubiquitous in contemporary art. Just as the human body functions in fashion so objects, space and ideas in art represent the forms and strategies of simultaneously showing and hiding. The function of clothing as a mantle that presents and at the same time hides is perhaps the most common example for a general principle of perception.

Contemporary art which uses the method of hiding in order to reveal something, does not just play with the relationship between the visible and the hidden content. It can also involve the spatial and mental interplay of the external with internal life or an ambivalent promise of truth or, for example, the contrast between the accessible or inaccessible. In contemporary art there are numerous approaches and working methods which link the spatial and mental spheres of the internal and external or vice versa. Following an analysis of these artistic strategies and processes, they are practised and implemented in the students own work.