Events/Openings

UNIVERSALSPRACHEN

In 1972 the spacecraft Pioneer 10 was sent into space. It carried a gilded aluminum plaque as a message in case of an encounter with extraterrestrial intelligent life: The plaque was engraved with the nude figures of man and woman and the molecular form of the Hydrogen atom.
But are visual forms universally comprehensible? Don’t all symbols build on conventions, codification systems, and a shared frame of reference?
The exhibition UNIVERSALSPRACHEN of the Kleine Humboldt Galerie brings together artworks and objects from visual culture that reflect upon the age-old ambition to make worldwide communication possible. The works on show go beyond spoken and written language to include communication systems that are never immediately decipherable but require computation: technical languages generate a connection between numbers, visual codes, and written language to serve as mediators in a globalised society. The exhibition UNIVERSALSPRACHEN confronts artistically and artificially developed systems of communication to demonstrate the diversity of communication channels as well as their limits and potentials.

Featured Works from: epidemiC/Franco Berardi, Vera Buhß, Yoonhee Kim, EunHee Lee, Magma, Milovan DeStil Marković, Otto Neurath, Ben Patterson, Mike Ruiz, Daniel Salomon, Edward Tufte, Ivar Veermäe.

Opening-Performance by Olof Olsson

Curated by Yasmin Meinicke