Exhibition
Escape Routes

A cooperation between Martin and Rotraut Keil

Thu, 06/16/2016 -
Wed, 08/31/2016
Goethe-Institut Washington

Opening reception Thursday, June 16, 6 – 9 pm with artist Martin Keil



In Escape Routes, a project by the group REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT, digital drawings and pictures made from lace depict migration movements and their causes. The stylized narratives focus on the topic of mutual interdependence in a globalized world undergoing rapid transition. 
 
Currently, 60 million people worldwide are fleeing civil wars, persecution and poverty. Immigration and travel restrictions and controls at the borders of wealthy European countries or on the US-Mexican border, for instance, cannot stop the flow of refugees searching for a better life – a life that is safer, with more freedoms and better prospects for work and education.
 
According to Hannah Arendt, a refugee is a person who exists outside of the public order. Lacking both rights and identity and ripped out of familiar cultural and social contexts, the person deserves protection. Can integration of immigrants lead to a fundamental reorientation of postmodern societies? This depends on what opportunities and civil rights are afforded to immigrants by these societies.
 
In this exhibition, media’s contemporary visual language is combined with the rare and ancient craft of lace production to tell a powerful narrative. The lace pictures are based on drawings that were stylistically edited for effective transfer into lace. Knots interlink and condense individual points. Twisting, crossing and intertwining create lines. 
 
This series of lace works is a transatlantic collaboration between Martin Keil, distinguished visiting artist at the University of Rhode Island, and his mother Rotraut Keil, a German textile designer.

A discussion with well-known artists and experts will take place in conjunction with the exhibition.

In collaboration with the Middle East Institute's Arts and Culture Program.

With additional support from Friends of the Goethe-Institut.