Ungeordnete Zustände. — Leonie Mühlen

The exhibition Disorderly Conditions (9-27 June 2021, Luis Leu, Karlsruhe) told the story of the dissolution of the allotment gardens on Stuttgarter Straße in Karlsruhe in various strands.

Huts, gardens and paths have been cleared, dismantled and carried away over the last few years. At first it seemed as if the site would thin out and disappear, but then, undeterred, it grew back elsewhere in a different way. People, animals and plants constantly reappropriated the site. Leonie Mühlen observed these movements, documented them and took part in them herself. In selecting and taking away, different value systems became apparent: Some things were deemed precious or worth protecting and taken away, some were given compensation or refuge and some were simply thrown away. This selection of what is worth preserving is reminiscent of the logic of archival collecting - the filtration of content generates its history, as it were. The exhibition itself represents an archive of Stuttgarter Strasse, which reacts to these hierarchies of value with subjectivity and casualness. The collection is an attempt to understand and preserve the place. Precisely this place in demolition, which in its disorder and disobedience was a refuge for many things and beings.