EXHIBITIONS
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EXHIBITIONS
TRAUMA takes a deeply personal approach, reflecting the artists’ own encounters with trauma and their subsequent journeys towards healing. Through various artistic mediums artist invite visitors to question our collective past, present, and the path we tread toward the future.
Installation created by Paula Flores, reflects on the disconnection between humanity and nature, prompting contemplation about the self-inflicted damage we impose upon ourselves and the environment we inhabit. Guadalupe Aldrete’s performative approach examines the exploitation of resources and people, shedding light on the destructive consequences that stem from greed and the erosion of reason.
The video installation by Mila Balzhieva explores humanity’s behavior as conquerors and exploiters of the forests, reminding us of the intricate interconnectedness that binds all living beings. Natalia Gurova’s work dives into questions of identity, belonging, and historical parallels, engaging viewers in a discourse on power, legitimacy, and immigration.
Hubert Hasler utilizes neophytes as a symbol of xenophobia in his thought-provoking photographic and sculptural representations. By challenging the concept of “alien” and what it means to be dangerous, he questions the prevailing societal narratives shaped by contemporary attitudes.
Isidora Krstic’s video installation reflects on the aspirations of individuals striving for socioeconomic advancement, while Gabriel Luciani’s powerful portrayal of internal struggles calls attention to the imposed constraints of societal conventions.
The exhibition also explores the illusions created through self-assessment and external labeling. Kyungrim Lim Jang’s work, “OG Appropriation,” probes the value we attach to brands and social media, challenging the notion that material possessions define our worth. Bojana Fuzinato Stamenkovic redefines traditional gender roles through her weaving art, challenging norms and highlighting women’s contributions in art history.
Vera Klimentyeva’s icon, “Jacob the Faster,” delves into the traumatic effects of religious fanaticism and the violence committed in the name of God, sparking contemplation on the role of faith and its impact on society. Natalia Papaeva’s video, “How are you,” illuminates the experiences of individuals returning home after an extended period abroad, grappling with the disconnection from their roots and the changed reality they find.
Laura Rambelli confronts the trauma of birth, unraveling the emotional and physical separation that occurs during this pivotal moment. Her evocative work invites viewers to contemplate the transformative power of healing and the path towards inner wholeness.
TRAUMA is a thought-provoking journey into the complexities of trauma and healing. Through the diverse perspectives of these artists, the exhibition calls for introspection, compassion, and collective action to forge a path towards a more harmonious future.
As part of the Baby Boomer generation, I/we thought the worst of times were gone forever. Never again war still rings in my ears.
We were / are the missing link between hippies and punks, the confidence in the future was not terrific, we had no desire for lifelong in the job, whether we still receive pensions was then no matter.
Children of the emerging socialism, free schools and universities, free school books, free travel on public transport sounds almost paradisiacal today. Of course, we also went out on the streets, against Nazi professors at the universities, against nuclear power plants or destroying our environment, for abortion and women’s rights, later also for equality of homosexuals.
Trauma was at most a topic of the war and post-war generation, as it turned out later also of students of Catholic institutions. The baby boomer generation was also confronted with terror (RAF, IRA, Brigate Rosse), energy crises, financial crises, bank failures, riots, famine, but it was more abstract, did not really affect us personally.
The first shocks came in the late 80s, the fall of the Iron Curtain upset Europe, even more the disintegration of the Soviet Union. But suddenly there was a war on our doorstep, in the holiday country of Yugoslavia.Refugees came to Vienna from Yugoslavia, and even families living here were shattered by nationalist resentment.
For the first time I heard stories of a war that had just taken place in the neighbouring country, of unimaginable brutality, of hatred and devastation; I thought about how a person can process all that.
There were also the stories of Belgrade rave clubs where young people danced away, underground, while bombs fell on the city. For some, this may have been a time of freedom and celebration, but can these circumstances really be forgotten or denied? As long as we are young and carefree, partying, dancing and drinking, the world looks bearable in the worst of situations, but what happens when we get older, ask ourselves existential questions, plan families.
How do people deal with their past then.
Over the years, trauma has popped up more and more often among friends around me, first from war, then from abuse and discrimination. Events have overflowed in the last 3 years: Pandemic, climate crisis, Ukraine war. The reaction to all these crises is a political shift to the right, corruption, conspiracies, but no solutions.
The climate crisis, for example, has been discussed for 40 years, but the initiatives to counteract have been marginal. Man behaves like a rock star in a hotel room, he smashes everything, writes Philipp Bloom in his book “The Subjugation”. Politicians are doing business as usual.
All these events leave traces on the psyche and soul that seem repressible for a while, but evoke problems in the long run.
– Denise Parizek, curator
Paula Flores was born and raised in Tijuana, Mexico.
She currentlylives and works in Vienna. She completed her BA in Visual Arts, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Tijuana, Mexico, as well as the Traditional Michoacan Ceramics with Master Potters, which she completed in 2014.
She has been studying at the University of Applied Arts, Art & Science, Vienna for three years.
Guadalupe Aldrete is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist based in Vienna. Her work focuses on exploring methods to capture images which relate intimately to her past and present, but it is not only about herself, but about an individual that represents a bigger group of people undergoing similar issues.
Her artworks result from processes involving various visual media, which are sometimes performed in front of an audience, captured on images or shown as part of installations whose purpose is to prompt the audience to interact.
Guadalupe is mainly active in the field of performance art and installation.
Mila Balziehva is an artist born and raised in Buryatia (Eastern Siberia).
She lives and works in Vienna, studies at the University of Applied Arts in Art & Science with Virgil Widrich.
Balziehva exhibits internationally and nationally.
Isidora Krstić (1987) is a mixed media artist from Belgrade, and has been based in Vienna since 2012.
Her art focuses on memory, the embodiment and expression of trauma, socio-political identity, exoticism and the body as a field of inquiry.
Her work is very diverese in form, from installations, working with the space and the architecture around the work, to paintings, drawings, sculptures, animation, video, print…
Kyungrim Lim Jang (1992), is an artist born in Seoul, South Korea.
Living in Vienna as a foreigner in different communities shaped her interest in the construction of home and how the embedded direction of a desire for belonging is manifested in contemporary media.
She is a co-founder of the artist collective Slug and Saliva, along with Hannah Sakai. The collective works with written and spoken expressions to materialize the gap between sound and meaning. She is a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
Gabriel Virgilio Luciani was born in the USA, and currently lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.
The sphere of research carried out by curator Luciani finds itself at a gaseous intersection between neo-corporalities, poetry, queer theory, magic and objectual affect.
These spheres of research have been explored through formal exhibitions, various writings and poetic interventions
Bojana Fužinato Stamenković (1986) is a visual arist, born in Čačak, Serbia. Since 2019 she has been living and working in in Hamburg.
In addition to being an artist, Bojana is experienced in art management and feminist curating.
Her main focus is producing feminist art in the forms of installation in space, sculpture, weaving, embroidery, sewing, video, sound and performances.
Natalia Papaeva is an artist born in Buryatia (Easter Siberia). She is currently living and working in the Netherlands.
She mainly creates her work in form of performances and video art, starting with an imaginative dialogue, a text or a confrontational memory.
She graduated from the Royal Art Academy in The Hague in 2018 with the award-winning work Yokhor.
Laura Rambelli is a multidisciplinary artist. She creates performances, land art, sculptures, paintings and graphic designs.
Her forms are related to human nature, the environment and the female world.
She proposes art installations, which often become experiences for the public to experience art and get closer to wild nature.
Natalia Gurova was born in Belarus and grew up in the North of Russia. She has been living and working in Vienna since 2014 where she studied site-specific art at the University of Applied Arts and currently studies sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Her multidisciplinary practice has encompassed sculpture, printmaking, drawing, site-specific installations and curatorial discursive projects.
Working with the overlapping discourses of speculative storytelling, spatial experiments, post-soviet contexts, time concepts, and collecting, Gurova refuses categorical distinctions, operating fluidly between concept and craft.
Vera Klimentyeva was born in Russia and trained in Moscow and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
She currently lives and works in Vienna and is a member of Artist Run Space Vienna, 12-14 contemporary.
Hubert Hasler was born in Bruck/Mur – Austria. He graduated from the school for artistic photography (Friedl Kubelka) in Vienna and the master florist school in Straubing.
Hasler is a member of Artist Run Space Vienna, 12-14 contemporary.
He lives and works in Vienna.
The exhibition “Trauma” reflects artists’ encounters with trauma through various media ->> Blic
You can view the exhibition Trauma in the Monolog gallery until July 29 – >> Nedeljnik
Exhibition of 12 foreign artists about trauma caused by gender discrimination, xenophobia and violence ->> Nova.rs
Trauma shown through works of art: Traveling exhibition in the “Monolog” gallery ->> 24sedam.rs
