Welcome to the Jungle
Kun­sthalle Düssel­dorf
3 March – 21 May 2018

Welcome to the Jungle was an exhibition celebrating the 50th an­niver­sary of Kun­sthalle Düssel­dorf am Grabbe­platz, featuring video in­stal­la­tions, per­for­mances, large-scale pro­duc­tions, and site-spe­cif­ic works by in­ter­na­tion­al artists, main­ly the works and per­spec­tives of a younger gen­er­a­tion.

The exhibition highlighted artis­tic prac­tices concentrating on the aes­thet­ic di­men­sion of art in or­der to sharp­en our aware­ness of the para­dox­es and con­tra­dic­tions in contemporary life, a jun­gle of in­for­ma­tion, wis­dom, half-truths, prej­u­dices, and rules. The se­lect­ed works do not so much spec­i­fy a con­crete path or paint an apoc­a­lyp­tic pic­ture, but in­stead se­ri­ous­ly and whole­heart­ed­ly ex­am­ine the re­al­i­ties of the jun­gle and ul­ti­mate­ly en­cour­age the view­er to
pur­sue stim­u­lat­ing ques­tions and ex­plore new ap­proach­es or po­et­ic and ab­surd paths in an en­cour­ag­ing and hu­mor­ous at­mo­sphere.

For Welcome to the Jungle, Urbano recreated an installation first shown at ChertLüdde in 2017. Resembling an abandoned office complex, the installation is a labyrinthine construction of deceptive architecture, a play on fiction and reality.