graw böckler exhibition

raum für concepción
november 2024
west germany, berlin
it sounds like an idea, sounds like - conceptual art. yes, but no: concepción is a city. it is located in chile, it is not very big, but not too small either. ursula and georg (graw böckler) had the opportunity to spend several month there, to escape the berlin winter and to land in the chilenean summer. they discovered the city and the surroundings of the bio-bio region with a camera. graw böckler adopted a stray cat called mimi, started boxing, spent time at the lagoon and at abandoned industrial sites. they travelled all points of the compass by public transport and observed from their window passers-by at a bus stop.

graw böckler read alphabet soup, held workshops in spanish and drank delicious chilean wine. the "estallido social" protests and popular uprising, the subsequent change of government and the draft of a constitution, were recurring themes in conversations with new acquaintances. for the exhibition, graw böckler use a variety of media to approach these and other phenomena they encountered during their time in concepción and declare a medium-sized industrial town in the south of chile to be the navel of the world.

partly funded by berlin senate department for culture and europe. in cooperation with jubg, cologne.