[un]expected. The Art of Chance

Chance defies all determination—and yet art uses calculated chance as a creative force. In the past century artists have developed varied methods and processes to trigger chance and make the “[un]expected” visible within fixed parameters. With around 120 works, the exhibition showed how experimentally or systematically artists have dealt with the element of chance.

Around 1920 Hans Arp and the Surrealists were the first to recognize the creative potential of chance. Max Ernst invented the technique of frottage, in which paper is laid over an object and then rubbed with charcoal or a pencil. Beginning in 1960 Concrete Art too focused on chance. Rune Mields and Vera Molnár were interested in the mathematical aspect of chance. herman de vries arranged the paper strips in his collages according numbers from a probability table, as used in biological field experiments.

Chance is also a theme in contemporary art. Timm Ulrichs’s floor object “Casual: Causal” (1983) and Patrycja German’s performative installation “Card Reading” (2010–2016) begin with the question of what chance means for individuals in decision-making situations. Christian Jankowski turns the focus onto himself: his video “Telemistica” (1999) gathers together Italian astrologists’ answers to his question of whether he can expect to become a famous artist in the future.

An “experimental laboratory” was set up for the exhibition, where visitors of all ages and school classes could conduct experiments.