Schering Stiftung

Artist talk 

Ivana Franke: Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown, exhibition at the Schering Stiftung, April - July 2017

Ivana Franke: Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown, exhibition at the Schering Stiftung, April - July 2017
Photo: Julia Zimmermann

Ivana Franke: Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown, exhibition at the Schering Stiftung, April - July 2017

Ivana Franke: Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown, exhibition at the Schering Stiftung, April - July 2017
Photo: Ivana Franke

Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown, published by Schering Stiftung and Spector Books

Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown, published by Schering Stiftung and Spector Books

Book Launch and Conversation

with Ivana Franke, Juan-Andres Leon and Elena Agudio

Book Launch and Conversation

with Ivana Franke, Juan-Andres Leon and Elena Agudio

Date:

June 20, 2018, 8–9:30 p.m.

Venue:

SAVVY Contemporary
Plantagenstr. 31
13347 Berlin

Please register at anmeldung@scheringstiftung.de.


The Schering Stiftung, in cooperation with SAVVY Contemporary, will present the recently released publication “Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown”. The book documents and reflects on the same-titled exhibition by Ivana Franke, which was on show at the Schering Stiftung Project Space in the spring and early summer of 2017, curated by Elena Agudio. This was accompanied by a symposium that took place at the Kuppelhalle of silent green Kulturquartier (SAVVY Contemporary). On the occasion of the book presentation, Ivana Franke will talk with the physicist and historian of science Juan-Andres Leon. The discussion, moderated by Elena Agudio, will delve into aspects such as the relationship between phenomenal consciousness, imagination and experience, in interplay with methodologies of scientific observation.

For centuries, human perception and the exploration of the unknown have been subjects of artistic inquiry. In her project “Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown,” the artist Ivana Franke brings both together and explores our processes of perception when we are faced with something that is phenomenologically unknown. Published by Spector Books, the book presents the elements of “retreat into darkness”: Ivana Franke’s installation at the Schering Stiftung, whose light reflections in an absolutely dark room facilitate new visual experiences; experiments by cognitive psychologist Bilge Sayim; and observations by internationally renowned researchers Jimena Canales, Pierre Gallais, Sylvia C. Pont, and Anil K. Seth.

Ivana Franke is a visual artist based in Berlin. Her investigations with light approach the interface between perception, cognition and environment, focusing on perceptual thresholds. In 2017, her solo exhibition Perceptual Drift (Galaxies in Mind) was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. Further projects included Disorientation Station (11th Shanghai Biennale) and Seeing with Eyes Closed (Peggy Guggenheim, Venice, 2011; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, 2012). She represented Croatia at the 52nd Venice Biennale with a solo show titled Latency; her work has also been shown at Manifesta 7 and MoMA P.S.1.

Juan-Andres Leon trained as a physicist and a historian before doing a PhD in the History of Science. Parallel to his academic trajectory, he has pursued a museum career that focuses on modern scientific instrumentation and computing. His work looks at the role of science as world transforming practice, political ideology and personal habitus. In his dissertation, “Citizens of the Chemical Complex,” he explored the world of science philanthropy in Imperial and Weimar Germany and its impact on the applied sciences, physics, mathematics and astronomy. He is now completing a monograph on the history of astronomy, astrophysics and space research in the second half of the 20th century in West Germany.

Elena Agudio is a Berlin-based art historian and curator. Her research is focused on the sharing and exchange of knowledge and skills across disciplines and cultures beyond the Western episteme. She is the artistic director of the non-profit Association of Neuroesthetics (AoN). Since 2013, she is artistic co-director at SAVVY Contemporary. Her latest and still running curatorial projects include We Who Are Not The Same. Exercises Towards The Unmaking Of Patriarchy, Control, Dominion And Other Male Cogito’s Misplaced Potencies, a series curated with Nathalie Mba Bikoro and Federica Bueti; SAVVY Funk, an iteration of Every Time A Ear di Soun — a documenta 14 Radio Program, curated together with Bonaventure Ndikung and Marcus Gammel; and That, Around Which The Universe Revolves, curated with Bonaventure Ndikung, Anna Jäger and Saskia Köbschall. Elena and Ivana have been engaged in dialogue for the past eight years.

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Publication

Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown, published by Schering Stiftung and Spector Books

Ivana Franke

Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown

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Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown

Symposium — June 27, 2017

The symposium aims to explore the experience of seeing the “unknown” on a phenomenological level, while also shedding light on its transformative potential.

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Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften

Festival — June 24, 2017

In its interior courtyard, the Foundation offers exciting neuroscience lectures on visual perception and human consciousness.

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Ivana Franke

Exhibition — April 27 – July 16, 2017

Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown

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Schering Stiftung

Unter den Linden 32-34
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Email: info@scheringstiftung.de

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