kristina grigorjeva

fugacity
4.8.–10.9.2023
Lithic Alliance, Isabelle Andriessen, Vanessa Billy, Dora Budor, Cyprien Gaillard, Liisa Hirsch, Edith Karlson, Anu Pennanen, Anna Skodenko, P.Staff, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ingel Vaikla, Barbezat-Villetard  

The exhibition "fugacity” reflects on the uncertain future of a monumental Soviet concrete structure - Tallinn Linnahall - as an analogy of a common undefined future of our impermanent present and offers the concept of fugacity as a tool to accept change and transformations. Fugacity is the quality of impermanence. In thermodynamics, the term stands for a substance's tendency to escape from one environment to another. Fleeting, escaping to find its balance. As a reconciliation site of personal histories and a colonialist past, the monumental Linnahall offers a platform to re-examine the possible ways of transitioning between our past, present and possible common future as well as of co-existing with one another and our natural and built environment.

Exhibition text: PDF

THE GLEANERS

9.6.–26.8.2023
Sitara Abuzar Ghaznawi, Bastien Aubry, David Hammons, Sophie Jung, Hannah Külling, Sveta Mordovskaya, Selma Selman, Ser Serpas, Jiajia Zhang
Text by Estelle Hoy

The semiotics of waste seem intrinsically rooted in a dynamic of verticality, in bringing things down. It is no surprise, then, that the politics of class and culture are similarly modelled on the spectrum of high and low. Interested in reversing the gesture in an opposed verticality (down and up), French nouvelle-vague filmmaker Agnès Varda developed a particular taste for “gleaning”, the act of picking up remains from the ground. In her iconic documentary film “The Gleaners and I”, Varda poetically examines the practice of gleaning on a social, cultural and political level, funnelling it into a landscape of interpretations. 
Could gleaning be a vehicle for transformation and subversion?  THE GLEANERS investigates the art of gleaning and how it renegotiates systems of production, symbols and values.

Exhibition text by Estelle Hoy: PDF

UNREPORTED
 21.3.–14.5.2023
Elisabeth Eberle

A dystopian landscape displaying new and existing sculptures by Zurich-based artist Elisabeth Eberle. The ongoing series of wooden sculptures taking inspiration from a collection of magnolia fruits is reminiscent of a kind of oversized, digitalized herbarium with latex skins of these objects materialising on metal constructions and accompanied by a soundscape echoing from afar. The whole constellation balances as a kind of premonition in the dichotomy of the natural and the man-made.

WHEN FLOWERS ARE KNEELING

Jerlyn Heinzen

24.3. - 23.4.2023

Dear S,

Today I realized that I always sit against the direction of travel in a train, looking back. Funny how this inherent tendency to look back at memories, situations, things informs your present and can so easily refrain you from moving forward, from looking into the imminent future around the corner. Frozen. With a thick layer of dust and seemingly so far away. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

Love,
K.

Dear E,

Today I learned a new word - solastalgia. Apparently, it’s a form of emotional and existential distress caused by environmental change. When we have extracted all there is to extract in this place we call home, when all the houses have been flooded and all the forests have burned, where will our home be then?

Love,
K.

Dear S

Today I was thinking of migratory birds, how they have an inner compass that they follow in any weather, come hell or high water. They just know where to go. Consider the word migrant. Migratory. On the move. The notion has an inherently negative overtone. Unstable. Yet the concept of migration is intrinsic to life, to its circular nature. We are all originally migratory, we are not settlers. Maybe that’s why I respond to Zygmund Bauman’s notion of liquid modernity so personally. Liquid present, where everything is on the move, not stagnant, but moving from one place to another, adapting and learning anew. Not guided by customs, traditions, codes of conduct and rules to which one could conform, which one could select as orientation points or by which one could be guided. These traditions are in short supply these days anyway. There are only followers and forgetters.

Love,
K.

Dear E

Today I dreamt of my first room. It’s only a few hours away, yet we are years apart. I never felt at home there, but then, I don’t really feel at home anywhere I go. Since I left that place, independent, yet divided and filled with aliens, I haven't really looked back. “An alien's passport is a travel document that may be issued to a person who is stateless or of undefined citizenship” Alienation can be like that, official and with a document.

Love,
K.

Dear S

Today I heard someone speak my language and I was transported. Even if i don't know it well, even if we are not friends, even if we are not really related. Even if its too hard to think of going back, you are still drawn to it. Because it seems easy. Because there's no need to explain. Because there are memories. No need for that overwhelming distance. And yet, you‘re a stranger.

Love,
K.

Text contribution for Jerlyn Heinzen’s exhibition at KRONE COURONNE

SNOW DANCING IM KALTEN POLAR
4.2.–2.4.2023
KRONE COURONNE, lieu secret, Lokal-int au

«Snow Dancing» is the name of an early-90s exhibition and book by artist Philippe Parreno. «… im kalten Polar» is a reference to the song «Eisbär» by the legendary Bernese band Grauzone. Under this enigmatic title, three art spaces from the Bieler scene have been given a carte blanche to conceive a project within the building’s grandiose Salle Poma.

Rather than inviting artists and presenting works as we usually do in our respective spaces, we elaborated 8 gestures that point to the differences between us (the off-spaces) and the institution (the Kunsthaus). Hence, we infiltrated Kunsthaus Pasquart with what defines us - free entry, creation of a social circle through events, a reduced space size, conviviality and spontaneity, free drinks, the absence of hierarchy, participation, humour, and open discussions.