GROUP SHOW WITH MONIRA AL QADIRI, EVELYNE AXELL & TUE GREENFORT
PLASTIC WORLD

KUNSTHALLE SCHIRN, FRANKFURT/MAIN, GERMANY
22 JUNE – 1 OCTOBER 2023

Plastic is every­where. It perme­ates the present age – it is inex­pen­sive, avail­able virtu­ally world­wide, and omnipresent in our daily lives. Because of the vast design possi­bil­i­ties, plastics soon found their way into art and quickly became one of its prin­cipal mate­rials. In the 1950s, synthetic substances were both a symptom and a symbol of mass culture – the “Plastic Age” was born.
In the brief history of this mate­rial culture, which continues to domi­nate to this day, the successful and versa­tile substance devel­oped from being the epitome of progress, modernity, utopian spirit, and democ­ra­ti­za­tion of consumerism into a threat to the environment. 
The SCHIRN is dedi­cating a major thematic exhi­bi­tion to the fasci­nating history of plas­tics in fine art. "Plastic World" presents objects, assem­blages, instal­la­tions, films, and documentations and opens up a broad panorama of the artistic use and eval­u­a­tion of plastic which reflects the soci­etal context concerned. The spec­trum extends from the euphoria of pop culture in the 1960s to the futur­istic influ­ence of the space age, and from the trash works of Nouveau Réalisme to the ecocrit­ical posi­tions of recent times; it includes archi­tec­tural utopias and envi­ron­ments as well as exper­i­ments with mate­rial prop­er­ties.

© All images Norbert Miguletz, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 2023

On view are over 100 works from some 50 inter­na­tional artists, including Monira Al Qadiri, Evelyne Axell, and Tue Greenfort.