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14.06.–19.10.2025
Opening, 13.06.2025, 18h
“What are you thinking?” It’s a question that seems simple—casual, even—one we’ve all heard and likely asked. It catches us mid-thought, before intention has formed and language has settled. And while it gestures toward openness, it carries an implicit assumption: that every thought should be made legible, shareable, and above all, purposeful. This demand reflects a broader condition of our time: a growing imperative for self-disclosure.
The exhibition What Are You Thinking draws on Susan Sontag’s seminal essay Against Interpretation (1964), which challenges the compulsion to impose meaning on artworks—to turn materials into metaphors and gestures into arguments. Sontag argued that the act of interpretation, when overemphasized, strips art of its immediacy and sensual impact, urging us instead to recover our senses—to encounter artworks as they are: dense and ambiguous.
Spanning the two galleries of Portikus, the show brings together works by…
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Press Release
14.06.–19.10.2025
Opening, 13.06.2025, 18h
“What are you thinking?” It’s a question that seems simple—casual, even—one we’ve all heard and likely asked. It catches us mid-thought, before intention has formed and language has settled. And while it gestures toward openness, it carries an implicit assumption: that every thought should be made legible, shareable, and above all, purposeful. This demand reflects a broader condition of our time: a growing imperative for self-disclosure.
The exhibition What Are You Thinking draws on Susan Sontag’s seminal essay Against Interpretation (1964), which challenges the compulsion to impose meaning on artworks—to turn materials into metaphors and gestures into arguments. Sontag argued that the act of interpretation, when overemphasized, strips art of its immediacy and sensual impact, urging us instead to recover our senses—to encounter artworks as they are: dense and ambiguous.
Spanning the two galleries of Portikus, the show brings together works by…
Exhibition Space
More Exhibitions at Portikus
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