Metaphors

 

Project by Schuberth and Schuberth
Photographs by Michael Dürr
January 2023 – May 2023

An exhibition to explore the creative – and sometimes successful – life, in honor of all the artistic good-for-nothings of this world.

The materials for our work were ourselves (because they were readily available), spaces and landscapes, seasons, simple props and costumes. It's always astonishing how quickly the imagination comes into play – for example, when an old man (our father) puts on a plastic crown.

Our method: We took idioms and metaphors literally and visualized their actual (literal) meaning. In doing so, we essentially turned them upside down. This resulted in a topsy-turvy fantasy world full of paradoxical and absurd situations.

From this, a wide variety of stories could be composed. Our structure follows motifs that are described as world or background metaphors: the world as a stage, life as a dream, a game, or an adventure. Such linguistic images serve to interpret and, indeed, explain the world and existence. In our case: life as a journey and an adventure. This is connected to an abstract narrative thread—from beginnings through searching and learning to finding and arriving.

The exhibition tour becomes a journey, the experiences leading to brief reflections on lifestyle, virtue, and art. We have chosen terms from Greek philosophy for this purpose, perhaps to avoid fashionable diagnoses through distance. Concepts such as beginning (archê) , action and production (praxis and poiêsis) , contemplation (theôria) , wisdom (phronêsis) , and independence (autarkeia) still exert a powerful (and often convoluted) influence today and stand in fascinating contrast to what is often vaguely understood as creativity today.

Those who wish can delve deeper into these thoughts in the afterword of the office booklet .