Simon Dybbroe Møller – Letter from the new world to the old world

28 October 2006 – 28 January 2007
Opening: Friday, 27 October 2006, 7.30 p.m.

Welcoming speech: Waltraut Steimke, executive director
Introduction: Susanne Pfeffer, artistic director

In regard to letter writing, a difference in form exists between this and the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. This divergence became clear one evening to Arthur H. Stone, when he attempted to place a standard DIN A4 sheet of paper into a US envelope. Without further ado, he cut off the portion of paper that was sticking out. While handling the remaining strip of paper, he made a discovery: by folding paper triangles, and using the principle of folded paper fortune-tellers, a hexagon that could be opened up had been created – the Flexagon. The Soma cube works in a similarly ingenious fashion. During a lecture by Heisenberg, the Danish mathematician Piet Hein dissected a cube into a three-dimensional puzzle. Based upon these games, Danish artist Simon Dybbroe Møller reflects upon modern architecture. Just as with these games, this visionary architecture laid claim to being capable of finding ingenious solutions for urban and social problems. Or were complex and logical solutions of this sort even useful, in the attempt to satisfy such claims?
Black, White and Gray was the title given to the first legendary group exhibition of Minimalism. In the form of black and white photographs, this black-white-grey exhibition travelled the globe and shaped the image of Minimalism. Simon Dybbroe Møller’s rendering of the black and white photography in colour leads the exhibition back to the moment prior to their reproduction. Irritations, exploring new directions and reactions involve the visitor to the exhibition Letter from the new world to the old world exhibition in a fast-paced game.

An artist’s book by Simon Dybbroe Møller will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.

PROGRAM

15 November 2006, 7.30 p.m. Screening Playtime, Jacques Tati (1967)
7 Dezember 2006, 7.30 p.m. Die formalen Geheimnisse des Soma-Würfels Lecture by Prof. Albrecht Beutelspacher, Mathematikum Gießen

Guided tours: 22 November 2006, 7 p.m.; 29 November 2006, 7 p.m.; 13 December 2006, 17 p.m.; 3. January 2007, 7 p.m.

The exhibition is supported by: