The Sharing Project opens at the Adamski Gallery in Berlin as a video installation, featuring 15 short films plus 21 interviews.
Please join me in my ongoing exploration of the meaning of sharing. In addition to viewing the installation and watching the videos; you are invited to share your toys and help arrange them in the gallery. Then, at the end of the show, you are welcome to take the toys and give them away to whomever you think will enjoy them.
Toy Drop Off: March 19–20, March 24-28, and March 31-April 2 from 12-6 pm.
Toy Pick Up: May 3, 5, and 6 from 12-6 pm
Opening: April 2, 7 pm
Exhibition: April 3 – May 6, Tuesday – Sunday, 12-6 pm
Adamski / Berlin, Strausberger Platz 3 / 10243 Berlin
Press release below:
We are happy to present „The Sharing Project“, the 6th solo show of Joel Tauber at our gallery.
Why and under which circumstances should we share? To what extent should we share? Should we share similarly in every situation with everyone in the same way? What rules (moral, ethical, political, social) should guide our sharing? What impulses impact how much we share? Are we acting consistently? To what extent are we teaching our kids to share? If we believe in the value of sharing, why do we allow so much inequity to occur?
These questions haunt Joel Tauber at the beginning of „The Sharing Project“. More questions emerge, as he tries to uncover its meaning and teach it to his young son, Zeke. Tauber´s search leads them to the remains of Happyville, a former Socialist Jewish commune founded at the beginning of the 20th century in South Carolina, that faded away after just 3 years.
Through his rigorous – and oftentimes humorous – experiments and escapades; Tauber embodies the researcher, thinker, and adventurer. He battles our assumptions and furthers the proud literary traditions of the fool and jester.
In his recent project, it is as a father who encounters the challenge of teaching his first son to share, leading him to a deep and rigorous exploration of sharing. Tauber interviewed numerous scholars in evolutionary biology, psychology, anthropology, history, philosophy, education, economics, and political science. Their answers lead to new questions and different interpretations. The show exposes the complexities and contradictions of sharing. The installation – like the fool – does not demolish boundaries but offers possibilities of escaping them.
Joel Tauber received his MFA from Art Center College of Design and his BA from Yale University. „The Sharing Project” will be presented in an upcoming solo show at the University Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach. His work has been featured in the 2004 and 2008 California Biennials, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA; Kunstverein Hildesheim, Germany; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Canada; W139, Amsterdam; De Appel Centre For Contemporary Art, Amsterdam; and the Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA. Film Festivals include the San Francisco Documentary Festival, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the Sedona International Film Festival, and the Downtown Film Festival – Los Angeles, where his movie, “Sick-Amour”, was awarded “Best Green Film.” Tauber won the 2007 Contemporary Collectors of Orange County Fellowship, the 2007-2008 CalArts / Alpert Ucross Residency Prize for Visual Arts, and a 2015 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation in conjunction with a residency from the Grand Central Art Center.
The Sharing Project 