The Neoliberal Urge to Curate a Friendsgroup
March 01 – March 23, 2025

Opening: FRI 28.2.25, ACUD Galerie 18H – 22H
Opening Hours:
THU - SUN
15H – 19H

Participating artists: Sarah Albrecht, Oliver Bleckmann, Manuel Cornelius, Sophia Gatzkan, Jill Kiddon, Luka Naujoks, Johannes Thiel

The exhibition The Neoliberal Urge to Curate a Friendsgroup brings together works by Sarah Albrecht, Oliver Bleckmann, Manuel Cornelius, Sophia Gatzkan, Jill Kiddon, Luka Naujoks and Johannes Thiel and explores the neoliberal tendency to view social relationships as a strategic network - a curated portfolio of friendships, treated as a purpose-driven structure. In a culture dominated by self-promotion and social optimization, friendships are increasingly becoming a resource designed to yield personal benefits. Particularly in the art scene, many friendships have an 'instrumental' character - relationships are selected on the basis of aesthetics and value. Whether overtly conspicuous or demonstratively reserved, everyone operates within a system that follows the same rules and rewards the same behaviours.

Curated by Luka Naujoks & Johannes Thiel

Photo Credit: Jill Kiddon, No Way Out But Through, 2023, stainless steel, power cables, wires, fragments of a car, concrete, iron, aluminum foil, epoxy resin. Dimensions variabel.

Banner Credit: Johannes Thiel.