22 Sep 2018 — 25 Nov 2018

Superstition

Superstition
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij

When you spill salt, do you throw some over your shoulder?

Curator: Erich Weiss

Do you knock on wood when you want something good to happen or blow out birthday candles after making a wish? What about stepping on sidewalk cracks, killing spiders, shattering mirrors and opening an umbrella indoors?

Curator, artist and magic thinker Erich Weiss assembled a wonderful cast for this subject: Nina Beier & Simon Dybbroe Møller, Otto Berchem, Pierre Bismuth, Santiago Borja, Ulla von Brandenburg, Stefan Brüggemann, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Keren Cytter, Uri Geller, Joachim Koester, Germaine Kruip, Nils Nova, Joanna Piotrowska, John Stezaker and Mungo Thomson.

Artists have always had a fascination with phenomena that defy rational explanation. The surrealists were obsessed with the analysis and creative possibilities of dream states. Authors including Antonin Artaud, William S. Burroughs, and Alan Ginsberg explored (sometimes with help of drugs) the boundaries between reality and fiction. Directors Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovski captured the way superstition informed the imagination and consciousness.

Superstition was an exhibition about magic and illusion. Artists have always had a fascination with phenomena that defy rational explanation. The surrealists were obsessed with the analysis and creative possibilities of dream states. Authors including Antonin Artaud, William S. Burroughs, and Alan Ginsberg explored (sometimes with help of drugs) the boundaries between reality and fiction. Directors Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovski captured the way superstition informed the imagination and consciousness.

Superstition

Exhibition Overview

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Superstition
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Superstition
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Superstition
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Superstition
Photo: Rob van Hoorn
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Superstition
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Superstition
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Superstition
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Superstition
Photo: Rob van Hoorn
Superstition
Photo: Rob van Hoorn
Superstition
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Superstition
Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij

Performance Mungo Thomson

The musical piece Crickets by Mungo Thomson was performed live during the opening of the exhibition by students of the Maastricht Academy of Music, conducted by Roderik Povel.

Press

For press requests, imagery and interview requests, please contact Julie Cordewener: julie.cordewener@marres.org.

Thanks to

The Danish Arts Foundation, Pro Helvetia and the Mondriaan Fonds, the public cultural funding organization focusing on visual arts and cultural heritage. The Mondriaan Fund contributed to the artists’ fees through the experimental regulations.