Berlin | ArtRegion: Berlin, Kreuzberg

Soy Capitán

Rachel Youn: Revival

29. April – 25. Juni 2022

It’s quite apparent what is happening here. Plants attached to mechanical massagers are moving—or dancing, we might say, if dancing did not require the force of will—to music in a discotheque-like setting. The massagers are sourced second-hand. Their owners did not want them anymore; perhaps the machines did not live up to the owners’ expectations, or they stopped working. The plants are similar in that they are made out of plastic. As we humans are made self-conscious by our various failures to feel, say, like “real” men, women, Americans, or artists, we can imagine the plants, too, are burdened by a kind of imposter syndrome. And so, Rachel Youn wants to free these objects from the pressures of utility and authenticity. “But why?” I asked, somewhat naively, “The objects don’t know.” “Good question,” Youn said.