Judith Hopf’s latest module at PRAXES, running through 11 May, takes a closer look at a series of masks. Sculpted from hard-drive and smartphone packaging and recreated as 3D-prints, these contemporary ethnographic objects were initially exhibited in the amalgam archive known as 'The Brain' at dOCUMENTA(13). Afforded a space all their own, the functionless, unemotional faces of everyday technology draw out the complicated bond between humans and their tools. As Hopf’s says in her 2010 manifesto,Contrat entre les hommes et l’ordinateur, also included in the exhibition, “we have become slaves—not of our own machines, as one generally tends to believe, but rather of our assets of perception.”

Falke Pisano’s second Rehearsal, subtitled 'Heart Head Hold-up', opens with a question: What is the relationship between affect and aesthetic knowledge when approaching an object? Chillida (Forms & Feelings), a film from 2006 on display throughout this exhibition chapter, maps Pisano’s reactions to a series of photographs taken by David Finn of public works by the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida. Its suggestion of subtle links between objects, representation, and personal experience is further emphasized in a continuously changing installation of artworks, events, and support material. Running until the end of this exhibition Cycle, Rehearsal II evolves as a spiral of association and accumulation of curtains, paravants, hooks, screens, words, and works, hidden and emphasized in turn.

Hopf and Pisano’s exhibition cycles are curated by the PRAXES directors in collaboration with Cecilia Canziani and Elena Tzotzi respectively.