Benjamin Jakob Enders: There is a new time coming up

For the French postmodernist Marc-Augé, the airport becomes an example of the "non-place": He understands the transit zone as a space devoid of identity, in which no historical and relational levels can emerge, a quasi-anonymous space that is purely oriented towards its function: the transit and onward movement of people and goods from one place to another. According to Augé, the human individual cannot derive an identity from this zone, as is the case in other "anthropological places".

This postmodern attitude towards the airport (as an engine of a globalized world) and the individual becomes the starting point for Enders' analysis of our understanding of time and the present. The airport is experienced as a place that must be left, but at the same time as a place of standstill. It becomes a metaphor for the idea of an "endless presentness": A state of absence of history and progress without the potential for profound and effective change. This discrepancy is expressed through text and music.

The soundtrack is a re-interpretation of the song "Lisa Frank 420/ Modern Computing", one of the most popular tracks of the internet-related music genre vaporwave. This music focuses on a sampling-based approach. It refers to pop music from the 1980s and 1990s, but also sounds from video games, shopping malls and brand jingles, which are usually slowed down considerably. Vaporwave is understood as a genre that critically reflects the neo-liberal economization of (non-)places and media.  (Cornelius Ferber)

Selected by Cornelius Ferber (HMKV)

Benjamin Jakob Enders (*1999) is an artist from Düsseldorf. He studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. In his works, he explores the possibilities of contact between visual art and music, performativity and the temporality that occurs in music and art. Using spatial relationships and installative strategies, he works collaboratively with an interest in making art that critically engages with modernity. In addition to his artistic and musical practice, his theoretical engagement with philosophy is a central pivotal point for his art and his thinking.

Selected exhibitions and performances:

2023
-Devenir Feuillage, Lrrh_Aerial, Düsseldorf
-La Isla Fantasma, Langenfoundation, Düsseldorf
-Echos of the Future, Megaworld @ Flucc, Wien
-Vielleicht sollten Du mal mit jemandem darüber reden, Walther König, Düsseldorf
-Die Grosse, NRW Forum, Düsseldorf
-Immer einmal mehr, Hansaalle 190, Düsseldorf

2022
-Nice Fake and Cozy, project space, Köln
-Pigeonhole, Neue Kunst Raum, Düsseldorf
-Ruin It for Everybody, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

2021
-Die Letzte Kassette, Alte VHS, Bonn
-Elbow Room, Physical Education IX: half body half human @lavalounge - Kunstverein Düsseldorf -Beelines, Schauspielhaus, Düsseldorf

Instagram:  @benjamin.j.enders