Domesticity I: I was ready for Victorian tiles

Domesticity is both the instrument that structures our relationships and a symptom of them–relationships with surroundings, environments, people, animals, food, money and love. It shapes imaginations of nations, societal expectations and emotional bonds to places that may or may not still exist beyond our remembrances.

Following Walter Benjamin, the separation between public and private that the domestic presupposes emerged only 300 years ago. Its mode of division has become the matter of life: work and rest. It is a threshold of othering based on inclusion and exclusion, being seen or remaining unseen. This membrane, this imperial microcosm of imports and exports is implicated in selecting the presence and absence of individuals: but following what motives?

What makes a good life? How to live well? Existences are animated by competing answers and conflicts of interest. The desire for safety was our communal point of departure. This pursuit, which built the decayed houses we once dwelled in, will one day use memories and forgetfulness to rebuild them and us.

Domesticity is a three part exhibition series developed and curated by Lars Holdgate (Galerie Parterre), Zhijian Lyu (Prater Galerie) and Cara Michel (Galerie Pankow).