The time has finally come: ‹Studio West› is launched. Zoya Sadri, Ulrich Muders and their art students at the Erich Kästner Comprehensive School in Darmstadt Kranichstein and the Lichtenberg School in Darmstadt Bessungen are preparing the first exhibition for the new project space of the Kunsthalle Darmstadt together with members of the Darmstadt Kunstverein.

Two artists from the local art scene and two art classes in grades 8 and 9 at different Darmstadt schools use the Kunsthalle Darmstadt as a platform for dialogue and present their work to the public together. Their concept, developed for the project space ‹Studio West›, focuses on two basic acts of social interaction – linking and projecting – precisely at a time when the measures against the spread of the coronavirus have radically changed everyday life. The exhibition ‹Networks and Shadows› clearly demonstrates that creativity, solidarity and exchange are now particularly in demand.

The artist and art teacher Zoya Sadri (* 1955 Teheran, Iran) and the art educator and artist Ulrich Muders (* 1959 Bingen) enter into a dialogue with sculptural works in the ‹Studio West›. Their different approaches meet in an exciting way. Lines are a recurring element in Zoya Sadri's art. They often appear in her works, drawn or haptically in the form of wire. As with their sculpture ‹Madam›, they can symbolically indicate not only connection but also isolation. Her students trace the connecting and separating power of the line through performances, works in sound and digital photo collages.

Muders, on the other hand, sees the line as intangible. Shadow figures and projections are a recurring theme in both his sculptural work and his photographs, which he explains as follows: «As fleeting phenomena, as in Plato's allegory of the cave, they represent the difficulty of understanding between the real and the mediated world. In these challenging times, this becomes a symbol of the loss of closeness and exchange and networking without a tangible counterpart.» The students' contributions are also presented in the form of videos. They draw from a large pool of materials and forms that were compiled for the occasion under the guidance of art educator Ilka Brosch.

The exhibition will open on May 7th, 2021 without an audience. The exhibition ‹Networks and Shadows› will be made accessible via video.