Alisa Kossak is taking part in the group exhibition Stretch out your words or hands slowly, which is on display at KV Leipzig until 9 October. Alisa Kossak has been an artistic assistant for project coordination and outreach at the AdBK Nuremberg since 2024.
 

There is this threshold between us and the outside world—a space from which sensory impressions reach us and into which we send our own. Even when we all pass through the same entrance, we arrive in different rooms. In some, we meet again; in others, we remain alone. What can we do? Show each other something. But how? How do you describe a texture? A color? A sound? Or a smell?
In this exhibition, 13 artists explore various forms of perception on both a conceptual and a material level. They all remind us that it is through our bodies that we experience the world. And that this experience can vary greatly. Attempts at translation—whether through audio description, a vocabulary of tactile descriptions, or subtitles—can never provide an exact rendering. But it is precisely these fragile translations that destabilize unambiguous interpretations and challenge the standardization and hierarchization of our senses. Sensory impressions can evoke deeply buried memories that cling to the unexpected: to the personal belongings of a beloved, deceased person; to unimaginable beings we encounter in dreams; in the grooves of shimmering surfaces; or in the scent of our own hair. But what do we do with the memories and sensations we actually want to get rid of? How can we overcome traumatic experiences and silence the memory of pain? Wären wir Seesterne, könnten wir verletzte Gliedmaßen einfach abwerfen und uns neue wachsen lassen. If we were starfish, we could simply shed injured limbs and grow new ones.
“Slowly Stretch Out Your Words or Hands” is an invitation to visitors to explore the exhibition by touching, smelling, listening, and looking. The phrase comes from Iz Paehr’s “Tactile Guide and Handbook for Tactile Descriptions,” which is part of the exhibition and serves as the basis for a workshop. An installation by Paula Gehrmann provides a meeting place for this and other workshops, in which various contributions are developed artistically, playfully, and collaboratively, based on the sensory qualities of different materials.
As part of the educational program and under the title “Images in the Mind,” Sebastian Schulze and Juliane Wenzl offer guided tours for blind, visually impaired, and sighted visitors. In addition, a guided tour with a German Sign Language interpreter will take place.

Alisa Kossak & Sarah Veith in collaboration with the Other Gods, Dirk Sorge & Jovana Komnenić, Hooria Sanei, Iz Paehr, Jana Maria Dohmann, Jo Bannon, Paula Gehrmann, Sophie Hoyle, Theresa Rothe, Tina Mamczur, Verena Schöttmer.

Slowly stretch out your words or hands
KV Leipzig

until 9 October

Opening hours: Wed, Fri, Sun 2 pm–6 pm