If you decide to do something for the last time, it is bound to be a grand gesture. It will be even more so in hindsight, after the facts. Because indeed, its grandness increases simply by virtue of time. Take the Beatles playing their Rooftop Concert in 1969. It would turn out to be their last one before the break-up. Or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writing The Final Problem in which the detective Sherlock Holmes is pushed over a cliff. Holmes was revived by Doyle a decade later because even with last things, there is always a small window for a come-back.
In the case of The Last Show. Arnold Dreyblatt & Co, it is not so much the facts (an exhibition from 9 to 13 February 2022) that matter (in the Schulgalerie of the Muthesius Kunsthochschule to be exact) but rather the after-effect. Its potential lies in the future and, as such, it is not a show of “that-has-been” but of what is possible. Art is about imagining what is possible and for the media class of Arnold Dreyblatt The Last Show is a practise in artistic fantasy.
What sets off the imagination? Mostly random things, like a holiday postcard or some beautiful word like Habseligkeiten. Suddenly, magic is real. The infinite becomes thinkable. Objects that cannot melt now do. Micro takes over from macro. The outside finds itself on the inside. Or very concrete: all art works are sold out, a ship of steel gets stuck on the main square, unrevealed material is revealed, people travel in their head, identities multiply, the whole world starts to resonate.
Nevertheless, everything that is last, marks an ending. The police comes upon the roof, the culprit surprises the detective. In the harbour city of Kiel, the final setting is obvious: The boat enters the harbour, the seagull caws. If we narrow the picture even more, to Muthesius Kunsthochschule, the final pictures are taken before the show is over and they are put inside a box. This is the box. This box. This.
In the case of The Last Show. Arnold Dreyblatt & Co, it is not so much the facts (an exhibition from 9 to 13 February 2022) that matter (in the Schulgalerie of the Muthesius Kunsthochschule to be exact) but rather the after-effect. Its potential lies in the future and, as such, it is not a show of “that-has-been” but of what is possible. Art is about imagining what is possible and for the media class of Arnold Dreyblatt The Last Show is a practise in artistic fantasy.
What sets off the imagination? Mostly random things, like a holiday postcard or some beautiful word like Habseligkeiten. Suddenly, magic is real. The infinite becomes thinkable. Objects that cannot melt now do. Micro takes over from macro. The outside finds itself on the inside. Or very concrete: all art works are sold out, a ship of steel gets stuck on the main square, unrevealed material is revealed, people travel in their head, identities multiply, the whole world starts to resonate.
Nevertheless, everything that is last, marks an ending. The police comes upon the roof, the culprit surprises the detective. In the harbour city of Kiel, the final setting is obvious: The boat enters the harbour, the seagull caws. If we narrow the picture even more, to Muthesius Kunsthochschule, the final pictures are taken before the show is over and they are put inside a box. This is the box. This box. This.