Heartbreak Picnic (Backhaus Projects)

WORKS • ENQUIRE

Hearbreak Picnic (Redux)
A Duo Exhibition by Bhasha Chakrabarti and Matt Smoak
01/10/22 - 10/11/22
Backhaus Projects
Berlin, DE

Grove Collective is pleased to present elements of Bhasha Chakrabarti and Matt Smoak’s Heartbreak Picnic at their sister location, Backhaus Projects, in Berlin. Heartbreak Picnic was first staged as a complete exhibition at the gallery’s Battersea space in June of this year.

The aims of restaging the exhibition in Berlin are two-fold. On one hand, it serves as an opportuntiy to introduce two exciting and vibrant artists to the gallery’s Berlin community, where the works gain a new audience and context. Additionally, however, it serves as an opportunity to refocus the thrust of the exhibition towards interactive and experiential ends. Utilizing Backhaus Projects’ ethos as a community-driven project space, where visitors are often encouraged to actively participate in programming, Grove Collective hopes to explore the communal possibilities in Chakrabarti and Smoak’s picnic. While visitors were indeed invited to picnic at the London space, over the 10 day exhibition period, the show’s titular, communal “Heartbreak Picnic” work becomes the central point around which other works take on meaning.

Using Backhaus Projects as primarily a site for interactive and site-specific works, Heartbreak Picnic perfectly encapsulates Grove Collective’s aims in the space: to create opportunities for gathering and reflection in ways that invite, not isolate, broader audiences.

Installation Shots