Marie-Christine Schoel: Enfolding/Unfolding – Metaphors of Exposing and Exhibition Practice

Visiting an exhibition tends to be an immersive experience, even if oneself feels distant to or even repelled by any one particular work of art. It is a sensual experience in which the viewer is most often not allowed to touch. Materialities folding into each other into the depth of the very concrete space of the gallery. The viewer (who not only has eyes but an adjacent body) is invited, enfolding herself into this draping of thoughts and references.

Sometimes meaning is veiled at the deep end, in that shadow, which as well could just be an optical illusion. We find ourselves in this darkness where meaning lies enfolded. At other times meaning is revealed before our eyes – lifted like a curtain that reveals this stage, where one suddenly finds themselves upon. We now recognize what was behind it all this time although we did not see who was the one lifting this curtain for us, introducing us to this act of showing and looking, leaving us unfolded. For now we close the curtain to seal ourselves from this blazing sun that enters the windows of the hotel in Beirut where we have the time to recover from this insight.

Marie-Christine Schoel is a teaching research associate at the art history department of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. After graduating from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf she pursues her dissertation on environmental display formats in the history of feminist exhibitions. She received a travel grant from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) in cooperation with the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität to present her research within the context of the current exhibition at VI PER Gallery.