NOWs: Into the Hollow by Julian Charrière

29 April - 25 June 2016 / Nows

Julian Charriere, Metamorphism XIV, 2016 © Julian Charriere, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

For his exhibition “Into the Hollow”, Julian Charrière transforms the space at gallery Dittrich & Schlechtriem into a cabinet of geological curiosities from a possible post-digital era. Selected pieces of manipulated molten rock are displayed in vitrines like topological fragments in a natural history museum from a time yet to come. The presented objects are hybrids of congealed magma. Charrière has melted, transmuted and amalgamated current technological gadgets (smartphones, notebooks, hard drives etc.), including their stored memory, within molten rock.

The minerals used for those technical devices are excavated at different locations around the world, then shipped to countries like India, China or the United States to be assembled into technological devices, a process that may be considered a cultural crystallization of a globalized production scheme. Materials sourced from various geographies are brought together in physical objects by which we are all digitally connected. When these become outdated they are sent to e-waste sites, where they are handpicked and separated in order to fuel more technology, thus re-entering the circulation process. Julian Charrière interrupts this recycling flow by prematurely transmuting these delicate devices. Through this forcible intervention, he initiates a geo-artistic reflection on our digital consumer culture, a ‘geo-reset’: back to the future.

A full exhibition catalog including a text by Paul Feigelfeld will be published and available through the gallery. An interview with Julian Charrière on “Fossiling the Future” by Penny Victoria Rafferty is featured in sleek magazine.
“Into the Hollow” is on display at Dittrich & Schlechtriem from 29 April until 25 June 2016.

Julian Charriere, Metamorphism XVII (Detail), 2016, © Julian Charriere, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Courtesy Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin; photo Hans-Georg Gaul

Julian Charriere, Metamorphism XIX (Detail), 2016, © Julian Charriere, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Courtesy Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin; photo Hans-Georg Gaul

Julian Charriere, Installlationview Into the Hollow at Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2016, © Julian Charriere, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Courtesy Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin; photo Hans-Georg Gaul

Julian Charriere, Installationview: Into the Hollow at Dittrich & Schlechtriem, 2016, © Julian Charriere, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Courtesy Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin; photo Hans-Georg Gaul