Kollection Kitsch #3: Together We Pet

Kollection Kitsch is a collaboration between two artists who happened to be friends and share a passion for tackiness, cuteness and bad taste. Wishing to activate solidarity and support local artists, Kyra and Aubane started to curate exhibitions in #Wunderbar, featuring working class artists exploring rejected or mocked aesthetics or themes. By bringing their tailormade displays to a social space, the two pals wish to make art more accessible both conceptually and financially. Political matters and the deconstruction of the dominant gaze are two of the main ingredients of the Kollection Kitsch. These elements are mixed with pop and “wow” aesthetics or ones that are hidden, just out of sight.

Every exhibition opens with a multidisciplinary event involving art workshops, music, a very special bingo (with the unsold mini-artworks from the “candy machine”), and other, very special collaborations. Aubane and Kyra make a point in selecting artists in- and outside the artworld bubble as well as artists who work at WORM in non-creative positions (for example, people working behind the bar).

Together We Pet
For this third edition, Aubane and Kyra are going further down the kitsch road with a bold thematic choice: pets and animals. These magical creatures often serve as protagonists or messengers in the works of the selected artists, holding up a mirror to teach us lessons about our relationship with nature and what it means to be human. From personal encounters to fairytale-like stories, the artists share their fresh and humorous visions of their beloved animal friends. On a more serious note, we are happy to bring into the Wunderbar another art subject that lost its prestige in contemporary times and has been depreciated as soon as it was associated with working class aesthetics, the elderly or women makers. Nowadays, honouring pets in an artistic way seems to be the privilege of a few people belonging to dominant social categories, and is still seen as a minor art form or a whim; especially when this fascination emerges outside of cultural elites.

Artists featured in exhibition displays:
Danielle Hoogendoorn
Donglai Meng
Alisa Osinga

Programme:
16.00-17.00 Pet yourself workshop by Aubane Berthommé Martinez
18.00-01.30 Jelly Animals Cocktail bar by Nataly Wood
19.00-20.00 Performance by Sachia Pereira-Stolle
20.00-21.15 hiddenbehindmist (Dj set)
21.15-21.45 Art Bingo
21.45-23.00 K-TTYL (Dj set)
23.00-00.30 dj devon (Dj set)
00.30-02.00 Princess-K (Dj set)

Workshop info:
Pet yourself workshop is a tender and sensual experience, focusing on your own body and petting yourself with as much love as you give to your hairy friends.
Your pet costume workshop: bring your pet, a peluche or your imaginary pet and learn to design tailor made outfits for them using,inter alia, crochet.
Flash tattoo bar: get a real tattoo in your skin (and no: animals won’t be tattooed there, only humans).
Jelly cocktail bar: the most delicious and balanced cocktails in town with a little extra: a cute jelly mooshy animal in your glass (obviously a vegan one)!