Whiteness as Property. Racism and Ownership, Kunstlerhaus Vienna

/, Gallery, Blesok Editions, Blesok no. 142/Whiteness as Property. Racism and Ownership, Kunstlerhaus Vienna

Whiteness as Property. Racism and Ownership, Kunstlerhaus Vienna

Curated by Ana Hoffner ex-Prvulovic*
12.02.-06.06.2022

As the curator of the exhibition project Ana Hoffner ex-Prvulovic* explains: “Whiteness as Property. Racism and Ownership attempts to question property relations that are saturated with racism from an economic, materialistic perspective. The focus of the exhibition is on critical esthetic practices developed in relation to property and possession. It shows artistic strategies as decisive instruments for addressing possessive individualism and investigates whether the art field can serve as a source of alternative models of possessive subject/object relationships that are critical of racism”.

Artists: Angela Anderson, Peggy Buth, Tania Candiani, Danica Dakić, Anna Daučiková, Fokus Grupa, Robert Gabris, Lungiswa Gqunta, Laura M. Hiendl, Hristina Ivanoska, Karrabing Film Collective, Stephanie Misa, Elaine Michener, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Ines Schaber, Windows of Marikana.  

The conference accompanying the exhibition is dedicated to the specific knowledge of the participating artists. As a conference of artistic research, the event provides an opportunity for an in-depth exploration of possessive individualism and racialized property relations from the perspective of artistic production. For two consecutive days (25-26.03.2022) at the Kunstlerhaus, Factory Vienna, the artists will present and discuss their practices with the audience.

Broken Document Breaks Out Into Poetry, installation consisted of three works, 2022
Hristina Ivanoska

  • Fairy Hair, 2016/17, group of 4 woodcarvings, graphite and colorless wax on walnut tree, 30 x 30 x 2 cm each,
  • Document Missing: Performance No. 10 (A Needlework), 2021/22, thread and graphite on woolen fabric, and wood, 270 x 700 cm.
  • Document Missing: Performance No. 11 (A Mural), 2022, wall engraving, dimensions variable.
Whiteness as Property 04_(c)MNagl 2022
Whiteness as Property 05_(c)MNagl 2022
Whiteness as Property 10_(c)MNagl 2022
Whiteness as Property 11_(c)MNagl 2022
Whiteness as Property 13_(c)MNagl 2022
Whiteness as Property 14_(c)MNagl 2022
Whiteness as Property 15_(c)MNagl 2022
Whiteness as Property 16_(c)MNagl 2022

Ivanoska works with Oskar Hansen’s the theory of Open Form, which questions hierarchies through the construction of new forms in order to enable participation for everybody. The moment in which structures become visible, as texts on surfaces or left on the edge of unrecognizability is central to Ivanoska’s practice. The wooden objects “Fairy Hair” investigations the ‘samovila’, Macedonian mythical figure from the time before Christianization, which we encounter only as a trace of an engraved text. The word ‘samovila’ refers to an independent woman who communicates mostly with women and scares men. In more recent times ‘samovila’ was also known as a word for plant considered a weed. Robust walnut wood is the carrier of this text, which is barely legible and develops its own meaning. The text establishes a genealogy of the destroyed history of Eastern European women. This continues in the textile work and a mural from the “Document Missing” series inspired by Catherine Malabou’s La plasir efface: Clitoris et pensée – testimonies of resistance against patriarchal possession of women.

Whiteness as Property 44_(c)MNagl 2022
Whiteness as Property 45_(c)MNagl 2022
Whiteness as Property 47_(c)MNagl 2022

Photography: MNagl

AuthorHristina Ivanoska
2022-04-04T05:23:40+00:00 March 30th, 2022|Categories: Exhibition, Gallery, Blesok Editions, Blesok no. 142|Comments Off on Whiteness as Property. Racism and Ownership, Kunstlerhaus Vienna