The title of the exhibition—Quale—refers to a central philosophical problem that has been discussed since the 18th century: the subjective perception of the world through the processing of sensory impressions. As early as 1739, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume wrote that “we cannot form any idea of the taste of a pineapple without actually tasting it.” This example illustrates the philosophical concept of “qualia”, which describes the subjective quality of a conscious experience—such as the taste of a fruit, the redness of a fabric, or the timbre of a sound. Such experiences—“qualia”—cannot be fully translated into language or descriptive terms because they can only be grasped through direct experience and differ from person to person. In Maja Behrmann’s work, this tension between visual stimulus, physical experience, and linguistic inaccessibility becomes a central theme. Her installations do not merely invite contemplation, but open up a physical access to art that goes beyond the mere interpretation of what is seen. An access that comes closer to the essence of qualia than any attempt at theoretical description.

Except from the exhibition text by Anne Zühlke.