What does it mean to live in the here and now today – and at the same time to experience multiple, differing presents? In an age of accelerated information, constant social upheaval and ongoing processes of individual positioning, the relationship between personal experience and collective reality has come into sharper focus in artists’ works than ever before. Against the backdrop of multiple crises – ecological, political and social – the continual renegotiation between art and life is increasingly becoming a subject of art itself.

How do artists perceive the present today, and how do they negotiate and interpret their everyday experiences? Democracies are transforming into authoritarian regimes that effectively suppress any resistance, the global order has begun to falter, and the acceleration of our pace of life is leading to a distorted relationship between the self and the world. Human beings are experiencing a growing sense of alienation from themselves, which manifests not only on an individual level, but also in their relationship to social structures and the environment. This alienation is multifaceted: it affects the social dimension, but also the relationship to space, time, objects and our own actions.

Art transcends boundaries, connects spaces and times, and merges reality with fiction. Artists question our present, repeatedly engaging in an intensive exploration of the physical, emotional and aesthetic limits that shape individual and social life. By probing and crossing these boundaries, they direct their attention towards the mechanisms and logics of political and individual action.

The artistic works in the exhibition address the fragility of freedom and humanity, personal commitment, and responsibility. In the face of the climate crisis, wars and growing social inequality, profound experiences are also articulated in art. Like Sisyphus, the parachutist in Christiane Möbus’s video struggles against the wind, which stands as a metaphor of the real and immediate threat to human freedom and society.

Other selected positions, whether painting, video, sculpture or photography, also demonstrate that certainties are not neutral, but arise from subjective perspectives. The “now” does not appear as a stable condition, but as a fragile, shared moment – shaped by individual voices, attitudes and perceptions. The Shared Now invites us to understand the present as something polyphonic and to reflect anew on our own position within it.

Artists: Emma Adler, Vasil Berela, Judith Blum Reddy, Kurt Buchwald, Göran Gnaudschun, Susie Hamilton, Mathilde Tijen Hansen, Susann Maria Hempel, Anna Jermolaewa, Sven Johne, Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk, Christiane Möbus, Marcel Odenbach, Ulf Puder, Baldur Schönfelder, Igor Simić

Abb: Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei, You Shouldn’t Have to See This, 2024, Installation view Hannover Kunstverein, photo: Mathias Völzke