Exhibition Duration:
06 – 25 September 2022
Exhibition Location:
Düsseldorf City Museum, Berger Allee 2
Opening hours:
Tues. to Sun. 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Soft Opening:
Tue. 06.09.2022, 16:00 hrs.
Vernissage:
Fri. 09/09, 18:00 hrs.
Award ceremony:
Sun. 09/25, 15:00 (also live on YouTube).
Patron:
Dr. Mark Benecke
Exhibition, art award and lectures
We are very pleased to have been nominated together with 102 other artists for the exhibition in the Düsseldorf Stadtmuseum.
The vernissage is on Friday 09.09. at 18 o’clock.
The DA! Art Award
Düsseldorf’s first secular art award – the DA! Art-Award – is offered by the Düsseldorf Enlightenment Service every two years on a different theme. It aims to inspire artists to take a critical look at religion and irrationalism.
Two years ago, the theme was “Does not work beyond the placebo effect …”. In 2022, it’s all about the “power of myth” and – thanks to the sponsors of the DA Award – prize money totaling €10,000. They will be awarded in three categories – plus an audience award.
Patron: Dr. Mark Benecke
Jury: Michael Kortländer, Menia, Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Giulia Silberberger, Prof. Dr. Peter Tepe.
Theme impulse
We are born into a world of signs, symbols and meanings. These structure our experiences. They are our access to the world. A very special condensation of all these elements takes place in myth. This means as much as legend, fairy tale or – in its original reading – narrative. We encounter these narratives in many different forms. Ihnen allen gemein ist, dass sie Deutungshoheit über Welt und Weltereignisse beanspruchen. And they communicate their supposed knowledge powerfully through flowery narratives – not through verifiable facts. The creation of meaning by faith is the prime directive here – a bulwark against rationality and enlightenment.
There are religious creation myths that apodictically proclaim ultimate truths, folk myths that conjure up communities of origin, and political myths that are supposed to have a stabilizing effect in times of crisis. Almost daily we are confronted with conspiracy narratives and the mythical narratives in art, culture and the world of commodities that fuel the capitalist dynamics of exploitation. Be it through brand and personality cults or the fetishization of artworks. Almost omnipresently, these images of meaning permeate the ideological matrix of society. This also applies to the way people feel and think. Man is a being occupied by myths. He always has been, because the elementary inclination to myth and belief is an evolutionary advantage. Even in early societies, narratives that created meaning promoted cooperation and cohesion, and myth unfolded its normative power through moral patterns of order and action. And since time immemorial, myths have served to legitimize advantage, power and domination.
“The Power of Myth.“
Soft Opening:
Tues. Sept. 6, 2022, 4:00 p.m.
Vernissage:
Fri 09/09, 18:00.
Award ceremony:
Sun. 09/25, 15:00 (also live on YouTube).
Exhibition duration:
Sep 06 – 25, 2022
Opening hours:
Tue. to Sun. 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Patron: Dr. Mark Benecke