Distraction.

The exhibition at the long-established Haus am Lützowplatz (artists shown include Marina Abramović, Francis Bacon, Tony Craig, Rebecca Horn, Asger Jorn, Andy Warhol) comprised a total of nine intermedia works created between 2003 and 2009, including sculptures, installations, canvases, photographs as well as a performance.
The work shown examines the human position in a world oversaturated with technology through reworking the (im)possibilities of exchange proposed by our environment. In particular, the work revolves around the inherent ambiguity of the interface, providing both access to new territories and simultaneously separating us from other parts of reality.
For instance, with “Still a Life” participants can animate a fragile paper fish by touching a fishing wire stretched around the installation. However, the wire being an interface is only a distraction from its ultimate function as a barrier, keeping the audience at a distance.
Notwithstanding Nuhn’s reservations about the impact of new technologies on our lives his work often embraces, somewhat schizophrenically, the possibilities offered by this technology to create perceptually engaging experiences. Yet, his pieces rarely propose a direct means for audience interaction. In “Digital Communication” the “actors” are unaware of their participation in the installation, which involves a live Internet chat-room relayed to an arrangement of robotic fingers. The installation highlights the binary nature of virtual interaction and presents, as a new language, a sonic rendition of pure electric impulses.

The exhibition is documented in a monographic catalogue entitled 'Distraction', edited by R. Nuhn and C. Colle, co-published by the Haus am Lützowplatz and the Bureau d’Art et de Recherche (Roubaix, France). The book is available in English, French and German and includes texts by Cécile Colle}{Ralf Nuhn as well as art historian Anne Bariteaud.
A ten-minute radio interview with Ralf Nuhn has been conducted on the occasion of the exhibition and was broadcast on 16 August 2009 by the leading public radio station RBB (Radio Berlin-Brandenburg).
The exhibition was also included in the popular museum tour “Lange Nacht der Museen - Berlin” on 29th August 2010.