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Until 06.09. | #4742ARTatBerlin | AOA;87 shows from 08. August 2025 (Opening: 07.08.) the Group exhibition “Abyss of Absence” with Vanshika Agrawal, Neda Aydin, Pavlos Ioannides, and Lorenz Pasch.
It rustles, it rattles, it roars, it hums, bursts, crashes, buzzes, throbs, knocks and booms – every day our path leads us through a densely overgrown thicket of noise that seems so commonplace to us that it doesn’t actually appear in our perception at all, unless the volume level suddenly skyrockets for a brief moment. The background noise is so familiar to us, we have almost grown so fond of it, that for most people it is so unfamiliar and unpleasant to be exposed to complete silence that they are in danger of losing their minds. Abysses open up for those who enter the silence and realise: there is not nothing here.
Installation view: Lorenz Pasch, perfect puddle, 2023
The manifold forms and effects of silence – states of extreme discomfort and agonising uncertainty can alternate with feelings of ecstasy and oceanic dissolution of boundaries – have moved and fascinated people for thousands of years: be it the search for mystical oneness with the deity or redemption from the ego – silence is not only a unifying element in the cultural practice of the most diverse cultures, but an anthropological constant par excellence.
Exhibition view: Neda Aydin, Kollisionen, Schloss Agathenburg, Agathenburg, 2025 | Photo: Manfred Wigger
So it is hardly surprising that it has found its way into modern art and culture as a motif and formative element. But silence is more than that: silence occurs when we touch the limits of experience, when we are suddenly at a loss for words because the magnitude and gravity of the experience takes our breath away. Silence can be the infinite little moment in which the seemingly ineluctable course of things is interrupted and everything could be completely different.
Exhibition view: Pavlos Ioannides, Ce Qui Nous Oblige, Villa Arson, curated by Sophie Lapalu, 2023-24 | Photo: artist studio
In moments of silence, it can seem as if the room is tense to bursting point for the blink of an eye – and only a second later the storm breaks loose. Silence can mean withdrawal from the world, inner contemplation and total calm – but it can also be the exact opposite: a silent scream, a protest against the catastrophe that things will always go on like this.
Inspired by the manifold metamorphoses of silence in art, culture and everyday life, the four artists Vanshika Agrawal, Neda Aydin, Pavlos Ioannides and Lorenz Pasch explore the phenomenon of silence in their own individual and extraordinary ways. Abyss of Absence documents an unfinished quest into the depths of the eerie and fascinating abyss that silence opens up.
Opening: Thursday, 07. August 2025, 6 – 9 pm.
Exhibition dates: Friday, 08. August until Saturday, 06. September 2025
To the gallery
Title image caption: Exhibition view: Vanshika Agrawal, Dust to Dust, Studio 110, Rome, curated by Maria Teresa Capacchione, 2024 | Photo: artist studio
Exhibition Abyss of Absence | AOA;87 | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Ausstellungen Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin
