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Damir Ocko, Spring, 2012, Still 1, Still 2, Installation View: two mouthsful of silence,
produced in association with Balkan Artist Guild, Houndsditch,London EC3
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Iz Östat, We Are In The Same Boat, 2012, Installation Views ( with Damir Ocko), Still,
Installation View (with Gazmend Ejupi): two mouthsful of silence, produced in association with Balkan Artist Guild
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Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Geometry of Fear, 2012, Installation View, Still:
two mouthsful of silence, produced in association with Balkan Artist Guild
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Lana Cmajcanin and Adela Jusic,I Will Never Talk About The War Again, 2012, Still:
two mouthsful of silence, produced in association with Balkan Artist Guild
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Installation View, handwritten translation of the poem' Sprachgitter' by Paul Celan:
two mouthsful of silence, produced in association with Balkan Artist Guild
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two mouthsful of silence:
Iz Östat, Lana Cmajcanin and Adela Jusic, Gazmend Ejupi, Damir Ocko, Stefanos Tsivopoulos
curated by Bea Herhold de Sousa
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The moment just after a decisive event is silent. Hereafter thought changes. It is a moment of breathlessness, before language bestows different meanings; locations change significance and we experience detachment from ourselves.
The exhibition brings together a number of works, which reflect on the profound effect incisions, namely in political or conflict related contexts, have on experience. The events themselves, even if they are of the magnitude of war or economical crisis, are of lesser importance. The impact they have on the way we perceive and grasp our context however is fundamental. The visual and audible symbolism used in the works becomes a sensory trace structure, a performed re-iteration or a pictorial void. The works structurally and visually relate this impact inherently and in their interaction with each other.
The title of the exhibition’ two mouthsful of silence’ is the last line of Paul Celan’s poem ‘Sprachgitter’, (translated as ‘ Speech-grill’ or ‘Language-mesh’). It refers to the wooden lattice of the confession booth or the more modern entry phone speaker. Celan, with his uniquely pictorial language, also makes an oblique reference to the grid like patterns words form in poetry and prose. Language as pattern is seen as a means of detaching from trauma, with Celan biographically linked to the Shoah and subsequent exodus, to France.
Linguistic and pictorial fragmentation and re-contextualisation can function as artistic tropes to process trauma/incision/ revolt as a societal tool for collective recovery or to imply impending change. The exhibition 'two mouthsful of silence' seeks to connect works based on these structural conceits formally and conceptually.
A catalogue will accompany the exhibition.
BAG (Balkan Artist Guild) is a London-based art resource, gallery and virtual platform which promotes and supports artists relating to the wider Balkan region.
The Artists
Iz Öztat (b. 1981, lives and works in Istanbul). Her selected exhibitions include 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015); ‘Conducted in depth and projected at length’, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany (2014); ‘Rendez-vous 13′, Institut d’art Contemporain, Lyon, France (2013); ‘Here Together Now’, Matadero Madrid (2013); ‘I am not dealing with triangle, square and circle’, Maçka Sanat Galerisi, Istanbul (2012); ‘Underconstruction’, Apartment Project Berlin (2012); ‘Second Exhibition’, ARTER, Istanbul (2010).
Lana ?maj?anin (b. 1983, lives and works in Sarajevo) is a founder member of the Association for Culture and Art CRVENA. Her works have been exhibited recently in Resolution 827, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, curated by Zoran Eric (MoCA, Belgrade), Jelle Bouwhuis and Joram Kraaijeveld (SMBA); Grammar of Freedom/5 Lessons, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, curated by Zdenka Badovinac and Bojana Piškur; Curated by_vienna: Gabrielle Senn Galerie, Vienna, curated by Dirck Möllmann; IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Curated by David Elliott, Museum of Moscow; What has our struggle given us? II, produced by CRVENA, Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo (all 2014); The Aesthetics of the Small Act, Curated by Adela Demetja, Action Field Kodra, Thessaloniki (GR) (2013) and in Re-enactment as Artistic Strategy, program curators: Alketa Kurrizo, Edi Muka and Sonja Lau, Tirana Ekspres, Tirana (2012).
Adela Juši?, (b. 1982, lives and works in Sarajevo) recent exhibtions include Labor of Love in collaboration with Andreja Dugandži?, Loft Project Etagi, public space exhibition at the international conference “Domestic Workers in the Countries of Central Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union: Postsocialist Migrations and Inequalities”, Saint Petersburg (2015), Biennial of Contemporary Art, D-0 ARK, curated by Adela Demetja, Anton Lederer and Margarethe Makovec, Bunker, Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2015), Resolution 827, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Netherlands( 2015), Vidéographies, Digital and Experimental Images Festival, Théatre de Liège, Liège (2015), A Time for Dreams, IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, artistic director David Elliott, Museum of Moscow (2014).
Gazmend Ejupi (b. Prishtina, 1973, lives and works in London). Selected solo exhibitions include ‘Romanian Story’, The Agency, London (2013), ‘The Gathering’, Galerie Yukiko Kawase, Paris (2013), ‘The Ground On Which I Stand’, Chelouche Gallery, Tel Aviv ( 2011), ‘Age of innocence’ , ‘Carte Blanche’ , Galerie Analix Forever, Geneva (2010), ‘Tina B’ , National Gallery of Prague (2010), the 4th Tirana Biennale, National Gallery of Tirana (2008), ‘Gazmend Ejupi’, Clockwork Gallery, Berlin (2008), and ‘The Gold Label’ (Dardania District, Prishtina, 2004).
Damir O?ko (b. 1977, lives and works in Zagreb). A graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, he creates videos, photography, installations and objects including sound, poetry as well as works on paper, photo-collages and scores, which document the creative investigations developed in the main film oeuvre of the artist. O?ko has had solo exhibitions, among others, in Palais de Tokyo in Paris, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst und Medien in Graz and Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios in Dublin. Selected group exhibitions internationally were held at MUDAM in Luxembourg, FRAC le Plateau, Centre for Contemporary Art Zamek Ujazdowski in Warsaw and Kunsthalle Vienna. His works can be found in the collections of Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation and CNAP – Centre national des arts plastiques in Paris and at the MUDAM in Luxembourg. Damir O?ko currently represents Croatia in the 56th Venice Biennale with a solo exhibition "Studies on Shivering/The Third Degree.”
Stefanos Tsivopoulos (b. 1973, lives and works in Amsterdam and New York) Greek Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2013), Solo Exhibitions: MuCEM, Marseille; Cycladic Museum of Art Athens (2014); Stella Art Foundation, Moscow (2013); ISCP, New York (2011); Heidelberg Kunstverein; Smart Project Space, Amsterdam (2010); Recent group exhibitions include: Tate Modern, London (2014); 2nd CAFAM Biennial, Beijing (2014; EVA Biennial, Limerick; (2014); Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin (2013); SALT, Istanbul (2012); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011& 2010); Manifesta 8, Murcia; Witte de With, Rotterdam (2010)
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