Neon Breasts and a Handful of Eyeballs: Meet Das Institut

March 12, 2016, 10:30am

The multimedia works of Das Institut—the duo of German artists Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder—is bewildering, unsettling, and unpretentious. One of the pieces currently displayed at Serpentine Galleries seems a fair enough summation of this ethos: a pair of neon breasts hung on the gallery wall. The meld of high-concept and low taste, the ostensibly slightly shocking presented in a matter of fact way—this is very Das Institut. “The collective… gives room to each artist’s individual practice, as well as seeking ways for their work to be physically and conceptually combined,” Serpentine Galleries’ Rebecca Lewin tells the Creators Project. “Das Institut also invites contributions from other artists, and this exhibition is no exception: the work of Sergei Tcherepnin, Allison Katz and Alexander Kluge has been included, and a two-day performance in April led by Ei Arakawa will further activate the spaces and objects in the show.”’ Check out works from the show—including some seriously unsettling slide projections—below.