Sven Johne

"Start every morning with a smile", "I didn’t make this decision in order to be a hero", "I’m merely a human, not a machine" – in his new, extensive cycle of text and images called 'Anomalies of the Early 21st Century / Some Case Studies' Sven Johne explores social dropouts – voluntarily, involuntarily, unknown, well-known and anonymous. In his intermedial game, alternating between fiction, narration and documentation, Johne approaches general and highly subjective themes of our time with humour and subversiveness: the question of self-optimization, specific fear of exclusion and failure, the search for individual fulfillment and the promise of a better, fairer world.

Sven Johne's works have been recently shown at, among others: Creating Realities, Pinakothek der Moderne, München; Welcome to the Jungle, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; History is a Warm Gun, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; more Konzeption Conception now, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen; Sven Johne, Some Engels, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; 5. Thessaloniki Biennale, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece; Risk Society. Individualization in Young Contemporary Art from Germany, MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipai, Taiwan; Nur hier, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; Jutta, Kunsthalle Bielefeld; The Doubt of the Stage Prompters, Edith-Russ-Haus, Oldenburg.