27th July 2023 at TACA Studio (Palma de Mallorca) group exhibition curated by Elena Sohmen
A PLACE I CAN'T CALL HOME
This project is an exploration of the concept of home based on an autobiographical experience. After living in different cities, countries and feeling that nowhere I feel at home, I wanted to bring together the different friends and artists I have met in the different places I have ever had to call "home", to reflect on it.
This exhibition aims to cover all the senses from smell to sight to hearing. Each collaborative work with the different artists or individual, I have wanted to orientate it from the respect of the lines of work of each artist. And seeing how I could unite such different people with such different creative processes in the same exhibition.
This exhibition takes the form of an installation in the form of a hotel room/uncomfortable space, to reflect on the hotel as a non-home and work place hell for many of us.
To liven up the evening we had a catering by PANORAMA BAR BAZAR and a DJ set by LANINA, Piero Molina and Axl Sobron.
Thanks to the exhibiting artists: Isabel Bitman, Niels Gercama, Sara Miguel and Carlos Darder (+me).
And to the people who have made this exhibition possible with their collaboration: Amel Baccouche, Simon Bromene, Gari Janzarik, Sebastian Gentry, Altay Erlik, Ian Sobron and Claudia Nadalina.
Thanks to Sara Miguel, my right-hand, for helping me with everything and documenting the exhibition.
This room is a assay, it is not a fixed idea, it is many aspects of NOT home.
Starting from the negative connotation that a hotel can have for the people who work in one or the unpleasant situations that may have occurred to us within those rooms, to the mere reflection of the bed as an absorbing space in depressive times. And the NO home as a representative abstract space for people who go from one house to another and from city to city and can't find home.
It is an exhibition full of double meanings and two sides of the coin.
by Carlos Darder and Elena Sohmen
𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙚
Description: Two images+Chandelier by Elena Sohmen+Human-hair quartz+Book by Carlos Darder
This lucky charm, which represents our friendship, is a reinterpretation of the Hawaiian figures that were placed on the televisions in motels in the United States. I have never been to one but it is the memory that is in my mind. Both Carlos (based in Los Angeles) and I (based in Berlin) are people who move from place to place and can't find a place to call home. Although now we both live where we wanted to live when we started our friendship in 2017. Our friendship was like Patti and Robert's, very intense, he was my first boyfriend even though our sexual orientations were not compatible. Carlos introduced me to analogue photography, giving me my first analogue camera. I will be eternally grateful to him. Over the years we began to develop a toxic and competitive relationship. But now with adulthood and the distance of our respective dream places, which are not as idyllic as in our dreams, we managed to collaborate on this charm. This amulet is formed by two images imitating one of my alter egos; Carlos' in USA passport size and mine in Berlin photo booth size. Joined by two quartz wrapped in human hair. The human hair that Carlos always collects from all his friends was essential. Next to a chandelier made by me from ceramic.
by Niels Gercama
𝙄𝙣 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝙎𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙣-𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙡 𝙈𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙧
Description:
Mirror installations, AI generated logo, 3D printed objects and hand made clay form.
I met Niels last year at the street in Berlin and was the first friend that I made in the city. The day we met he invited me to join an exhibition, months later I invited him to join mine.
“There exists a block in the imagination of futures, be it because of anti utopianism after the cold war, climate anxiety or because Punk is dead. Now that the H-bomb has waned from public discourse, life in the future has become unimaginable. In an answer to this we are reliving this 50s Shell-o-Rama idea of science fiction, with social commentary about the present projected into a technological future. However, it is known that we have washing machines, lithium mines, LHS, drone strikes, that the LAPD uses Boston Dynamic dogs and Threads. There is big money in living in the future while speculating on the further future. In Commemoration of the 2023 Sheraton-Intel Merger attempts to find refuge as a concurrent fiction in a time that may-as-well be, to think about the present from the present while living in the future which ruminates on the further future:
Presented here are the suitable outlines for a memorandum to be placed on a plaque, to be handed to investors, the board, major shareholders, the director of the M&A consultancy, their partner, the tax write-off charity, the bank’s representative. A plaque outside of planned obsolescence, a moment of mutual interest and successful financial interaction etched in glass and steel. They are commonly called Tombstones or Deal Toys - in commemoration of the 2023 Sheraton-Intel Merger. A merger which takes place now in a concurrent fiction, some may-as-well time with three may-as-well Deal Toys. A unique collectable set of OTPPs (One-Time Password Pearls); a lucite soap dispenser knock-off; The New Age (f. MasterCard).” Niels Gercama
by Sara Miguel
𝗡𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗦
Description: Office drawer, hospital tablets, cotton wool star, pink girl underwear, baby soap and Financial Times newspaper.
"Next to the bed, where everything stands while sleeping, a collection of objects is stored and secured with a key. Also a hybrid, where dreams and wonders mingle during sleep, inside our heads and visions, a variety of memories and key objects seem to be visible while others remain hidden under lock and key."
I reunited with Sara last May before that we hadn't seen each other for two years when I think of Sara is future.
by Elena Sohmen
𝗔 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲
Description: Perfume created by the artist
The scents are the real homes, the physical places I call home change but the smells remain, those smells that transport me to exact moments in my memory. I manage to find home. Since I was a little child smell has been very important in my life.
In addition I decided to enter the world of scent because I wanted to make an inclusive exhibition and I found that the sense of smell is something that the vast majority of us have, although each person perceives it differently.
I made these perfumes following the guidelines of the perfume masters. A perfume designed exclusively to scent this exhibition. With the comical situation that I had to choose most of the scents from intuition because the owner of the shop didn't let me open the flask to smell them.
by Isabel Bitman and Elena Sohmen
Size: 120cm x 190 cm
Description: Hand-woven and embroidered fabric by Isabel Bitman (materials: cotton, silk, wool, paint and nylon thread) with illustrations by Elena Sohmen and abstract images by Isabel Bitman.
There is something that presides a room and that object is the bed. The orientation of the bed is very important, everyone has their own. Mine lately is facing a window. All these depressing winter months in Berlin, what saved me was that I woke up with the sun and the first thing I saw was a window with a future perspective and not a white wall without perspective. This winter I found it hard to get out of bed, because it was a sofa and a bed at the same time and the street was cold and dark. Talking to Isa I know that we both had a cold and hard winter in Berlin. We both found it difficult and it was the first winter for both of us in the city. I think what motivated Isa the most this winter was her knitting. For me was creating this curational project. This sheet is full of illustrations I made at that time when every day was negative news and getting out of bed meant spending money I didn't have.
“When lying alone in bed, thoughts feel overwhelming, enveloping and suffocating you, as equally as they may soothe - this is also the role of the blanket. This blanket serves as an emotional map, decorated by visions, of a person running away from the past, looking for a fresh start, hunting for a place that will fulfill them and feel truly like home. But always, even as responsibilities arise and dreams slip through their fingers, at night they return to bed and wrap themselves in their blanket. As the map is explored, the question of ‘where’ becomes less important in the search for home.”- Isabel Bitman
I always saw this cool sheets and rugs at exhibitions and always thought I would love to design one. Thanks to Isa for taking so MANY hours to create this sheet and for mixing her creative universe with mine.
𝙎𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙙
by Elena Sohmen
𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗗𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗧
Model: Amel Baccouche
Studio assistant: Simon Brommene
Description:
Size: A4
Material: Six A4 size mirrors and photographic stickers
This artwork pretends to humanize the model and portray different human expressions that aren’t considered right for an hotel worker or an hotel advertisement.
The artwork has a direct connection with 𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗟 𝗔𝗗𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗦 𝗜/𝗜𝗜/𝗜𝗜𝗜 and it’s meaning. Can only be seen together.
by Elena Sohmen
𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗟 𝗔𝗗𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗦 𝗜/𝗜𝗜/𝗜𝗜𝗜
Model: Amel Baccouche
Studio assistant: Simon Brommene
Description:
Size: A1
Material: Three A1 images printed on Gloss271gsm photo paper and framed in stainless steel advertising frames.
These 3 A1 images framed in an advertising frame, typical of hotels, are a satire on advertising. We turned it into a non-binary person, a styling made by the photographer, a model doing their own make-up, erratic poses, exposed nipples and empty looks.
This work is a hybrid between the advertisements of the hotel chains, which seem to come out of a dystopian, empty and plastic universe and on the other hand the decorative images that you can find in a hotel room in which there are often women with an empty look that seem more like a vase than a human being.
Trying to turn decorative images into art by changing it own meaning and rules.
When I started taking pictures years ago, my first photo session was at a studio since there I haven't been on a studio again, wanted to come back home photograpically by doing these pictures.
𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗗𝗢𝗡𝗚 (𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲)
Duration: 00:08:08
Directed by Elena Sohmen
Script by Elena Sohmen
Filmed by Niels Gercama with the help of Sebastian Gentry
Starring: Amel Baccouche, Isabel Bitman, Sebastian Gentry and Elena Sohmen
Styling by Elena Sohmen
MUAH by Amel Baccouche, Isabel Bitman and Elena Sohmen
Still photo by Elena Sohmen and Niels Gercama
Edited and coloured by Altay Erlyk
Sound by Altay Erlyk and Ian Liedtke
Graphics by Elena Sohmen and Claudia Nadalina
Special thanks for the location to Niels Gercama
Getting this amazing sweet to make a funny video and an apology for not working in hotels. As part of a comercial action for an hotel.
Had fun doing and improvising this it's difficult to improvise scenes at the same time that you have to act on them, direct them, do the styling and thinking on the creative direction. But gladly all my friends are super talented and we managed to make it possible. Thanks for your amazing ideas and for your support on my chaotic projects.
Thanks to the amazing Altay for giving a structure to the chaos and making possible my vision. And working so hard.
Thanks to Ian for the quick sound help.
Obviously thanks to Niels for being 360º talented.
And thanks to Isa, Amel and Seb for your great acting skills and the patience.
