Acci Baba
AB AETERNO
14.01. – 11.03.2018

“ab aeterno” is the first institutional solo exhibition of the Japanese-born artist Acci Baba (*1977 in Kamakura) in Germany. He has lived and worked in Berlin for ten years. He began his career as a video artist for contemporary performance and experimental animations while studying Media Studies in Environmental Information in Tokyo. Since then, he has been implementing his artistic impulses in various media such as painting, animation, short film and music video. Today, his focus is on conceptual new media art. Baba’s works have been presented in over twelve countries, including the L.A. Film Festival (US), the Japan Media Arts Festival (JP), the Ars Electronica Animation Festival (AT) and the European Media Art Festival (DE).

The exhibition title “ab aeterno” (lat. “since ever”) symbolized a characteristic central idea in Acci Baba’s work. In his artistic exploration, he explores the eternal question of the “why?” of our existence. Particularly in view of the current rapid paradigm shifts, essential questions arise: “Who are we? And where does our path into the future lead us?”. To approach such universal basic principles, the artist focuses in his works on the wisdom of the Far East and the West. On a pictorial level, he explores the extremes of apparent opposites, such as the material and immaterial, transience and infinity or beginning and end. The aesthetics in his works appear geometric and alive at the same time.

In the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Acci Baba presents unusual perspectives with a combination of installation and film. Baba’s large-scale film projections create a strong physical presence of the images, which, in combination with a room-filling sound, allow viewers to immerse themselves deeply in the action. The direct juxtaposition of the video works with the installations shown in the exhibition, which are a direct part of the films, puts the concept of hyperreality up for discussion.

Curated by Andrea Fuest