White Balance Installation

The exhibition White Balance combines performative starting situations with optical references to the space, thereby giving the exhibited works a poetic dimension. When entering the exhibition room through the door with the somewhat too low door handle, the space—which is very bright from floor to ceiling—appears even brighter and more luminous than usual. The floor is scattered with countless ping-pong balls. Occasionally, the sound of a ping-pong ball bouncing can be heard—it resembles the ticking of a clock but follows its own rhythm, hinting rather at a clock that has gone out of sync. Later, one discovers a small white table. Inside the drawer of the table is a video installation showing a ping-pong ball seemingly jumping from inside the table into the room. A reversal: things “throw” themselves from virtual space into material space.

Overall, visitors are confronted with a world of instability and displacement that fully depends on their own perception and actions. How should one deal with the loosely scattered ping-pong balls on the gallery floor? Tiptoe carefully through? Navigate in a slalom? Or simply kick the balls away? The aspect of searching for meaning, while always catching oneself in meaningless actions, is also reflected in the exhibited video works. It is a constant circling around unstable balance. Chance is always part of the game.

All exhibited works have a physical starting point. Ruth Baettig stages, acts, films, and photographs herself. It is a throwing oneself into an imagined situation that becomes reality through the action.