Originating in the format of the salon – initially conceived as a space of creative discourse for a selected circle – Sol Calero, Peles Empire and Josip Novosel define the site KW PROJECTS as a half-social space, between involvement and exclusion, conception and activation. The exhibiting artists share an interest in social structures, which they reflect and translate spatially. Drawing from specific spaces and the events experienced there, the salon questions their potential and value for transformation within the context of the art space. As remnants of past events the presented artworks in the Salon become hybrid things – „sometimes an object, sometimes a social bond, and sometimes discourse“ (Bruno Latour).
The following events took place before the SALON OF HYBRID THINGS:
Salsa sounds drift out of La Mambita dance studio on a mellow summer night in Berlin. The room is filled with twirling couples and the scent of tanning-oil. Ruben Blades’ song PEDRO NAVAJA is playing, the lyrics are complex but nobody speaks the language. The bar has been set up next to the fan, a few people are practicing basic steps in front of a mirror: the dance, to them, is excitingly exotic. It brings a place to mind that they have never been to – tropical and unknown.
King Carol I of Romania once walked through the richly decorated rooms of Peleș Castle. A walk through his summer residence led him and his guests through all great stylistic eras, from Gothic to Art Déco – each room dedicated to another time. However, as one looked into the big mirror in the hall, the contours of things suddenly blurred, the rooms became flat, multiplying themselves endlessly and finally forming a sometimes colorful, sometimes monochrome setting, in front of which a lot of people anywhere in the world sat together sociably. As the sun rises over Berlin the next morning there is silence. The guests are gone and also the scenery is vanishing slowly – only to reproduce itself again moments later, to condense and to wait for the next visitor.
Tables in an empty room on which chairs lean carelessly. U CAN’T SIT WITH US, the memory of that moment when someone pulled the chair from underneath you while you were sitting down in the school cafeteria. Making fun of someone or something, coming together and being antisocial when someone is wearing track pants on a day that isn’t Friday. Casting, code and common sense, to define who can sit, who can't.

Curated by Maurin Dietrich and Nina Mende

Courtesy of the Artists and KW Projects