One of the curatorial strategies of the MAZ consists of exhibitions organized in pairs. At first, the idea was to work with a single theme from two different perspectives, with the processes kept separate, in order to ensure the individuality and underline the diversity of the two voices. Over time, the focus began to change and the exercise was made more complex by introducing variables such as the personal relationship of the two artists involved. Although Beyond Behind by Alicja Kwade and Gregor Hildebrandt is not an exhibition of collaborations by the two artists, it is clear that, since they live together as a couple, there are mutual influences that have emerged from the experience of sharing their daily lives and artistic interests over many years.
In their work there are similarities and intersections, as well as something that is not immediately noticed, but which begins to be understood as the works of each of the two artists are more closely observed and assimilated. In the course of the exhibition a dialogue is created between the two groups of works: allusive hints, followed by responses, creating a silent choreography that multiplies meanings and possibilities. The conversations between the objects are accompanied by a constant exploration of the nature of reality, perception, and time. There is also a confirmation of the existence of immaterial elements in the conformation and materiality of things, elements such as music, words, dreams, and ideas. In the individual bodies of work of both Kwade and Hildebrandt —and in the dialogue established between them— there is an unsettling and persistent doubling of our perceptions, a challenge to the senses and to the logic of Cartesian reasoning. It is only when we put our rationality on hold —when surprise, followed by doubt, forces us to observe without distraction, and our attention is wholly focused—that we manage truly to inhabit, if only for a few moments, the present.
