\u201cAgainst the Grain\u201d is a translation of the French title \u201c\u00c0 Rebours\u201d of a novel by Joris-Karl Huysman. First published in 1884, this novel\u2019s almost painfully detailed descriptions of the unthinkable obsessions of the overwrought, sensitive young nobleman Jean Floressas des Esseintes made it into a key novel of French symbolism and the decadence movement. Not least, in 1891 des Esseintes was a model for Oscar Wilde\u2019s character Dorian Gray, who was also a dandy epitomising the modern narcissist.<\/p>\n
Symbolism and Gothicism are returning. Reminiscences of Romanticism and the Baroque, celebrated melancholy, a tendency to the grotesque and reflections of occult religions are experiencing a renaissance, turning exhibition spaces into the home of witches, monsters and vampires.
\nOne could perhaps even refer to a new mysticism, which has also discovered its own intimate, private medium in drawing.<\/p>\n
The fact that this exhibition is called \u201cAgainst the Grain\u201d, therefore, is to be understood first and foremost as a metaphor of this medium\u2019s individuality and self-will. But the title also holds a wealth of references to a cult book from the turn of the previous century, when Joris-Karl Huysman\u2019s sensationally successful novel \u201c\u00c0 Rebours\u201d, in English \u201cAgainst the Grain\u201d, delighted readers with its ecstatic visions of the end of the world.<\/p>\n
The new mysticism also celebrates the irrational and may be scrutinised as a strategy of flight. However, its sometimes over-exaggerated aestheticism – which is apparently able to cut out the political completely – is always an additional criticism of the media and a game with social roles and one\u2019s own identity.<\/p>\n
Against the Grain includes numerous works by twenty international artists who live in Berlin, or whose work was given vital impulses during their stay in the city.<\/p>\n
with Abetz\/Drescher (D) \/ Marc Bauer (CH) \/ Marc Brandenburg (D) \/ Helen Cho (CAN) \/ Hadassah Emmerich (NL) \/ Marc Gr\u00f6szer (D) \/ Debbie Han (USA) \/ Erla Haraldsd\u00f3ttir (IS) \/ Esther Harris (GB) \/ Thomas Lerooy (B) \/ Marlene McCarty (USA) \/ Adriana Molder (P) \/ Jorge Queiroz (P) \/ Egill Saebj\u00f6rnsson (IS) \/ Yehudit Sasportas (IL) \/ Christoph Schmidberger (A) \/ Alex Tennigkeit (D) \/ Suzanne Treister (GB) \/ Alexandros Tzannis (GR) \/ Iris van Dongen (NL)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-11900","kb_exhibition","type-kb_exhibition","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"article_image":15081,"article_image_bu_de":"","article_image_bu_en":"","datum_suche":"2014-05-30 14:24:16"},"yoast_head":"\n