DISTANT BODIES
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUR BODIES CAN NO LONGER COME TOGETHER?
Digital exhibition
Museum of Now ongoing open call for artists and creatives worldwide
ON THE TRESHOLD BETWEEN
DIGITAL AND ANALOG
With the emergence of the global pandemic in spring 2020, most art and culture foundations were faced with significant challenges. Due to the measures to fight the pandemic, the established way of presentation, communication and exchange suddenly became no longer possible.
In response, the Museum of Now set up its digital exhibition program right at the start of the health crisis and introduced the permanent virtual exhibition "DISTANT BODIES". THE EXHIBITION IS EXPLORING THE QUESTION, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUR BODIES CAN NO LONGER COME TOGETHER and calls on artists and creative minds worldwide to submit positions that investigate the recent impact by the virus and its influence on the new normal.
In the following we present an international group of creatives, resulting from the course of the exhibition so far. Our goal is to continue to enable a discourse and to connect our artists with a respective broad audience. Virtual and augmented realities are our current fields of experimentation and we are making intensive efforts to look for links between analog and digital art presentation.
"Distant Bodies" is curated by Denis Leo Hegic, Jan Gustav Fiedler and Michelle Houston and brought to you by the generous support of our circle of friends MONcircle.
ARTISTS
DIMITRIS GKIKAS
(BERLIN, GERMANY)
FU WENJUN
(CHONGQING, CHINA)
GYONYOUNG YOON
(SEOUL, KOREA)
MARINA GENADIEVA
(NICOSIA, CYPRUS)
ALFRED BRANDL
(HAMBURG, GERMANY)
BYE
(VALENCIA, SPAIN)
VERA KLIMENTYEVA
(VIENNA, AUSTRIA)
PASHIAS
(ATHENS, GREECE)
SARA BONAVENTURA
(VENICE, ITALY)
SOFIA ZULUAGA
(BARCELONA, SPAIN)
LILY DORIAN
(JACKSON, USA)
THE KRANK & ELIZA KRIKONI
(BERLIN & ATHENS)
TpT
(BERLN, GERMANY)
DAN STOCKHOLM
(COPENHAGEN, DENMARK)
GUILLERMO S. QUINTANA
(BERLIN, GERMANY)
BOJAN STOJČIĆ
(SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA)
VLADIMIR ABIKH
(ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA)
JULIA BOROVAYA
(MOSCOW, RUSSIA)
DIMITRIS GKIKAS
BERLIN, GERMANY
▼
DIMITRIS
GKIKAS
I WILL BE WAITING
TRUE INSIGHT IS MOST REMOTE
► DIMITRIS GKIKAS
I WILL BE WAITING
"I will be waiting" is a browser-based work that is using the Street View technology to capture the frozen timeless shores of the remote north. Despite the real-world imagery, Gkikas re-contextualises the purpose of the Street View to create a dreamlike atmosphere that will - regardless of the direction you choose - always take you to the same destination.
Engage with the interactive work here:
Dimitris Gkikas is a Berlin-based new media artist and designer from Athens, Greece. In his work, Gkikas is using found materials (such as GIF’s, stock images, videos) and systems (Google Street View) from the internet, which he manipulates and re-contextualises. By doing so, he is trying to redefine their primary context and display their undiscovered characteristics. With the use of internet as a medium he is trying to communicate his thoughts and feelings and make them easily accessible. His work has been exhibited in festivals such as Electronic Language International Festival (FILE), Zukunftsvisionen, Transmediale Vorspiel, The Wrong New Digital Art Biennale, Festival für elektronische Künste - Shedhalle and Piksel Festival.
► DIMITRIS GKIKAS
SPACE OF
INACCESSIBILITY
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
In "I will be waiting" Dimitris Gkikas sets his work in a spot so remote, that it becomes too inhospitable for humans to have an ongoing presence.
The fact that we can bring art to places in which we can not put ourselves, captures both: our power and our absolute fragility.
We have our hands on everything in this world. The humans are re-shaping the climate and our planet´s biodiversity. We are launching so many objects into space that the globe became wrapped in satellites - the very ones that enabled this work based on Google`s Street View - and yet we are also temporary. We are small, mortal beings on a planet that contains sites so cold and removed from other humans, that we can not visit them very often. But even in those places we leave little somethings in an attempt to say "we were here".
Gkikas' work - which refers directly to the topic of "Distant Bodies" - illuminates the concept of remoteness, that might have started out of physical necessity but led to the discovery of new - previously inaccessible - individual places of self-enlightenment.
SOFIA ZULUAGA
BARCELONA, SPAIN
▼
SOFIA
ZULUAGA
P•ANOPTICON
THE ALL SEEING
UTILITARIANISM
► SOFIA ZULUAGA
P•ANOPTICON
Sofia Zuluaga. Bogotá, Colombia 1989, is a queer latina figurative artist, exploring inciting rebellion against our social conditioning; the identifying paradigms determining who and what each individual is entitled to be. Sexuality, identity and body image are omnipresent throughout her paintings. In her latest series, P•anopticon, she has used Foucault’s panopticism as a metaphor of our physical and psychological confinement. The series rose to challenge the social indoctrination that we are subjected at the collective and individual level. This coercion is not something that has been implemented as a result of current events (although the circumstances have made her series all more relevant) but instead have been applied for centuries by those in positions of power i.e. government, religion, mass media, big brother, etc. P•anopticon explores the attempts made in search of liberation, but also poses the viewer to question whether this is feasible at all, hence the title’s allusion to the anopticon, the antithesis of the panopticon.
CUALE
[INDIVIDUAL INSTANCE OF SUBJECTIVE CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE]
100 x 65 cm
OIL ON LINEN
2020
SUBJUGATE
[BRING UNDER DOMINATION OR CONTROL]
100 x 80 cm
OIL ON LINEN
2020
LEX
[LAW IN LATIN]
100 x 81 cm
MIXED MEDIA ON LINEN
2020
► SOFIA ZULUAGA
A SPACE FOR LIBERATION
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
The human bodies painted by Sofia Zuluaga combine centuries-old formal language with contemporary perspectives and aesthetics. Naked, contorted figures are reminiscent of Caravaggio's “Crowning of Thorns”, Titian's “St. Lautentius” or Peter Paul Rubens “Andromeda ”.
Zuluaga´s baroque forms and mannerist figures appear as singular protagonists on her canvases. Their tenderness and vulnerability is accentuated by shackles and ropes. In addition to their erotic connotation, the works take on another level of meaning. Humanity and individuals, lonely and tethered by the external circumstances of the world. Powerlessness and dependence replace the lustful devotion. Nonetheless, Sofia Zuluaga's series is a reference to a hopeful future in which we can be ourselves together again in an open and tolerant world, free from regulations and restrictions.
FU WENJUN
CHONGQING, CHINA
▼
FU
WENJUN
THOUGHT READING
INNER REFLECTIONS EXTERIORIZED
► FU WENJUN
LOOKING INWARD
"Thought reading" is one of the six supernormal powers believed by the Buddhists, which refers to the ability of reading other people's ideas just by looking at them. In the photography work “Thought Reading”, the Buddhist statues shot in Dazu Grottoes, Chongqing (China), are combined with the CT images of the human head, presenting Fu Wenjun´s reflection on the modern civilization.
What is defined as 'a thorough understanding of the others' ideas', in Wenjun´s opinion, is just a metaphor. The seeing is easily influenced by one’s desires. For this reason, even though the Buddhism talks about the supernormal power of looking outward on others, in the end the Buddhism is oriented toward human itself, and it believes "looking inward" is the most important matter. The Buddhism tells people about "discipline, concentration and wisdom", but first of all one should clean his delusion and desires. Thought reading can be understood as a significant warning towards our modern civilization: with the technological development, we have been ignoring to take good care of ourselves (our mind); and the technology that is driven by human’s desires, is facing the risk of losing its control.
THOUGHT READING 1 - 8
DIGITAL PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
2009-2011
► FU WENJUN
CROSS
WALKING
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
Fu Wenjun is a Chinese visual artist celebrated for his provocative, unique use of digital photography, Fu creates art that both reflects and challenges our understanding of contemporary and traditional techniques. The Chongqing-born creator trained in oil painting at the Sichuan Fine Art Institute before turning his focus to photography, where he developed his iconic Digital Pictorial Photography style as a way to express more complex ideas than traditional documentary style allowed. Combining aspects of modern Western and traditional Chinese art through digital experimentation on photographs, Fu Wenjun pioneered the use of digital technology to stretch the boundaries of photographic art. His Digital Pictorial Photographs conjure elements of calligraphy, oil painting, and sculpture ranging from figurative to abstract, simultaneously exploring tradition and technology’s effects on human life. In 2017, the National Art Museum of China presented a solo exhibition of Fu Wenjun’s work, titled Harmony in Diversity: Fu Wenjun’s Digital Painting Photography Exhibition, which included two Digital Pictorial pieces collected by the museum, Nepotism and Thought Reading No.5. Sought after by museums and collectors around the world, from the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum to the Kennedy family, Fu Wenjun’s work has won numerous prestigious awards, including first prize at the International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Argentina, “The Best Artist in the World” at Tour Eiffel La Grande Exposition Universelle, and the International Award “Lorenzo il Magnifico” of X Florence Biennale. Fu Wenjun is crossing boundaries between generations, cultures, and geographies through his expansive body of work. He’s currently focused on creating spaces where Western and Eastern cultures interact, evoking dialogues about how different societies engage with the changes modernity brings.
LILY DORIAN
JACKSON, USA
▼
LILY
DORIAN
FRAGILE BODIES
► LILY DORIAN
FRAGILE BODIES
In a time where bodies are distant and fragile, we must look inward. We must heal, entertain, love, and live with ourselves. In a world where time is fleeting yet still, I have turned to photography as a way to understand this time as we are moving but ultimately not going anywhere. We long to touch each other but in reality we are physically distant from others. The idea that this is real sometimes feels like a dream or strange mirage upon the long and dry dessert.
(Lily Dorian)
FRAGILE BODIES II
FRAGILE BODIES III
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
2019
LEG UP
TONED CYANOTYPE OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
2020
FLOORED
VANDYIKE BROWN ALTERNATIVE
PHOTOGRAPHY ON STONEHANGE PAPER
2020
TO TOUCH
TONED VANDYKE BROWN
PRINT ON STONEHENGE PAPER
2020
► LILY DORIAN
THE
UNTOUCHABLES
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
The double exposure photographs by the American artist Lily Dorian appear hazed, alienated - as if veiled with a fine layer of see-through stockings. Her works speak of haptics and the alienation associated with the (current) lack of touch. The outstretched hand seems to want to take us away without ever being able to, the longing and nostalgia for the impossible are the principal layers of Dorian´s multiple exposures.
GYONYOUNG YOON
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
▼
GYONYOUNG
YOON
FILLING IN PHYSICAL REALITY,
LIVING IN DIGITAL REALITY
BE-LONGING
► GYONYOUNG YOON
FILLING IN PHYSICAL REALITY,
LIVING IN DIGITAL REALITY
As I started to live away from home, I faced a problem that I had never had before in my life: to find a place where I belong – and that was harder than I ever imagined. It needs a big and constant effort, but I could not afford it because of my circumstances as an international student. Instead of struggling to make a home in physical reality, I decided to make it in digital reality by applying digitally recreated layer over my physical reality, hoping to fill in the blanks I have in my life and my mind with it. (Gyonyoung Yoon)
3 VIDEOS
APPROXIMATELY 1 MIN EACH
1920 X 1080, STEREO SOUND
► GYONYOUNG YOON
DIGITAL
NOSTALGIA
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
Nostalgia as our never ending desire – our perpetuum mobile – is our longing to find AGAIN something, that we actually never had before.
Even though it is often referred as “home sickness”, that definition remains only partially true. "Sickness" symbolizes a possible state of mind, but the longing of nostalgia is more then a melancholic look back into the past. It is our desire to be-long and is, therefore, naturally rooted in our projected future.
Gyonyoung Yoon not only talks about the growing danger of loneliness in an increasingly digitized world, in her work she approaches the human endeavor for belonging, identification and imagination with humor in immersive, bright-coloured worlds.
MARINA GENADIEVA
NICOSIA, CYPRUS
▼
MARINA
GENADIEVA
WOMAN TRAPPED IN A PHALLIC COSTUME
INVISIBLE VISIBILITY
► MARINA GENADIEVA
WOMAN TRAPPED IN A PHALLIC COSTUME
In the work "Woman Trapped in Phallic Costume" the garment is made of transparent PVC that has been used before as a painting palette. I turn it into a phallic costume which I wear as a closed form. Suffocation, a sense of confinement, panic, and anxiety about survival are universal emotions that can affect anyone.
(Marina Genadieva)
WOMAN TRAPPED IN A PHALLIC COSTUME
2020
PHOTO 29,7 x 42 CM
PLASTIC PAINTING PALETTE SEWN IN PHALLIC SHAPE
TRANSPARENT PVC & ACRYLIC COLOURS
SIZE: XSMALL
► MARINA GENADIEVA
GLAMOUR vs
GLAMOUR
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
When Odysseus returned to Itaka, in order to observe the changes that have taken place in his absence, he decides to put on a cape of invisibility and explore his home island. In the first translation of the Odyssey into English, a new word was introduced to describe the invisibility cape: glamour.
Glamour – our longing to be seen without been seen. Marina Genadieva´s cape of invisibility – her glamour – is a garment that transforms her body into a work of art. A second skin, painted and applied on the body of the artist. As an object she becomes visible, as a woman she seems to disappear within the phallic costume.
Marina Genadieva analyzes the transformation of the body in rituals and performances in which she acquires different identities – or the variety of identities she carries – by referencing to gender roles that our cultural heritage is imposing on us to this day. In this way Marina´s work becomes a Kafkaesque vessel of all the (imposed) visibilities. It is glamorous in the real sense of the word.
ALFRED BRANDL
HAMBURG, GERMANY
▼
ALFRED
BRANDL
SILENT HEROES
"BEING A HERO IS A LOT OF WORK AND SOME OF IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING."
► ALFRED BRANDL
SILENT HEROES
DIS-COVERING PEOPLE
Alfred Brandl´s series „Silent Heroes“ consists of paired photographs portraying individuals – each with closed eyes on one photography and with wide open eyes and a facial mask on the other. The sterile black and white fashion evokes a clinical atmosphere, underlined through the element of the mask.
The series is showing the uncertainty and helplessness, which people are experiencing when faced with the invisibility of the COVID-19 virus. At the same time the “Silent Heroes” sequel also appears as a monument of people´s courage – especially of the ones which are in a daily exposure to the Coronavirus while exercising their professions.
The duality of Brandl´s series is an impressive statement about the fragility of a person behind the facial cover.
"It is them who serve us, the community. They have been doing that for years but now we see. A parcel carrier, a pharmacist, a kiosk owner, a doctor, a baker… We see them as vulnerable as all of us but they continue to care and serve, dis-covering some of the society’s backbones.” (Alfred Brandl)
SILENT HEROES
2020
PHOTO PRINTS ON HAHNEMÜHLE
FINE ART - BARYTA / PHOTO RAG PEARL, 320g
180 x 130 CM
► ALFRED BRANDL
TRANSFORMING
IDENTITIES
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
Putting on the mask usually marks the moment of transformation from a regular person into a superhero - at least in our preconceived perception of of Pop Art heroes depictions.
Alfred Brandl is showing a series in which this constellation is reversed: wearing a mask becomes the rule and the moment of the unveiling the exception. Brandl´s heroes are not characterized by supernatural powers but by their humanity. The artists is capturing people who are daily exposed to a possible infection by the coronavirus while executing their professions. Alfred Brandl´s “Silent Heroes” do not appear with fanfare. They are the individuals that keep the country going.
BYE
AGAINST THE
FRAGMENT
THE INCOMPLETE TRUTH
BYE
VALENCIA, SPAIN
▼
► BYE
AGAINST
THE FRAGMENT
PIECES OF PRESENT
Borja Moreno Farinós and Esteban Ferrer Martinez from the collective BYE use juxtaposition and superimposition to show the progress of change over a period of time. “Against the fragment” is a series resulting from their experiment of observation – a body of work that combines as well additive (drawings and photography) as subtractive techniques such as sgraffito resulting in digital prints.
“It is a mistake to take for granted what is observed” (Carlos Oroza)
BYE is recontextualising classical elements and fragmenting them in order to review the mechanism of narrative and to subvert the prevailing historical account. “We are confronting images that are apparently absurd, fake or unrelated, to represent not only our surroundings but also the crisis of a loss of sense as the collective syndrome of our current society.” (BYE)
AGAINST THE FRAGMENT
2019
DIGITAL PRINT ON BOARD
70 x 50 CM
► BYE
ARCHITECTURES
OF ABSURDITY
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
Borja and Esteban form the artist collective “BYE”. The name of the creative duo is constructed by merging their first names but it also provides a meaning that is symbolic for their artistic creation.
They deconstruct the conventional narratives and reassemble them to new interpretations.
"BYE" actually seems to say "bye" - to our usual interpretations of images and signs.
Their digital imagery consists of layers of architecture, modifications of symbols and gestures and blends into an alteration of the visual language.
PASHIAS
ATHENS, GREECE
▼
PASHIAS
ARTIST'S WORKOUT GUIDE
MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO
► PASHIAS
ARTIST´S WORKOUT GUIDE
TRAINING FOR PERFORMANCE
In the epoch of quarantine and self-isolation, visual artist PASHIAS proposes the homonymous five-minute video “6-step Artist’s Workout Guide” as a set of physical exercises. Based upon his performance art practice, PASHIAS shares a set of body + mind training tasks offering a method to keep a "fit shape and sharp focus.”
Following the extended production of home workout videos that overwhelms social media platforms, the artist appropriated the format and aesthetic qualities of digitised communication means, inviting the audience to mimic images and gestures that characterise his recent practice. The steps to be followed take reference from martial arts, the sports of archery, basketball and from scenes reminiscent of Olympic gymnastics. The body creatively acquires the abdominal ‘visuals’ in seconds, learns to construct a bow out of bull’s horns, finds the courage to transform into a shooting target and self-applauds in order to achieve the sentiment of ‘victory’. “The PASHIAS” technique attempts to connect the isolated viewers, minimising the virtual distance between bodies and connecting them with ‘moments’ of creation and cultural activity.
ARTIST´S WORKOUT GUIDE
2020
PERFORMANCE ON VIDEO
5:00 MIN
► PASHIAS
ÜBERREALITY OF
THE PASHIAS
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
In his performances PASHIAS processes reality into phenomena of a super-reality. The works communicate with the audience by being presented in a certain humorous overall form. "Humor is the politeness of despair" - it helps us to engage with complex thought. Humor is PASHIA's Trojan horse to bind our concentration and create an intellectual connection.
VERA KLIMENTYEVA
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
▼
VERA
KLIMENTYEVA
CORONA MADONNA
TWELVE NEVALYASHKAS
WHEN PUSHED AT AN ANGLE
BE A ROLY-POLY.
► VERA KLIMENTYEVA
CORONA MADONNA
ON ICONS AND POWER
Klimentyeva painted the "Corona Madonna" during the protective measures against the COVID-19 virus in Vienna. The work follows the traditional imagery of an icon, with the Madonna being displayed on a golden background. By adding an pandemic mask, the traditional icon is transformed into a contemporary comment on the current situation.
Klimentyeva comments on one hand on the allusive attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to fight the virus with prayers, holy water and relics, and on the other hand a she creates a contemporary version of the saints of the plague - a symbol of hope for better times.
The second position is a series of twelve golden combat policemen, reduced to the shape of the traditional Nevalyashka doll (a doll that never flips over when tipped but always rights itself back up). Klimentyeva´s Nevalyashkas are also wearing the protective visor, characteristic for the special forces.
In these works the materiality plays a decisive role. At first glance, the stoneware sculptures covered with gold luster appear perfect and resistant, but upon closer inspection, minor material-related differences become apparent. This difference turns the series of idealised officials into a collection of individuals.
CORONA MADONNA
2020
OIL ON CANVAS, GOLD LEAF
40 x 40 CM
TPT
BERLIN, GERMANY
▼
► VERA KLIMENTYEVA
HOLY
HOPE
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
Both the Corona Madonna as well as the twelve Nevalyashka sculptures are strong references to the current global outbreak of the pandemic.
Religion has always been a spiritual retreat during challenging times. Today, however, religious mass services take on a completely different dimension by often being confirmed as super spreader events of the virus.
At the same time, we are experiencing the increase of the state executive powers all over the world - on the one hand to secure the health and safety protection measures but police forces are also used when it comes to restrictions of democratic and personal freedom. History shows that those in power are very reluctant to withdraw such restrictive decisions once they have been passed.
It appears as if there is no other choice than to bounce - like Nevalyashka dolls - hoping to get back on the feet without getting hit back again.
TPT
EARTH BREATHS
AFTER THE RAIN,
THE SUN WILL REAPPEAR.
► TPT
EARTH
BREATHS
LIFE DOESN´T STAND STILL
"Humanity has paused and the earth seems to breathe deeply, and if you study even the smallest plants, you will quickly realise how insignificant we are in the larger picture of things and that we can easily exterminate ourselves if we do not regularly stop and rethink - the attitude towards ourselves, towards the relationships we have, the nature and life itself. " (TpT)
The video work, which was literally born in the artist´s apartment over the past few weeks of the lockdown shows succession of seedlings that are slowly developing into young plants.
EARTH BREATHS
2020
FILM
DURATION 5:45 MIN
► TPT
BETWEEN CREATING
AND OBSERVING
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
TpT observes the flora that shows the first tentative spring awakening in his apartment. The global pandemic and lockdown seem far away in the face of the macro world. The light is the master who brings the work of art to birth. The artist records the movement of the earth, the growth of the seedlings and the first leaves. TpT puts us in a state of slowdown that - when observing the growing young plants - appears hopeful, free from disturbance and tranquil.
THE KRANK &
ELIZA KRIKONI
BERLIN, GERMANY & ATHENS, GREECE
▼
THE KRANK &
ELIZA KRIKONI
UN-SAFE
YOU ARE SO NEAR SO FAR.
► THE KRANK & ELIZA KRIKONI
CORONA IN TIMES
OF INSTAGRAM
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
The Krank und Krikoni embarked on a journey into a shared space of proximity and intimacy, yet thousands of kilometers apart. They are meeting in a world of digital exchange of bits and bytes, in which geography and physical bodies become irrelevant.
The art perfomance "un-safe" was realized by the two artists in over 2.000 km distance to each other.
Krikoni performed a meditative self-desinfection, a process culminating in wrapping with plastic foil, while being observed by the motionless The Krank veiled with a face mask.
► THE KRANK & ELIZA KRIKONI
THE KRANK
PROXIMITY IS NOT A MATTER OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCE
The Berlin-based artist created a performance in an environment in which physical distance plays only a subordinate role - the web - and connected with the Athens-based artist Eliza Krikoni in a real-time exchange in front of a global audience.
In times of social distancing, The Krank is showing that proximity is not a matter of geographical distance. With the worldwide lockdown, our social and cultural encounters are shifting into the digital world - an environment in which it is unimportant whether users are on different floors of the same building or on opposite sides of the continent.
UN-SAFE
2020
ART PERFORMANCE
DURATION 5:20 MIN
► THE KRANK & ELIZA KRIKONI
ELIZA
KRIKONI
THE AGONY OF SAFETY
Eliza Krikoni takes on the active role in the duo performance act "un-safe" by manically turning into the security of a physical cocoon. In a meditative way, the artist delimits her body from the world outside. She distances herself, disinfects herself and finally wraps herself up with transparent foil. During this time, her digital pendant remains motionless on the opposite side.
UN-SAFE
2020
ART PERFORMANCE
DURATION 5:20 MIN
DAN
STOCKHOLM
HOUSE
&
BY HAND
PERFORMATIVE PROCESS TURNS THE FINISHED PIECE INTO A VESSEL WHICH CARRIES THE STORY OF ITS OWN MAKING.
DAN STOCKHOLM
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
▼
► DAN STOCKHOLM
CREATIVE
ARCHEOLOGY
STOCKHOLMS SCULPTURES ARE
VESSELS OF TRANSMISSION
In 2013 Dan Stockholm´s father suddenly passed away. Subsequently, the artist methodically touched the entire house of his father. After the last part of the house has been touched, the artist created a number of negative plasters of his hands.
Finally, Stockholm presented two series of works - "House'" and "By Hand" - both of great emotional and spiritual power, allowing us to wander through the house of his departed parent.
HOUSE
2016
DIMENSIONS VARIABLE
SCAFFOLDING, PLASTER CASTS, STAINLESS STEEL, WATER, EPOXY, VIDEO
BY HAND
2016
255 X 125 X 70 CM
RED CLAY
► DAN STOCKHOLM
A DESIRE
TO PRESERVE
LONGING AND BELONGING
Dan Stockholm´s two series "House" and "By Hand" are sister works with the same origin. After the death of his father, Stockholm touched the entire house centimeter by centimeter with his hands. This act enabled him to create the work “House” - casts of his own hands, which appear to reflect the repetitive action of touching.
The casts range from the whole hand to the fragment of a finger. Fixed to iron scaffolding poles and distributed in a space, the casts become an architecture of memory.
In his series "By Hand" Stockholm created red clay casts of his hands formed into a bowl, with the fingers inside, the thumbs facing outside and the palms of his hands forming an arch.
The red pigment of the clay is a reference to his father's red brick house. The works appear as vessels of memory – a gesture characteristic for both series “House” and “By Hand”.
► DAN STOCKHOLM
BUILDING
BRIDGES
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
We are experiencing tragic losses due to the Coronavirus all over the world, living in a constant concern for our health and the health of our relatives. Having no possibility of coming together we have to build emotional and spiritual bridges.
Dan Stockholm is creating such bridges with his works. He is keeping the connection to his departed father alive and exploring his own spirituality within.
GUILLERMO S. QUINTANA
BERLIN, GERMANY
▼
GUILLERMO S. QUINTANA
FROM COLOR WE COME AND BELONG
WE ARE A SET OF COLORS. FROM BIRTH TO DEATH.
► GUILLERMO S. QUINTANA
FROM COLOR WE COME AND BELONG
WE USE THE COLORS AND THE COLORS USE US.
Guillermo S. Quintana is a Mexican transdisciplinary creative, currently living in Berlin, navigating between the different artistic disciplines. The use of an intense color palette is characteristic of his work. The artist explores the wide range of color application with both social and cultural anthropological approaches.
PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES
2020
DIGITAL PRINTS BACKLIT LIGHTBOX
LIMITED EDITION OF 1
VARIOUS SIZES
MAX 100 X 150 CM
► GUILLERMO S. QUINTANA
THE SCIENCE OF FEELINGS EXPLAINED BY COLOR
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
“Colours, like features, follow the changes of the emotions,” Pablo Picasso once said.
Human response to color is unique to each individual and deeply rooted in personal and cultural experiences. For example, in the United States, yellow is often associated with the sun, and thus considered cheerful and bright. In France, however, yellow evokes emotions of jealousy and betrayal and was even painted on the homes of criminals in the 10th century.
In his photographic series, the Mexican artist literally bathes the models in color. The results are works of an intense emotional and sensory quality.
VLADIMIR ABIKH
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
▼
VLADIMIR ABIKH
00:00:00:00
TIME HAS NO DIRECTION. IT JUST EXISTS.
► VLADIMIR ABIKH
00:00:00:00
FIXING THE MOVEMENT OF TIME
Illumination In the shape of half an hourglass. The lower half is formed by the reflection in water.
The movement of "grains of sand" is completely contrary to the linear understanding of time and the mirrored twist supports the perception of timelessness.
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
LIGHT AND SOUND INSTALLATION
2019
1920 x 1080 PX
00:02:50
SOUND BY PHILIP GUZEEV
VLADIMIR ABIKH
THE ARTIST
Vladimir Abikh lives in St. Petersburg, Russia and works as an artist worldwide.
Abikh's focus is that lies at the intersection of different media and styles: urban art, intervention, installation, video, photography. With his works he created much noticed appearances at the Urbal Industrial, Krasnoyarsk and the Artmossphere Biennale. In addition to his numerous awards, Abikh is also a four-time nominee of the Kuryokhin Awards in the category art in public space.
As an artist, whose works truly represent societal misconducts, Abikh seeks to speak about the complex network and systems of power in neo-liberal urbanism, about the matters of social inequality and the role of the human in the age of big data. His creative method is based on the reinterpretation of the street art heritage and particularly implies working with text, semantic content and language phenomena.
► VLADIMIR ABIKH
ONCE UPON A TIME
QUANTITY VS QUALITY
"Time is a key concept in philosophy and physics. Time permeates the entire universe and concerns everybody without exception; time is a prerequisite for the creation and modification of anything. We live in the era of a certain time and analyse its characteristics. Even the phrase “contemporary art” has a reference to time, to the actual continuity of a particular conversation. But at the same time it can be extremely difficult to reflect. Reading this text, we waste time. But from the very wording “wasting time” follows that we take time quantitively, but not
qualitatively."
Vladimir Abikh
► VLADIMIR ABIKH
RESET
TO ZERO
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
In an impressively short span of time, after just a few weeks of human standstill, we experience the incredible regenerative power of nature: the air pollution over China is disappearing, the canals in Venice clearing. It's almost as if Mother Earth wants to send us the message to reset to zero.
00: 00: 00: 00 is the title of the work of Vladimir Abikh, with which he leaves the linear understanding of the world and rather illustrates the circular convergence of all things. Abikh takes us into the poetry of the sewers.
BOJAN STOJČIĆ
SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
▼
BOJAN STOJČIĆ
9 TO 5
I WONDER WHAT OTHER INTIMATE HUMAN TRACES BECOME VISIBLE ONCE THEY ARE LIBERATED FROM THE INPUTS OF PRECARIOUS EVERYDAY.
► BOJAN STOJČIĆ
9 TO 5
AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
"Scanner is one of the most commonly used office devices for optical recording of analog files and their conversion into digital ones. Scanned photographs, printed text or handwriting thus become digital traces, digital proofs of both the physicality and the content of the documents. The scanner is one of the machines most frequently found in the offices, a practical comrade of the office worker and the artist. With a scanner, the visual can also be deliberately distorted.
At the end of my office shifts, I would go into the dark scanner room and turn the machine on. I would let it scan - not a document, but its own empty surface. The result of this process is a record of finger traces operating the scanner, normally overseen by its sensors. The record of the scanned human touch becomes a unique document of interaction between the machine, the space and the worker.
Such a document can only be made by removing the paper medium, the central input for the machine."
OILY FINGERTIP SCANS
DIGITAL PRINTS
BOJAN STOJČIĆ
THE ARTIST
Bojan Stojcic (Sarajevo, 1988.) is an artist from Bosnia and Herzegovina. An alum of Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, Stojcic was most recently granted the Collegium Artisticum Book Award for the self published artistic project “No Trace Promises The Path”. Aside from various collective and solo exhibitions, the latter most recently in Grenoble, France and Novi Sad, Serbia, Stojcic is featured in several European collections, including Deutsche Telekom and the agnès b. Foundation collection. Stojcic runs his art and design studio in Sarajevo, where he is currently self-isolated after returning from his residency in Urban Nation Museum in Berlin.
► BOJAN STOJČIĆ
TRACES OF
ABSENCE
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
Traces of traces of traces: is it not this experience that is essential for artistic creation?
Wordsworth called poetry "emotion recollected in tranquility", and Bojan Stojcic is creating from memory. And it doesn't matter whether the memory
is of his own thoughts or that of an office scanner. Stojcic perceives his environment with a detective accuracy and translates the perception into precise and sophisticated concepts.
9 TO 5
2020
OILY FINGERTIP MARKS
SCANOGRAPHY
DIGITAL PRINTS ON ALU-DIBOND
EDITION OF 5
100 X 150 CM
JULIA BORAVAYA
MOSCOW, RUSSIA
▼
JULIA BOROVAYA
SAVE LAB
ONLY THE PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE CAN HELP A MAN TO MOVE FORWARD IN SPIRITUALITY. NO BOOK CAN DO IT.
Marina Abramovic
► JULIA BOROVAYA
CRYSTAL
ART MEETS SCIENCE
For 60-80 minutes, the performer is in a direct, subtle, quantum contact with a chemical substance, experiencing its various stages physically and consciously. After the tank is emptied, the substance is washed off the body with water and the body recovers. The substance stays on the body as an invisible, but perceivable layer. The performer feels its action under her clothes as the environment changes. It takes about three hours for the substance to fully evaporate. The product of this performance is a live evidence of interaction between the human body and the substance as it changes from the gas phase into crystal phase and then finally evaporates on the human body. There is a circle of transformation: the plant (menthol) becomes a crystal, then translates into a vaporous state, then again a plant (dendrite). The work is about hypersensitivity, about the consciousness and subconsciousness with matter, and a new experience of the body.
PERFORMANCE
80 MINUTES
► JULIA BOROVAYA
CRYSTAL
THE MENTAL BODY OF MENTHOL
The work was captured on film and photography during the live performance at the Muffathalle in Munich. During the ac the performer experiences every stage of the contact with the chemical substance in a different way. When the substance contacts the body, the performer feels cold, but it is not a real feeling of cold, rather it is just an irritation of skin receptors. The performer needs to learn how to exist in this environment.
PERFORMANCE VIDEO
60 SECONDS
PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES
JULIA BOROVAYA
PERFORMING SCIENCE
Julia Borovaya and Edward Rakhmanov are the permant residents of the SAVE LAB - an art and science laboratory in the former bomb shelter in the basement of the Moscow State University.
The two investigate chemical, physical and biological knowledge in the context of art.
"Crystal" was performed by Anastasia Kraseva.
► JULIA BOROVAYA
WHAT IS THE
SCIENCE IN ART?
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
Artists and scientists often need to invent new concepts and technologies to accomplish their goals. With their work "Crystal - The mental body of menthol", the artist-scientist duo Julia Borovaya and Edward Rakhmanov courageously takes on the relation between physical experience in the sense of a performative work of art and a scientific experiment.
It is therefore not surprising that their laboratory, in which the hybrid works are created, is a former bomb shelter in the basement of Moscow University: a space in which lives are saved.
SARA BONAVENTURA
VENICE, ITALY
▼
SARA BONAVENTURA
CHRONOSCOPE
THERE IS NOTHING IN A CATERPILLER THAT TELLS YOU IT´S GOING TO BE A BUTTERFLY.
R. Buckminster Fuller
► SARA BONAVENTURA
CHRONOSCOPE
TIME UNDONE
The work "Chronoscope" is an entropic way to see the past. But what if the past tells us more about the future than we think? We are now in a point where we should slow down. Ephemeralization is not the answer but the symbol of it: the monarch.
The butterfly stands for self-organization and
self-regulation, but never in a fixed or rigid manner, rather in a transformative natural system. The metamorphosis from larva to caterpillar to butterfly is the core of the work. One screen is a flashback, the other a flash-forward.
The present is there, but the in-between not easy to be grasp.
COLOR, 16/9
1200 PAINTED FRAMES (ROTOSCOPE)
DIRECTED BY SARA BONAVENTURA
SOUNDTRACK BY MARCO GIOTTO
SARA BONAVENTURA
THE ARTIST
Sara Bonaventura is an Italian visual artist and educator. She works at the intersection between visual and media arts, lens based media and new media. As independent videographer she has been collaborating with performers and musicians, directing clips, adv, curating visuals. Her video works have been screened worldwide; at the NYC Anthology Film Archives, Other Cinema at San Francisco ATA Gallery, at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Asolo Art Film Festival, the Miami New Media Festival, at Rome MACRO Museum, the Cinemateca do MAM in Rio for Dobra Festival, the MOMus in Thessaloniki for Videolands curated by Miden Festival, the LA Echo Park Film Center, the Boston Cyber Arts Gallery and more. She won the Veneto Region Award at the 10th Lago Film Fest in 2014 and a merit for the 2019 Sino per NIIO Illumination Art Prizes (HK); she has been selected for several residencies, ie in 2016 by Joan Jonas at Fundacion Botin (Santander, ES). Recently selected for the ISEA 2019, the International Symposium for Electronic Arts, in Gwangju, South Korea.
► SARA BONAVENTURA
DECELERATION
IN WORLD`S BUSIEST BAY
Site specific version screened in Hong Kong
4 x 16 m split screen
Directed by Sara Boneventura
Soundtrack by Marco Giotto
SINO X NIIO
ILLUMINATION ART PRIZES
TSIM SHA TSUI AND
THE EMPIRE CENTRE
HONG KONG
► SARA BONAVENTURA
KAFKAESQUE
BEAUTY
CURATOR´S STATEMENT
“Chronoscope” is an instrument for accurate measurements of very brief intervals of time. Sara Bonaventura's work with the same title, is of an exceptional contemporary value. The artist is transferring her own desire to slow down. At the same time, Bonaventura lets us experience a transformation of a Kafkaesque beauty – however, a process that is only possible in harmony with nature.
We are currently experiencing a global standstill like never before. The artist, who is in a lockdown in Venice herself, observes how nature is currently recovering the canals of the city and regenerating them in a chronoscopical motion.
Bonaventura´s "decelerated" work was screened in one of the worlds busiest harbors in Hong Kong.