kristina grigorjeva

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