Odradek
In his short story The Cares of a Family Man, first published in 1919, Franz Kafka introduces Odradek as a deliberately undefined protagonist. It is simultaneously a thing, an object, which he describes as an informal entanglement of threads, and a being, a living organism able to move, talk, and even laugh. It is also, and primarily, a word, seemingly uproted from any language. Odradek suggests an open field for interpretation, but in the first place, it emphasizes the potential of the caring gaze and of closely paid attention to animate the inanimate, which blur the boundaries between object and subject.
Odradek, an exhibition at Malm枚 Konsthall, invites eight artists whose works similarly transgress the fixed dualities between subject and object, and who tend to include the viewers in processes characterized by attention, care, and participation. The exhibition aims at making links and weaving affinities between the practices of these artists from various backgrounds and generations.
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In his short story The Cares of a Family Man, first published in 1919, Franz Kafka introduces Odradek as a deliberately undefined protagonist. It is simultaneously a thing, an object, which he describes as an informal entanglement of threads, and a being, a living organism able to move, talk, and even laugh. It is also, and primarily, a word, seemingly uproted from any language. Odradek suggests an open field for interpretation, but in the first place, it emphasizes the potential of the caring gaze and of closely paid attention to animate the inanimate, which blur the boundaries between object and subject.
Odradek, an exhibition at Malm枚 Konsthall, invites eight artists whose works similarly transgress the fixed dualities between subject and object, and who tend to include the viewers in processes characterized by attention, care, and participation. The exhibition aims at making links and weaving affinities between the practices of these artists from various backgrounds and generations.
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Kafka's perplexing creature made of tangled threads provides inspiration for a group show at Malm枚 Konsthall, Sweden
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