Klara Hobza • Prequel • 06.09.–05.11.2011

For her exhibition Prequel, Klara Hobza developed a signalling device and a simple doorbell installation as part of a nocturnal campaign that utilises Morse code to get in touch with the citizens of Berlin.

Prequel is an amalgamation of performance, historical material, and site-specificity, in which Hobza again takes up a project she started in New York in 2004: Morse Code Communication.

She contrasts this outmoded method of telecommunication with the pace of everyday life in the twenty-first century: our smartphones, e-mails, and social networking sites. Besides occupying public space immaterially, she also provides an impressive demonstration of one private individual’s attempt to communicate with the public using manageable means that nevertheless have their own heroic connotations.

Hobza’s artistic practice combines sculpture, video, photography, drawing, and conceptual approaches, as well as performance and narrative content. Her intentions are more than merely absurd or obsessive – they strive for precision. Her themes address central questions about proximity and alienation as well as our dreams and failures. With an almost casual ease, her simple, unpretentious work engenders a confrontation with contemporary notions of communication, cultural criticism, and self-awareness.