Exhibition in Ministry of Economic Affairs and Technology, 2002
Opening Speech (excerpt) from Inge Mahn

“Enmeshment” is the title of this exhibition, […] “Whoever fits the pattern, gains access,” she adds. In order to lock up, a key must fit the lock. A particular code gives access to the spaces and transmits messages. Besides, it does not matter whether the system has saved my details and I have to prove my identity, or whether I have to present myself via a code. “Whoever fits the pattern, gains access.” Whoever adapts to the pattern, becomes part of it. Whoever fits the pattern, is in it; whoever surrenders to the pattern, belongs to it, is part of, participator and partner. Enmeshments develop from connections: literally with bands, belts or ropes, through tying up, imprisonment, arrest or seizure, but also through obligations, affiliations, and memberships. They always signify commitment, involvements and bewilderments. Enmeshment is composed of the words “mesh” and “enmesh.” The noun “mesh” denotes a network, a web, a net, a lattice, all of which signify a set of lines criss-crossing, being superimposed on each other, lines that create a system of connections and contacts. By adding the prefix “en” the noun is transformed into the verb “enmesh,” meaning to catch, to trap, to ensnare, to entangle, a process that signifies seizure, encounter and coming together. By adding the suffix “ment” the process is transformed back into a noun, this time signifying both the practice and the state. Enmeshments can only be comprehended from the inside, for those who experience meshes and for those who understand them, who have internalised the pattern and the structure I use, or in which I find myself, or which I create. […]

I enmesh myself when I do not observe a structure, oppose a plan, ignore a pattern, neglect a system, or when I get stuck in my own intransigence. That is why the upright, respectable citizen Michael Kohlhaas became a murderer and an arsonist, despite his personal sense of justice and order. Medea killed her own children for similar reasons. Antigone got enmeshed in the contradiction between constitutional and religious law and duty. The ape in Kafka’s Report for the Academy was enmeshed in his own ape-ness. According to the bible, people are enmeshed in their own sins. Death, illness and other evils are compared to meshes and chains. Adversaries are nets and they create nets that try to confuse, both in the past and the present, the one true system that serves truth. […]

Enmeshments have a tragic character when the heroes and heroines lose themselves in their bonds and agreements. The Nibelungs perished as a result of Kriemhild’s revenge. Antigone had to die and Kohlhaas met a tragic end. The bible promises redemption through faith. The fairytale undermines magic with counter magic. Nietzsche considers love a fate which is a release. Kafka’s ape decided to become human, in reality both human and ape simultaneously.

One does not encounter tragedy, submissiveness to fate, nor love of fate in Juliane Laitzsch’s work. In this and in previous works, she brings together different patterns; different systems that do not contradict or contest each other, but function together and consequently acquire a new vitality. She brings together different energies that create a tense relationship, but that does not mean that one of the energies is less than the other, nor does it mean that the tense relationship is a contest. We are used to thinking in hierarchies, but Juliane Laitzsch challenges this value system with simple formulations.