Justin Urbach, BLINDHÆD at Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen

BLINDHÆD by Justin Urbach, curated by Marisa Zeising, at Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, 08/03/2025–25/05/2025.

Exhibition Text:
Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen is pleased to present BLINDHÆD, the first institutional solo exhibition by Justin Urbach (*1995 in Munich). BLINDHÆD allows us to see beyond what our eyes are capable of perceiving. Seeing is a sensory practice that guides us through the world, making it accessible and tangible. It serves as a means of constructing knowledge and fundamentally shapes our understanding of reality. But how do we see, how do images enter our consciousness, and how are they altered? And what does it mean when seeing is no longer a natural process?

In two contrasting rooms, Justin Urbach explores these questions. While the first exhibition space focuses on visual perception as a physical experience and its technological optimization, the second room shifts towards machine vision, a data-driven process detached from human perception. Visitors encounter a wavering light and a soundscape of algorithmic sounds extracted from the technical parameters of the video works. A blurred video projection gradually reveals a rotating eye undergoing laser surgery, referencing the evolution of tools designed to enhance vision, from telescopes to modern corrective procedures. Meanwhile, another video, SUBTLE ECHO II (2024), speculates on future technologies where microchips, connected to the brain and specialized camera-equipped glasses, restore sight to blind individuals—expanding perception beyond natural limitations.

The exhibition also features sculptural works such as NANO DROP (2025), where a blue laser beam passes through a cathode ray tube and a transparent acrylic membrane mimicking the human retina, illustrating the intersection of biology and technology. The second exhibition room introduces BLIND SPOT (2025), a video installation employing neuromorphic event-based camera systems that process movement as a continuous data stream rather than discrete frames. Here, machine vision operates on a micro-temporal scale beyond human perception, producing images meant not for human eyes but for other machines.

The title BLINDHÆD, an Icelandic road sign warning of limited visibility, serves as a metaphor for the constraints and transformations of human perception. Urbach’s works bridge present realities and speculative futures, questioning the impact of technological optimization on our understanding of sight.

Justin Urbach (1995, Munich) studied media art and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich under Professor Julian Rosefeldt. He received the Erwin and Gisela Steiner Foundation Prize in 2023 for his diploma thesis Fractal Breeze. His work has been exhibited at institutions including Galerie der Künstlerinnen Munich, Modal Imaginaries in Zurich, Galerie Max Goelitz in Berlin, the Goethe Institute Paris, and Kunstverein Marburg.