How Normal Is Our Reality?

30.04.2024

Perceptions of the Arctic take centre-stage in the recent work of Hamburg-based conceptual artist Swaantje Güntzel, created during her tenure as the resident Art Fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability - Helmholtz Centre Potsdam. Now several galleries across Germany are showcasing Güntzel’s art, including works from previous years.

Swaantje Güntzel, Eisbär, 2024, Photo Tobias Hübel

An AI generated this image of a polar bear confined in a zoo.

Conceptual artist Swaantje Güntzel has explored perceptions of the Arctic region during a year-long fellowship at the Research Institute for Sustainability - Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (RIFS). The works created during her fellowship include a somewhat surprising image of a polar bear that was generated in a process akin to painting by numbers. What initially appears to be the image of a typical polar bear was actually made using the DALL.E 2 artificial intelligence image generation system. When Güntzel entered the term "polar bear”, the images generated by the AI all featured polar bears confined in zoos, rather than in the wild. This work will be on display at Güntzel’s solo exhibition "Normalitätssimulation" (Simulation of Normality) at Galerie Holthoff in Hamburg, which opens on Friday, 3 May.

The bear reflects a key concern of Güntzel: Why does humanity – against its better judgment – give in to the desire to ignore the urgency of this moment? Güntzel’s works cast a spotlight on the parallel reality that this creates, one in which we simulate normality rather than taking action. Using commonly available materials, techniques and found objects, Güntzel draws attention to the banality of the choices we make in everyday life and the broader context of the ecological consequences that these decisions ultimately incur.

Güntzel’s solo exhibition at Galerie Holthoff follows in the wake of the high-profile exhibition "Caspar David Friedrich. Art for a New Age" at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, which also featured her work. Later this month, she will also be showing at "Echos der Zukunft" (Echoes of the Future), an exhibition curated by Tuçe Erel and hosted at Potsdam’s Biosphere (opens 18 May at 6.00 pm). In June, Kunsthalle Bahnitz will celebrate its fifteenth anniversary with the exhibition “Schöne Aussichten” (Beautiful Views) (opens 22 June at 1.00 pm). Works by Güntzel will also be shown at the exhibition, which will consider the environmental and climate crises as well as the relationship between humankind and nature.

Another exhibition, hosted by the the Lippische Gesellschaft für Kunst, will take place at Detmold Castle from 15 September to 20 October 2024 and will also feature works created by Swaantje Güntzel during her tenure as RIFS Art Fellow in Potsdam. These works on display will also examine perceptions of the Arctic and how these shape our understanding of the region. How do we translate ecological realities into images and why do we hold fast to the vision of the Arctic as a landscape untouched by humankind?

Exhibtions featuring work by RIFS Fellow Swaantje Güntzel
Date	City	Title	Location
03.05.24	Hamburg	Swaantje Güntzel "Normalitätssimulation"	Galerie Holthoff
18.05.24	Potsdam	Echos der Zukunft	Biosphäre
22.06.2024	Bahnitz	Schöne Aussichten	Kunsthalle
15.9.24	Detmold	Swaantje Güntzel - Konzeptkunst	Kunst im Schloss

This cabriolet gondola from a cable car that once operated in Germany's Fichtelgebirge Mountains has been refurbished to serve as a decorative element for the garden and adorned with plants and items from a DIY store. Chairlifts and gondolas retired from ski resorts severely affected by the climate crisis have been marketed as garden furniture and decorative elements for several years now.

A cabriolet gondola retired from a ski resort affected by the climate crisis

Titled 'Nordpolmode' (Nachrichtendienst Berlin, circa 1920s), this press photo inspired the eponymous video work, which will be shown for the first time at the vernissage in Hamburg.

This image of a landscape (1900, photographer unknown) was woven from plastic fibres that were collected on a beach on Spitsbergen during a citizen science project and subsequently examined at the Alfred Wegener Institute. This work was created with the support of the Alfred Wegener Institute - Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research.

This embroidery is a depiction of cell division in a lab-grown Northern White Rhinoceros embryo. There are currently only two females of this species left. Egg cells were fertilized in-vitro using sperm from a deceased male. The embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen and will be implanted into a surrogate mother at a later date.