Taking cues from A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze & Guattari (1987 edition) and Volker
Schlöndorff ’s film The Forest Maker (2002), the exhibition Some Degree of Friction unfolds through a rhizomatic structure—horizontal and nonlinear. Meaning unfolds in reverberations: among works, throughout the space, and in the encounter with the viewer. The book A Thousand Plateaus introduces the concept of the rhizome: a non-hierarchical, networked system without a clear beginning or end. It is about becoming—a constant transformation in relation to others. Schlöndorff ’s documentary about Tony Rinaudo illustrates this idea in lived practice: reforestation not as a top-down project but as a collective, organic process supported by local communities and sustained care. Both A Thousand Plateaus and The Forest Maker think connections instead of individuals, networks instead of hierarchies, in favor of multiplicity.

Some Degree of Friction brings together over 25 artistic positions into a shifting field. The show collectively questions how we define identity, perceive reality, and relate to systems (biological, technological, cultural) in an increasingly hybrid world. Together, these positions emphasize becoming and interdependence. The artworks and the format mirror each other as evolving assemblages. They become a zone of becoming-with: of shared attention, mutual interference, and non-linear co-presence. Like the rhizome or the regenerative root systems, the works presented here resist hierarchy. Each artistic position becomes a plateau—a field of sustained intensity. These plateaus operate independently and interdependently, forming a matrix of gestures, sounds, bodies, images, and materials. The artworks engage with human experience in transformation, whether through the body, technology, gender, ecology, or memory.

This degree of friction creates energy, a vital condition. The curatorial gesture is one of holding space, a conscious effort to keep the field open and responsive. Rooted incommunity, the Wehrmühle’s landscape and ethos provide fertile ground for such astructure. Across seven weekends, the exhibition opens itself to a program of performances, sound works, workshops, and interventions, creating yet more plateaus that arise in rhythm with the site and its audiences. The exhibition is not intended to be observed from a distance, but to be encountered—through attentiveness, stillness, or movement. It unfolds in relation, over time, shaped as much by the works themselves as by the positions we take in their presence. Instead of following pre-designed paths, you are invited to make paths as you walk— through rooms, floors, and fields. Begin wherever you are: upstairs, downstairs, in the barn, or out in the landscape.


                                           Let yourself be drawn by curiosity.

What draws your eye?

What echoes in your body?

What interconnections do you recognize?

Where do your steps slow down?

Here, you do not walk through a set of exhibits.

You move through situations.



It is an invitation to tend to these structures beneath and within us— to slow down, explore and make space for seeing and understanding. Some Degree of Friction calls for attention to the relational. And it dares to hold space for ambiguity—where interpretation is not dictated, but co-created through the act of presence.

Text by Ariana Krieger

[1] Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F., 1987. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by B. Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, S.12. 3