ALONE/TOGETHER // Environmental intervention and video projection, designed and organized by Ian Jehle with videos by Eitan Ritz, Alvaro Rodríguez Badel, Elisa García de la Huerta, 25hr sailing, Ian Jehle, Kovács/O’Doherty and Annelise Forster. Tape installation by Ian Jehle and Sònia Toneu.

How do you describe the times we are living in now? As something exceptional, something that none of us have ever experienced before, something that crosses borders and economics and ages demographics? What is certain is that all of us are alone, but we’re also part of a shared experience. We are Alone Together.

Artist Chema Alvargonzalez, created this residency as a way for artists to come from all over the world to experience Berlin. Its very existence is focused on bringing people who are far apart closer together. But what does that mean during a global pandemic? The artists presented here come from places as far away as Australia, Chile and Korea. Each of them is working in different artistic fields, in different time zones, and unique environments. So, what kind of shared experience can happen between people so far apart? 

What the artists realised is that this time, that was meant to be spent together, is now spent reflecting on the world we see in front of us. Instead of conversations shared over a common table, we find ourselves alone, looking out at the world through windows in our homes, our screens, our own memories. For this project the artists of GlogauAIR have come together to share their experiences looking through these various windows. For some of us that meant looking at the nature around us, for others it meant considering our connections to the world through the online environment and for others the window was a mirror where we looked at ourselves and how we function in the world. As our concerns have shifted from the shared experience of a global health crisis to the shared experience of racism and prejudice, the call to examine our world has become all the more urgent. The artist’s role to share, reflect upon and examine what is happening around us is even more urgent.  

With this in mind, Berlin-based artist Ian Jehle has created a series of frames meant to draw attention to aspects of the local environment that are often overlooked. These small and large frames are created with orange and white tape similar to the warning tape that is used to restrict access to playgrounds and other public spaces during the pandemic. Within one of these frames a display case has been converted into a public screen where each of the GlogauAIR artists from locations all over the world have created videos reflecting on their immediate environment and concerns. Our hope is not only to create an outdoor artistic experience for the people of Berlin but also to show that even in isolation we are united through our concern for the world we share.