Until Less
An exhibition proposal in frames of the apexart Open Call NYC 2025/26

While the main selling point of today´s capitalistic circus seems to paradoxically rely on the idea that to consume more of less or less of more (“the only (insert product) you will ever need”) the concept of less in terms of basic survival needs is just as omnipresent. While minimalist aesthetics and “all-in-one” products are trending in Western commercial society filled with plenty and almost too much choice, it is easy to forget that abundance is a privilege. While Western societies like the United States indulge in overconsumption, and concurrently, produce enormous amounts of waste, countries of the global South must grapple with the ecologically disastrous results of such Western social behaviours. The centering of global narratives around (Western) abundance does not reflect the very real lack of resources, capital and food by the rest of the world.
As a result, the questions arises:
What relevance does the concept of „less“ offer to contemporary society? Is it focused on chic minimalism or sheer survival? Can we have more of less, or should less remain a word conotated with lack?
The proposed exhibition consequently urges to provide aesthetic responses and answers to the question of less. When does the state of less actually manifest in artistic practice? Does it start with less rather than more? Is it a stripping or taking away of something from something or someone? Or is it an addition to the void? Lastly, is such a subtractive or negative concept even possible in the context of artistic creation and production?

The exhibition will feature works that critique consumer culture and the ubiquity of visual excess. By engaging with advertisements, posters, or printed images, the artistic positions comment on the overwhelming saturation of media and the societal impulse toward consumption. Décollage, in this context, acts as a deconstructive force, using less to reveal systems of power and control. By peeling away layers, décollage reveals unexpected juxtapositions and recontextualized images. These works embody the tension between destruction and creation, using less as a way to evoke the unexpected beauty that arises from erasure. Another way of décollage as a metaphor for memory, loss, and time’s passage. The layers torn away are seen as fragments of collective or personal memory, with each piece exposing the fragility of our experiences and identities. The process of erosion or deterioration reveals what was once present and now lies underneath. This aspect will be integrated with video essays and installations on the topics of less and make a point with the fragility of audio-visual material in the realm of collective memory and history itself.