They say there is water on mars
Duo exhibition with Sophie Ullrich at Boutwell &
Schabrowsky, Munich,
2023
6th July to 2nd September, 2023
In 1672, the polar caps of Mars were discovered and about three hundred years later it was confirmed that
they are made of water - and dry ice. Mars as a terrestrial planet, with its polar caps, geysers and
seasons is the stage for Sophie Ullrich and Jonas Bechtloff's joint narrative in the exhibition, "They say
there is water on Mars".
The exhibition refers to the line between speculation and science and outer space, which serves as a
projection of human hopes and fears for the future in pop culture.
Sophie Ullrich's and Jonas Bechtloff's works are characterised by their eclectic-ironic approach to the
products of the commodity world and pop culture on the one hand and instruments of technology and science
on the other.
In his sculptural works, Jonas Bechtloff emphasises the haptic and the tactile as indispensable conditions
of our ability to know, which are made visible and tangible at the interface of nature and technology as
the basis for artistic desire for expression and the human urge to explore.
Sophie Ullrich's paintings take up the trivial idea of packing a suitcase in their motifs. A well-tried
aspirin or the Sodastream machine in the hand luggage play as accurately painted objects on schematic
backgrounds with the utopia of a colonisation of the red planet.
Kondensat
2023, ceramic, steel
84 x 25 x 25 cm
planetary roulette
2023, ceramic, steel
44 x 50 x 20 cm
Zentrifuge
2023, ceramic, plaster, plastic, cork, pigment, steel
75 x 35 x 35
cm
Toys R Us
2023, ceramic, steel
95 x 45 x 23 cm