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The shutdown of public life is accompanied by a new understanding of limitation. National borders have been closed, environments have shrunk to the nearest surroundings, and a lack of information and events makes it more difficult for new ideas to emerge. At the same time, the question arises as to whether creative potential is also hidden behind personal limitation. One of the first answers to this question is celebrating its opening this week.
SHUTDOWN.gallery is the latest project of Patrik Hübner. The German designer has set himself the goal of adding a new dimension to cultural life in times of social distancing.
Since 2018 Hübner has been pushing the idea of digital space and the concept of the online gallery. In those days a little ahead of its time, the project is now coming to life in the current events. "I had to watch as museums and galleries in my area closed their doors and the experience of art came to a standstill. It felt as if the gallery had to exist right now."
SHUTDOWN.gallery is a first step towards understanding the analogue and digital world together. It is intended to add a new level to the construct of what a gallery is and to blur the boundaries between analog and digital experience.
A logical next step in developing a narrative for digital spaces that can be experienced. References to real objects and the associated spatial limitations are important to facilitate the transition into this digital space and to prepare metaphors for future reinterpretations of the gallery concept.
The digital gallery adapts to the physical situation of the viewer and is freely accessible: On mobile devices such as telephones or tablets, the visitor can view the room directly and from all perspectives by tilting the device or moving it freely in the room - the boundaries between the physical and the digital disappear suddenly and intuitively.
As a web-based project, the gallery is publicly accessible worldwide. Every week there will be a new exhibition with works that move the world of art and design, thus maintaining the fertile environment of constant change. A growing list of world-renowned designers and artists has already confirmed their participation in what is the start of a new chapter for galleries.
The gallery’s dynamic and flexible visual identity reflects this constant change and desire for collaboration and new perspectives by putting every week’s exhibition at the center of the visual campaign. The result is highly unique mix of the gallery’s space and the artist’s work which can be used across social- and physical spaces to promote and visually explore this collaboration.
Manifest
Shutdown Gallery overwrites the walls of your private space and keeps your mind in motion even though the physical world is standing still.
Growth is a fundamental aspect of human nature. We are used to increasing the space around us, to crossing borders, to thinking of and discovering unexpected grounds.
In this fertile environment of constant change, shutdown confronts us with new levels of restriction and limitation. Country borders are closed, private life reduced to a minimum and cultural life locked in silence. The question "What's new?" is increasingly left unanswered and so are the contents that used to stimulate our thoughts and conversations.
In absence of new impressions, SHUTDOWN.gallery appears as a contemporary place of visual experience that intends to reawaken cultural life beyond social distancing and to literally overwrite the walls of our private space.
Based on the idea to use limitation as a creative tool instead of declaring it as constraint, SHUTDOWN.gallery aims to rethink existing concepts and reestablish focus in a world of distraction.
Every week, there will be a new exhibition with an artist whose work moves the world of art and design and thus maintains the fertile environment of constant change.