RESERVOIR proudly presents Fallow Ground, a group exhibition at Spaced Out, on the Gut Kerkow estate Germany. The exhibition is produced in collaboration with PSM, Berlin, and includes work by:​

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Kamyar Bineshtarigh

Dale Lawrence

Alexandra Karakashian

Thami Kiti

Bella Knemeyer

Mongezi Ncaphayi

Michele Mathison

Maja Marx

Bulumko Mbete

Seretse Moletsane

Richard Mudariki

Gareth Nyandoro

Jody Paulsen

Mankebe Seakgoe

Brett Seiler

Guy Simpson

Inga Somdyala

Ben Stanwix &

Xhanti Zwelendaba

Atang Tshikare

Anna van der Ploeg

Pierre Vermeulen

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Fallow Ground includes the work of 22 contemporary artists based in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The exhibition will open to the public at Spaced Out, at the Gut Kerkow estate in Uckermark on the 6th of October. Spaced Out offers a unique exhibition platform outside of the Berlin city-centre, providing open access to contemporary art to audiences who are interested in art experiences that reside in unexpected locations. Here narratives are created that position work by international art practitioners in the context of the rural environment of Uckermark. Spaced Out’s programming is produced in collaboration with PSM - a Berlin-based gallery founded in 2008 by Sabine Schmidt.

 

The curatorial premise of the exhibition is rooted in the concept of “letting the land lie fallow”, an agricultural term for farmland which has been ploughed and harrowed but left for a period without being sown in order to restore its fertility or to avoid surplus production. The exhibition invited 22 artists to contribute work that explore notions of resting. Applying this concept as a metaphor for studio practice, we are interested in the importance of times of rest as being conducive to the creative process. In more ways than one, the exhibition is sympathetic to time, making way for the productivity of waiting. Through this exhibition we consider the antithesis of rest as inaction, observing the word instead as activism. As a response to emerging global political narratives based on divide, opposition and fear, we look to rest as a space for healing, reflection, and growth. Through this exhibition we hope to explore how true sustainability (through contemporary notions of care) can foster longevity and legacy - especially in how it pertains to the role of the artist in leading thought on critical ethics. As a body of work brought upon as a result of post-colonial criticality, the concept of fallow land can be interpreted as a psychological landscape and be more literally tied to the complex history of land ownership in Southern Africa.

 

The collection of work comprises a multitude of contemporary expressions, including sculpture, textile and tapestry, drawing, painting, sound and more. Through the interaction between these works, and by means of its exposure to new audiences, we hope to add to the developing language and perception of contemporary art from the African continent.