»Domestic Drama«: about the humanity of things and how they create identity at home

With Domestic Drama, the Halle für Kunst Steiermark in Graz will present an exceptional exhibition from 4 December 2021 that will turn the museum into a home draped as a stage. The guiding principle for the show of works is psychologist Ernest Dichter's assumption that objects carry a soul within them and are therefore human - after all, without human existence they would not exist at all: »The moment furniture, houses, bread, cars, bicycles or other products appear in our lives, they are connected to us, they are human.« (Ernest Dichter, The Strategy of Desire, Martino Publishing, Mansfield, 2012. p. 93) The exhibition title was contributed by architectural theorist Beatriz Colomina: She coined the term »Domestic Drama« in her essay The Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism (1992). It was Colomina who came up with the idea of the stage-like staging of the home, which nevertheless determines social participation and reveals categories such as social affiliation, but in which dramas are also created and conflicts take place. Domestic Drama is sometimes dedicated to the process of change to which the concept of home has been subjected by the Corona pandemic. Moreover, it attempts to dissociate objects from their representational existence and instead view them as »representatives of these very conflicts, but also desires«; according to Dichter.

For this purpose the Halle für Kunst Steiermark is being redesigned: The Portuguese artist Bruno Zhu (*1991 Porto) designed a site-specific architecture especially for the exhibition, which enters into dialogue with the other exhibits there. With his hybridised objects, Zhu understands how to place the ordinary in a relationship of tension with the culturally foreign. In addition to his expansive work, Domestic Drama presents, among others, new productions by Olu Ogunnaike (*1986 London) and Camille Blatrix (*1984 Paris) as well as by the duo Nigel Gavus and İlkin Beste Çırak (*1992 Graz;*1994 Izmir), which were commissioned by the exhibition house for the event. These include cleverly woven furniture and a 16mm film that links the concept of housing with identity, work and the act of liberation from reality. Those wishing to visit the exhibition should note that the Halle für Kunst Steiermark is expected to remain closed until 12 December due to a nationwide lockdown to contain the Covid19 pandemic in Austria. Officially, however, Domestic Drama will run until 20 February 2022.