GROUP EXHIBITION

The exhibition title Nocturnal Ballads is inspired by the lyrical ballad, aliterary form that flourished in the Romantic era. In the late 18th century, theLake poets (William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and RobertSouthey) produced the renowned poetry collection Lyrical Ballads, shiftingtheir focus from the external actions of people to individual expressionand emotional sincerity. They altered the language of ballads by avoiding complex vocabulary, including vernacular and folklore elements to elicit anemotional reaction. Entering the exhibition space, the visitors are surroundedby contrasting depictions of nature and mysterious forests. This immersiveexperience plunges them into mystical realms and different states of mind ina somber scenery where dreams become tangible.

In folklore, myths, fairy tales, and even Shakespeare’s plays, forests are oftendepicted as places of wonder where strange and mysterious events occur.Forests can evoke fear and uncertainty or bring about a reversal of fortune.Wandering through enchanted woods is always a transformative experiencebut inherently unpredictable. In psychoanalysis, woods may symbolisethe unconscious mind, concealing hidden dreams, fears, and memories.The journey through the forest is thus a voyage of self-discovery and anexploration of thoughts and emotions.

The exhibition features metaphorical, poetic, and conceptual works that tellprofound visual stories, traversing the gallery space like ivy enveloping anancient stone house. Laurent Grasso’s mysterious woods are inhabited bysupernatural phenomena: flying lights and clouds appear amidst the treesor in the middle of a road, obstructing the path and captivating onlookers.Gregor Hildebrandt has created a different forest. The minimalist sculpturesof Wo Du mich liebst beginnt der Wald (Where You Love Me the ForestBegins) are like trees, made of vinyl records that serve as vessels for aromantic song recorded on them. Farhad Moshiri’s winter forest comprisesthousands of black and white glass beads, rendering the sparkling whitesilence of frozen nature. Fu Rao captures poetic landscapes with Romanticflair, incorporating whimsical and dramatic elements. The expressivevastness of Zhao Yang’s landscape is imbued with a powerful energy,tree branches twisting and merging into human form, evoking memoriesof ancient tales in which trees come to life at midnight. Under the coverof night, a world of fleeting dreams and contemplation opens before us.Meng Yangyang’s Midnight Story and Christiane Pooley’s Sueño recurrente(Recurring Dreams) explore this nocturnal hour filled with childhoodreminiscences of bedtime tales, introspection, flickering lights, andunspoken emotions.

When the conscious mind rests, the subconscious drifts into the realmof dreams, where the laws of reality no longer apply. These surreal dreamscapes and fluid narratives become a wellspring for the creativeimagination. At the crossroads of dreams and the human psyche, in thefleeting moment between wakefulness and sleep, peculiar ideas anduncanny visions suddenly emerge, evoking unsettling experiences that havefuelled myths, legends, and artistic imagery throughout history.

Nocturnal Ballads showcases works that defy the logic of the daylightworld, exploring images, emotions, and things that are difficult to articulatein the language of reality. Chiho Aoshima, Fu Rao, Klara Kristalova, andMark Ryden present enigmatic creatures that seem to come straight out oflegends and myths, their eyes filled with mysterious stories. Crafted in thestyle of the old masters, Chang Yachin’s still lifes portray ordinary objectsfrom everyday life with a clever sense of humour and poignant imagination.

The artists weave personal stories into the collective imagination andcontemporary folklore. Their visual narratives portray nature’s grandeur,mystical forests, and eerie spaces inhabited by cryptic creatures andfantasies, evoking memories of fairy tales. But caution is advised: thedancing lights may bewitch travellers, leading them forever astray in theforest’s dark shadows.

’...The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep...’
— Robert Frost, _Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening_