Max Pechstein Prize
Max Pechstein Museum, Zwickau
1st September – 27th October 2019

The installation, consisting of 32 rotating, double-sided doors is a playful take on Søren Kierkegaard’s famous book ‘Either/Or’ in which he outlines a theory of human existence, marked by the distinction between an essentially hedonistic, aesthetic mode of life and the ethical life. The visitor is required to make various decisions through entering and exiting the installation with each door carrying a variable instruction, question or description of what lies beyond it. Through each individual visitor’s movements, the choices are changed for the subsequent, implying lasting consequences of our actions for those that follow. The basic German language used on the doors is reminiscent of a beginner’s learning vocabulary, referring to the artist’s own recent acquisition of German citizenship, and the hoops that must be jumped through to attain it. In the centre of the installation the visitor encounters a kind of waiting room, in which catalogues of ‘alternatives’ are supplied, while a two-channel video offers further Alternatives for Duland (Youland), questioning the individual’s position within a social, national, linguistic and politicized context.

Kasia Fudakowski
Alternativen für Duland, 2019
Steel, aluminum, fabric, wood, Plexiglas, brass, rubber, paper, video
300 × 1100 × 260 cm
2 chanel video with audio: 10″ loop