Remembering Peace
With contributions by Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, Pavel Brăila, Delia Bulgaru, Ana Kun, Andrei Nacu, Mircea Nicolae, Katia Pascariu, Șerban Savu, Iulia Toma. Referencing the Ukrainian Samovydets Chronicle written during the »times of ruin« in the 17th century and claiming a degree of continuity between the situation for the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and our own troubled historical times, Remembering Peace brings together a delegation of messengers of peace from a marginal positionality that has stood the test of time. In attempting to find a balance in relation to larger forces, a different outlook on sovereignty emerges; it recognizes frailty and vulnerability, often with self-irony, and invests the imaginary of peace in resources such as the precious memories of past peace and the openings in everyday life. Re-membering peace means lifting the forces of life by joining marginal but enduring members, connecting differences that are not opposites, and practicing remembering as healing. This collective contribution, with more than 10 individual works by artists from Romania and the Republic of Moldova, reveals a body of unsteady, yet composed gestures that contest the fixed positionality of geopolitical determinacy. A proposal by the Resurrection Committee (Ovidiu Țichindeleanu, Raluca Voinea, Livia Pancu) and tranzit.ro.
Magic Carpet (Pavel Brăila)
2014,
drones, carpet
A flying carpet evokes an atmosphere of One Thousand and One Nights and the possibility of free travel, powered only by desire. Today, people from the lands of these old stories are increasingly confined to the limits of their shuttered territories. Their dreams end at the borders or end up at the bottom of the sea What if we could transform a tool of technological surveillance into a tool of liberation and rescue?
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer
How bread is done (Mircea Nicolae)
2014,
video, objects: mockup bread, mold, bread cast using promotional paper leaflets
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer
Perpetual Harvest (Anca Benera und Arnold Estefan)
2023,
Installation (woven wheat straw), in collaboration with the artisan Fazakas Angéla
The artwork Perpetual Harvest depicts a series of ballistic missiles made from woven wheat straw, which serves as a commentary on the absurdity of war and the pervasive policies of global militarization that affect every aspect of life. Essential as it is to human survival, food has always been a weapon of choice in almost every conflict, including the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Preventing food exports can cause more significant damage than any bomb or missile. Food is a weapon of war. It could be called ‘primitive ballistics.’ Food sustains life and can be used as a weapon if withheld. An ancient harvest ritual symbolically weaves together the last stalks of wheat standing in a harvested field. Cut and woven into various shapes, it represents the spirit of the harvest, sheltered in the farmer’s home for winter. When spring comes, the seeds in the weaving are mixed with the springtime planting, thus returning the harvest spirit to the fields. Nowadays, the ritual of wheat weaving is gradually disappearing along with the grain fields, drawing the spirit of the harvest into new configurations. The Black Sea grain deal is the only issue on which the two parties involved (Ukraine and Russia) come to the negotiation table. We aim to highlight the role of grains as the sole bridge to peace, along with the agency of grains as “negotiators of peace.”
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer
Encircled by the Motherland I (Andrei Nacu)
2017,
9 giclée prints
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer
This Side of the Looking Glass (Andrei Nacu)
2016,
giclée print
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer
Future Fossil (Ana Kun)
2021/2023,
drawing from used bio-plastic bags
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer
A Strong State (Delia Bulgaru)
2021,
print on cardboard
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer