The Philara Collection is pleased to open a new, comprehensive collection presentation with Breathing Water, Drinking Air. To showcase the wide range and diverse points within the collection that emerged from the sprawling and asymmetrical movements of a desire to collect, works from the collection are shown each year in new contexts and thematic settings.

The exhibition features never-before-presented works from the collection and opens up new perspectives on already familiar works. It includes international as well as local contemporary art in photography, painting, video, sculpture, installation, and performance. Breathing Air, Drinking Water addresses reflection in and about nature, as well as the hierarchization of humans and nature. Thus, the works in the exhibition address permeable boundaries, exchange and interaction as well as the agency of nature in times of the Anthropocene. The precious and suggestive resources of air and water stand for a world of unknown existences, as well as for fundamental figures of thought that open up to further perspectives. Breathing and drinking are understood not only as essential supply and survival activities, but also as a renegotiation of the relations between man and environment in overcoming anthropocentrism. Thus, the works on display also open up questions about new narratives and sensibilities regarding our interconnectedness and permeability: to what extent can we learn about our physical, biological, chemical, and spiritual worlds through the means of art? What do the works show us in terms of our capacity for contact, dialogue and our forms of coexistence?

With Hicham Berrada and Thomas Grünfeld.

Image:
Hicham Berrada
Tranche, Présage , 2019/2022