30 April 23, 5pm

In English

Venue: KW Institute for Contemporary Art

Registration via reservation@kw-berlin.de

“In my best efforts to explore the personal, the intimate, the interior, I often found

myself instead in the realm of the hollow, the superficial, and the masked.” So

begins Common Ruin, a book of writings by artist Win McCarthy. Published in

parallel with the artist’s solo exhibition at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, critical

texts, personal reflections, material histories, and poetry are paired with artworks and

studio views. At once wavering and lucid, McCarthy’s writing explores the tensions

between interiority and exteriority, complexity and simplicity, friend and stranger, city

and citizen. Common Ruin unfolds an impossible dialogue with persistence and

humility—and the fragility that his work embodies.

Common Ruin is co-published by KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König.