For the first time the group exhibition is taking place in Wedding's former crematorium. What kind of atmosphere did you encounter there and did everyone find it inspiring from the start?
Yes, the location is a former crematorium. It is now known as the "Silent Green Kulturquartier". The space has been taken over in order to create a centre for culture. We're the first people to put on an exhibition there. It hasn't been used as a crematorium for years but there is still a sense of tranquility: it is a place of remembrance and contemplation. The building is really intriguing, especially for the artists who had very different reactions to it from the start – ranging from total fascination to declaring it utterly impossible. However, they are all very happy now.
Has the building's history had an impact upon the artists' works or did you only invite pieces which were already completed?
Most of the works were already complete but we paid a lot of attention during the selection process to what it means for them to be shown in a former crematorium. The video installations naturally alter the space, bringing in different colours and movement. However, there is one big work which is actually site specific: Lucien Castaing-Taylor's and Véréna Paravel's Canst Thou Draw Out Leviathan With A Hook?. The two artists previously made Leviathan, a documentary about deep-sea fishermen. Just after they began filming, they lost every single camera in a storm at sea. After that, they fixed the cameras to the boat and the fishermen so it would be impossible to lose them again. This makes the viewer feel like they're really in the middle of the action, right inside the pictures. Fish fly towards the lens, waves break over the boat... it creates a totally sensory, physical cinematic experience.