BackJumps – The Live Issue: Reality Check

Description

BackJumps – The Live Issue: Reality Check, curated by Adrian Nabi, Lukas Feireiss, Manuel Osterholt, and Daniel Künzler, is dedicated to one of the most influential independent magazines in the context of style writing and transfers its journalistic practice into a contemporary exhibition format. Founded by Adrian Nabi in the early 1990s, BackJumps developed into a central medium within an internationally growing writing culture. Long before social media, the magazine connected scenes in Europe and the USA and created a visual and cultural exchange that extended far beyond local contexts. BackJumps did not just document a scene — the magazine decisively shaped its visual and cultural language. By combining imagery, texts, and an independent attitude, BackJumps actively shaped the discourse around style writing and significantly contributed to making it visible as a global cultural practice. From print medium to spatial platform Live Issue: Reality Check continues the tradition of the so-called Live Issues, where BackJumps expands beyond the magazine medium into the exhibition space and urban context. The exhibition unfolds as a multi-layered spatial situation: archival material from the original BackJumps archive — including blackbooks, drawings, canvases, photographs, and video documentation — enters into direct dialogue with contemporary artistic positions that have emerged from the writing culture. Instead of presenting a linear historical narrative, the exhibition opens a dynamic field of tension between archival material and current artistic practice. Although style writing forms the cultural and aesthetic starting point for many of the participating artists, the works shown today go far beyond its original vocabulary — in painting, sculpture, installation, abstraction, and conceptual approaches. What connects the positions is not a common style but a shared cultural origin and attitude. In a present where images are produced, distributed, and consumed in real time, Reality Check re-examines questions of origin, attitude, and authorship. The exhibition focuses on practices and visual languages that emerged long before social media and continue to resonate, transform, be appropriated, and rewritten today. IMAGE: © Ruediger Glatz Contributors and additional information: Participating artists Akim, Anastasia Mikrou, Antwan Horfee, Brad Downey, Boris Dewjatkin, Boris Tellegen, Christian Falsnaes, Clemens Behr, Daniel Weissbach, David von Bahr, Dima Ilko, DocTC5, Egs, Enno Harr, Flash, Frédéric Platéus, Gues, Jay One Ramier, JonOne, Jürgen Grosse, Kadir Amigo Memiş, Kacao77, Kripoe, Gonzalo Kane-Maldonado Morales, Laila Wiens, Manu Schauseil, Maurer United – Architects, Mode2, Pablo Tomek, Part One, Pigenius Cave, Peter Michalski, Phos4, Poet62, R. Borrmann, Ruediger Glatz, Sany, Skki, The Wa, Thomas Bratzke, Victor Ash, and Vincent Grunwald. Archive Akay & Adams, Amok, Atome, Dejoe, Dero, Dondi, Esher, Henry Chalfant, Kase2, Kaze, Martha Cooper, Nicer, Odem, Serve, Shame125, Shek, Swoon, T-Kid170, West, and Zephyr, among others. Supporting program Accompanied by various live formats, Reality Check expands the exhibition into an active platform for exchange. Live performances at the opening on June 13, 2026, by JonOne, Flash, and Kadir Amigo Memiş. Live airbrush by Deko156.

Highlights

• Curated by Adrian Nabi and team
• Insight into the independent magazine BackJumps
• Connection of archival material and contemporary artists

General Information

The exhibition "BackJumps – The Live Issue: Reality Check" takes place at the Colab Gallery in Weil am Rhein. It presents the development of the magazine BackJumps and its influence on the style writing culture through a combination of archival material and contemporary artworks.

Location

Schusterinsel 9, 79576 Weil am Rhein, Germany

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