The Architecture of Deception
4 March 2020 - 25 April 2021
BNKR, Munich, DE
For its next annual cycle of projects, BNKR – current reflections on art and architecture has invited acclaimed curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of artReoriented to curate a series of exhibitions and public programs. Conceived under the title “The Architecture of Deception”, the 2020/2021 edition takes for its departure point the actual BNKR building. Designed from the outside to look like a residential building, it was in effect a bunker built by the Nazi regime in 1943 to shelter citizens in Munich’s district Nord-Schwabing. In responding to this act of trickery, the curators will assemble a number of contemporary artistic practices that employ strategies of architectural and visual deception to create spatially perplexing experiences. By weaving in links to other mechanisms of confusion the program will also tackle the question of how art can be coopted into various ideologically-laden projects. Spatially driven and thematically concerned, “The Architecture of Deception” is intended as a playful, yet critical experience that encourages the viewer to search beyond the obvious, reminding us that what we see is often a matter of perspective, and rarely the form of a fixed truth.
“The Architecture of Deception” will unfold over two consecutive exhibitions accompagnied by a series of roundtables and public engagements. The first part of the exhibition “The Architecture of Deception” opens to the public on Wednesday, 4th March 2020, and will be on view until Sunday, 19th July 2020. It will feature works by Cortis & Sonderegger, Emmanuelle Lainé, Hans Op de Beeck, Bettina Pousttchi, Gregor Sailer, The Swan Collective and others. It brings together a number of existing and commissioned works ranging in media from photography and video to sculpture and installation among others.