REBEKKA VON ZIMMERMANN

'Recursion'

2 March – 10 April, 2025
Opening: Sunday 2 March 16.00 — 18.00 hrs.

‘Recursion occurs when differences of similar kinds move together to create more differences’
(Information Politics, Tim Jordan, 2015)

Over a decade ago, Rebekka von Zimmermann created a unique conceptual framework based on a sign system for a fictional culture. Since then, The Society of Soon Foundation has functioned as a continuously refilling well from which the German artist can draw, a self-referential system of shapes and colours that appear and reappear within her paintings. The titles of these works begin with the hyphenated compound ‘subject-citizen’, which for Von Zimmermann represents the beginning point of a mind map, the nucleus from which clusters of works evolve according to a specific theme or idea.

Despite these complex underpinnings, however, Von Zimmermann’s practice is first and foremost about the here and now. She is a painter of contemporary life, interested in how communication has changed since the invention of the internet and what she calls ‘the possibilities of painting in a time of language breakdown’.

In an era defined by information overload, the focus becomes not on what is being said but the amount being said; in other words, mass matters. Von Zimmermann proposes that, as digital ‘beings’, our lives can increasingly be understood as a collection of data points, much like a canvas is a collection of marks. She argues that we are all collectively part of a painterly action now. By finding a link between these experiences, the artist fights for the continuing relevance of painting as a mode through which to understand the world.

Another vital part of Von Zimmermann’s practice is the concept of the gesamtkunstwerk, where separate elements contribute to a larger system, like notes in a score or lines of a code in a computer programme. Utilising a myriad of techniques, themes, and even styles, the paintings in this exhibition can be seen as a part of a precisely designed scenography, a total installation intended to induce in the viewer a heightened sense of awareness.

The title of this exhibition, ‘Recursion’, speaks to this interest in interconnection. A term used in the field of computer science, recursion is a method of solving a computational problem where the solution depends on solutions to smaller instances of the same problem. Although this might feel far away from the act of creating art, in Von Zimmermann’s practice, each brushstroke is a proposed solution to the ‘problem’ of painting.

- Chloe Stead

Rebekka von Zimmermann (b.1988 Tübingen, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam, Cooper Union New York and De Ateliers Amsterdam. She received the Mondriaan Fonds Werkbijdrage Jonge Talent (2016), Neustart Kultur Stipend (2020) and Neue Digitale Vermittlungsformate Stipend (2022). Her work was short listed for Kunstpreis Junger Westen (2019) and Karl Schmidt Rottluff Stipend (2016). This is her first solo show in the Netherlands.