The “Think positive!” exhibition by Saeed Foroghi and Thilo Droste is a challenge not just to the spirit, but also to looking. And to being looked at. Pessimism has become part of the artistic program here rather than a signifier of any spiritual failing.
An over-sized conference table, designed specifically for the location, unfolds through the space like a delineation of the gallery. The table functions as both an invitation to a round-table discussion and as a barrier that excludes viewers. There should (seemingly) be mounted emblems and trophies; it is a place where (world) maps might get reshuffled. Droste and Foroghi thematize the questioning of established power structures—a topic both artists explore in radically different contexts—rendering it as a spatial experience where the audience physically undergoes being included in and excluded from circles of sovereignty.