Although the title of the exhibition, Only Friends, ironically references the infamous platform, the blurring of boundaries between closeness and distance in relationships, between publicity and intimacy, here and now truly points to questions of friendship. Only Friends is both a snapshot of the ongoing work happening across various studios at aqb, and an engaging, insightful reflection on whether—and how—a non-hierarchical creative network can exist at all. In this sense, the exhibition is a large-scale experiment in artistic collaboration: a formal play that often doubles as a survival strategy.
The exhibition approaches friendship as a shared process of thinking and caring, one that often emerges from accidental or spontaneous encounters. Around forty artists of different generations and working in diverse media—either collaborating or placing their works in collaborative contexts—present their pieces across three locations: the gallery, the studio, and the garden. The artworks function as surfaces of encounter: they carry points of contact, and may even become entangled with one another.