While I float
Exhibition
13.01.-20.01.2023
at Format (*.strk), Währinger Straße 128, 1180 Vienna
A cooperation between Vitalnya Vienna, Office Ukraine & Format (*.strk).
Co-curated and organised by Sasha Horbatiuk, Natalia Gurova and Claudia Strate.
Curated
around the theme of animism and organised in solidarity with Ukraine in the context of the ongoing Russian invasion. While everyday use of the concept of animism might be reduced to simply projecting so-called human qualities onto animals or plants and forming intimate relationships with the objects that make one feel home, it holds a radical, transformative potential. As an anti-capitalist, eco-feminist concept rooted in indigenous cosmologies, it questions the hierarchical differentiation between human and non-human. Recognizing the vitality of the world around us and acknowledging the interdependencies of shared materiality, shapes a sense for mutual responsibility and care.
With artworks by Ivana Lazic, Lucy Ivanova, Gloria Pagliani, Anatoly Belov, Olha Horiunova and Mark Chehodaiev.
Poster design and exhibition text: Claudia Strate
Funded by BMKOES.
I leave parts of myself behind wherever I go, and now I’m reassembling. Looking in the mirror, I can’t seem to make out the shape of my own face, but there’s something moving behind me. Canvas creeps around the corner, lights are flickering. Plaster peels off the walls, with cracks spreading wide like pulsating veins. I turn around and I realize: This space is not actually empty, it is filled with absence. My feet are suddenly wet, my body soaking up with water. But I’m not drowning, I branch out, my socks grow into a beautiful tree. My ribcage has fallen out, yet I still feel so very alive.
The walls of this house, they hold my breath.