Hyle¹
30.11.2024–23.02.2025
Nina Beier, Formafantasma, Pauline Julier, Izidora I Lethe,
Ceylan Öztrük, Gina Proenza

What materials form the inventory of our shared and individual histories? And how do these materials shape our collective futures?

The exhibition Hyle¹ explores the underlying connection between materials and temporality. In ancient Greek, hyle stands for wood as a raw and untreated matter, that takes on form and meaning through technè – the human touch.

Materials can embody power, social orders and cultural symbols. They not only form objects, but are also part of social relationships and cultural meanings. Extracted, processed and integrated into our living environment, materials shape the history of ecological and technological
transformation. Filled with meaning in the context of specific time and place, materials–like geological layers–create the construct that we read as culture.

The cultural and symbolic charge of materials, their economic significance and their transformative potential form our understanding of history. So how do we project our multi-layered past into a possible future?

The artists in Hyle¹ reveal these temporal layers and make the feedback loop between material and time visible. 

Kunsthalle Bielefeld, DE

NRW+

curated by Kristina Grigorjeva and Undine Rietz