VISUAL ECHOES
Counter-Images in the Stream of Pictures

Five rooms, five works, five distinctive creative positions: Visual Echoes gathers expansive installations by international artists that immerse us in the picture streams of the present—and curb them with forceful counter-images.

The presentation revolves around a twofold question: How does the ubiquitous profusion of pictures—from television, cinema, internet, advertising, fashion, or art—influence our perceptions, our emotions, and our collective recollection? And how can art help us understand the ideologies and histories behind the images with which we are deluged, and perhaps even help us read them in new ways?

The contributing artists tap into the visual repertoire of our time. They work with found footage as well as fictional imagery created for the purpose that ties in with our collective visual memory. Reflecting on the emotions, ideologies, and power relations that are embedded in today's visual worlds, the works create alternative visual orders. Meaning arises here not through linear narratives, but through friction, associative montages, reflections, omissions, or formal condensations.

The works on view invoke meticulously composed visual echoes—pictures that, in one way or another, harness the flood of media images and expose its mechanisms. In so doing, they deliberately also speak to our emotions and physical sensations. Visual Echoes invites us to take a closer look: Which pictures shape us—and how do we want to see?