In the midst of a global pandemic, the illusion of control and order is falling apart, revealing the chaos beneath, like a collective painful wound, and giving rise to longing: for healing, for a clear perspective, for guided and secured paths. But has there ever been such a thing? Was there ever a moment when the world was not in constant change? Have our lives not always been the plaything of circumstances?

But perhaps too much has come together: growing inequality and omnipresent capitalism, the questionable weight of the dominance society and the eternally neutral centre now forced to take a position, the shift of life’s realities to the digital realm, postfactual knowledge formation following unclear agendas. And the climate crisis, which could put an end to the whole thing anyway. At the same time, the resources of strength with which we bring down the chaotic conditions to a bearable level are highly individual. They sometimes elude our grasp by their complexity, our control by their unpredictability. So why not make it easier on ourselves and accept chaos as the normal state?

Chaos is not only a state but also a condition, a stage of latency. Which means that something, if not something better, may come of it. Every dystopia here has the chance to rise to utopia. Every exhaustion can be recharged with new creative energy, severed connections and broken resonances remain repairable. Because where uncertainty reigns, transformation is also possible at any time. And what would we know of the beauty and comfort of order without chaos?

Our exhibition is dedicated to precisely these moments of transition. The selected works create digital spaces of experience for the unknown and the unplanned. They present alternative strategies for facing the world without negating real conditions. Accepting chaos opens the way to other worlds: with more imagination, intuition, spirituality and serenity, which might lead to more community. Let us not try to tame chaos but let us imagine what it makes possible: no chaos, no change! But how to get one’s bearings in an exhibition about disordered conditions? Together with the artist Paula Gehrmann, we have developed a scenography that turns the exhibition space into a place of experience where we can reassess our relationship to chaos.