'Baroque Topologies', Group Show Curated by Kea Bolenz und Louis Hay at Kunstverein Leipzig, Leipzig

Pursuing the baroque forms we follow a line that starts to vibrate. Stretched out into space, its momentum becomes the curvature of a surface, which grows into a vortex, bulging out further and further, folding in and out until it forms a complex body. In the Baroque, the mathematical theory of space is joined by the dimension of time. Under it, our line begins to lurch and create an imbalance. A break with symmetry occurs and bends the line into an ellipse. It begins to rotate and trace a spiral. If we imagine this spiral and reenact its incessant rotation in our thoughts, it creates a feeling of vertigo. Perception is thrown into a tailspin. Old familiar coordinates and orientation-giving borders dissolve. In the baroque topology, the difference between an objectively measurable external world and the subjective world of experience starts to blur. It is a fluid gesture that moves between and beyond categories formerly considered separate – body and mind, emotion and intellect, matter and information, you and I, I and O. This movement, this shape-shifting line, seems to contain valuable potential. It is this power to connect and dissolve old categories that presents itself as a baroque quality to us. With the exhibition we want to put particular attention to this as we try to make sense of the culture that surrounds us.