Femina Subtetrix

solo exhibition together with Sonja Hornung
video, sculpture, photography, performance for video

September – October 2015, Ivan Gallery Bucharest
curated by Xandra Popescu

works included later in:
Public Speaking, District Berlin, April-May 2016
Belief in the Power of Gesture, Lübeckerstraße 43 Berlin, January-March 2017

The latin term immurare designates a form of seclusion in which a person is walled into an enclosed space. The word is formed from im (in) and murus(wall). An immurement leaves no trace except a smooth space, an invisible hollow – a wall too thick, one window fewer, the mortar too seamlessly laid.

Shorn of proof, the hidden body passes into the form of a legend or a speculation that marks the place: “this is the spot where…” – “her ghost still can be heard”. Immurement involves the smoothing over of space, folding suffering out of visibility and into the hidden depths of matter.

To strengthen against cracking in extreme weather conditions, early forms of cement often contained organic compounds such as animal fat, horse hair, milk, oxen blood, rice, boiled banana and eggs. The origin of every edifice was organic and half – if not completely forgotten in the permanent amnesia of progress.

This speaks of a nexus between the materials of progress (concrete, bricks and machines) and its origin (labour) – a nexus situated between myth and material itself.

Femina Subtetrix is a body of works created together with Sonja Hornung on and around a wasteland opposite the factory once known as APACA.

Read more about the exhibition on Ivan Gallery website 
in Ulrike Gerhardt’s article in Art Margins or in Alison Huggil’s article in Berlin Art Link

DOPs: Iulian Enache, Alexandru Dan
Project Manager: Dana Andrei
Photography: Amaryah Paul, Sorin Popescu

Produced by Atelier 35 with the help of ARCUB, ODD, DAAD, Wasteland Twinning, UAP, Ivan Gallery