JAK – SOUL BLINDNESS – fall into indescribable scenes

JAK and the agnosia

In the foyer of Villa Merkel, an old tree trunk of around seven metres rises up into the air as a sculpture, supported by a sloping, reflective, bright green surface made of epoxy resin; a landscape in a flowing mist; floating objects made of porcelain - these are the scenes from a film script. The works are by JAK. But who is JAK? Is JAK already nestled in our heads as we read these lines? JAK has been working on the film SOUL BLINDNESS since 2013, and the development process does not resemble that of a "normal" film project. From exhibition to exhibition, JAK continues to write the story of the film script, using various media such as drawing, text, video, sound, sculpture, painting, photography and installation. This continuously shot film describes how its main character deals with agnosia, a psychological anomaly in which objects can no longer be clearly recognised or assigned and which is therefore also referred to as "soul blindness". Interestingly, JAK, author and artist at the same time, and agnosia as a "disturbed" relationship to the world cannot be clearly distinguished, so that the participants and the levels short-circuit each other and make each other unrecognisable: JAK remains anonymous, and agnosia remains in the realm of the illusionary, which corresponds excellently with its disease status. Meanwhile, everyday actions from the script are transformed into SOUL BLINDNESS or concretised into stage sets. Three solo exhibitions have already been organised by JAK in Stuttgart, Taipei and Leonberg in the run-up to this complex project, while the exhibition at Villa Merkel had its overture at the Baden-Württemberg State Representation in Brussels in March 2017. The book provides extensive insights into the work of JAK, but it really doesn't provide any information about who JAK actually is!

Exhibition:
Villa Merkel, Galleries of the City of Esslingen, 18/6 - 27/8/2017