On Survival / Curated by Caterina Avataneo
Boban Andjelkovic, Helene Appel, Jakob Brugge, Chiara Camoni, Hanna Maria Hammari, Piotr Lakomy, Anastasia Sosunova, Alan Stefanato, Andrew Norman Wilson
2 February - 11 March 2021
Galerie Britta Rettberg
Gabelsbergerstraße 51
80333 Munich
Germany
Galerie Britta Rettberg is pleased to present the group exhibition On Survival with works by Boban Andjelkovic, Helene Appel, Jakob Brugge, Chiara Camoni, Hanna-Maria Hammari, Piotr Lakomy, Anastasia Sosunova, Alan Stefanato and Andrew Norman Wilson. The exhibition was curated by London based curator Caterina Avataneo and brings together painting and sculpture as well as site-specific installation and video art. Caterina Avataneo holds an MA in Curating from The London Metropolitan University, delivered in conjunction with Whitechapel Gallery (2017). She was awarded with the 2017 NEON Curatorial Award by The Neon Foundation and Whitechapel Gallery. Since 2018 she works as Associate Curator at Arcade Gallery and as Curatorial Assistant on assigned projects at Serpentine Galleries. Since 2019 she is curator at DEMO Moving Image. The collaboration with Caterina Avataneo has begun almost a year ago. After having to postpone the exhibition (for two months) in November 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it can nevertheless initially only be presented online. Therefore, the gallery has put together a comprehensive online program, which will be presented over the course of the next few weeks. As we are convinced that online formats cannot replace the on-site art experience, we hope to guide you through this special exhibition in person by March 11, 2021.
ON SURVIVAL
Exhibition text by Caterina Avataneo
2021 opened its doors to a global population in conflict; divided but interconnected, and thus exposed and vulnerable, sharing a planet in the very same conditions. Coexistence seems to be among the most pressing issues in need for a radical re-thinking both on a planetary and molecular scale, yet its understanding is at the basis of great asperity.
Operating through allusive references and lyrical registers, On Survival addresses the ambiguities and tensions behind contrasting modalities of human subsistence and in particular their tendency towards mutual care and solidarity, or self-preservation and societal withdrawal. The evocative qualities of materials, forms and imagery relating to the basics for survival, are brought to the fore in order to stage - and undo - ideas and stereotypes of both collectivity and heremitic isolation, exposing their inherent contradictions.
The show presents simultaneously convivial and hostile situations, which overlap, threatening any sense of safety on the one hand, and allowing a post-prosperity vitality to emerge on the other. In such a ruinous landscape, the modalities of human participation rest rather unresolved, and looking at survival becomes an excuse to ponder upon perceptions of community and immunity at a moment when the understanding of such ideas is increasingly shaping political strategies and collective conscience around future ecologies of endurance.