QMA Artist Collective 2023
Catalogue
Find a catalogue for download here with details on all shows we had in 2023 in the framework of the QMA Artist Collective. Please write us an email if you’d like to have a physical copy of the catalogue.
Artists selected by an external jury comprised of
Laura Amann (1986) is a curator and architect. Laura co-founded Significant Other, a project space which looked at spaces inhabited by art and architecture, she taught at the Technical University of Vienna and she is a graduate of De Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam. Currently she is a curator at Kunsthalle Wien. Recent projects have looked at acts of joy, intimacy, desire and sensuality and how they produce spaces for disobedience.
Heike Maier-Rieper is the coordinator of the evn art collection since 2002 and also a board member of the collection since 2013. Together with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Brigitte Huck, Markus Schinwald and Thomas D. Trummer their aim is to provide a platform for the exploration of contemporary visual arts. Heike is also in charge of the public program of the collection that boasts works by Valie Export, Anna Jermolaewa, Liam Gillick and Precious Okoyomon, among many others.
Peter Gaugy opened his gallery on Goldschlagstrasse in 2021 with a mission to bring international artists to Vienna and Austrian artists to an international audience. Coming from a multicultural artistic family, his career in the arts has taken him from California to New York, Santa Fe, and now Vienna. Along the way, he has worked with numerous artists and arts organizations and was elected as President of the Gallery Association, where he represented over 100 galleries. Drawing from his own background, he believes that the immigrant experience is a source of extraordinary power and the secret ingredient to Vienna’s tremendous contributions to world culture.
Find a documentation of all the shows implemented in the framework of the QMA Artist Collective 2023 below.
Veil of ignorance
December 20, 2023–January 11, 2024
Location: Fabrikraum Kunstverein (Johnstrasse 25-27, R02/2 1150 Vienna)
Artists: Julia Strikovska and Deniz Güvensoy
"The veil of ignorance" is a key concept of the political philosopher John Rawls. It is based on the principle that, to ensure ultimate social and political justice, representatives of basic institutions and structures make their judgments as if they are behind a veil that conceals all personal characteristics and concepts, social and historical circumstances, to prevent biases while making decisions.
Despite often being considered idealistic, Rawls’ idea of justice was adopted as a cornerstone for social agreements in so-called developed Western democracies. The concept is best illustrated by the image of the ancient Greek goddess of justice, Themis (Femida).
However, even if it sounds perfect, to what extent could this idea be applied to practical conditions, in real life? To what extent can agents of a judicial system, state institutions, the public, and opposing political groups isolate themselves from their cultural-historical, socio-political, and psychological backgrounds?
The artwork consists of twelve photographs of people with different backgrounds wearing blindfolds reminiscent of the veil of Themis. Taking the pose inherent to the goddess of justice and slightly manipulating with an angle and perspective we observe how the perception of having agency, power, dedication, and determination could change.
Find more information on the program here.
QUIETLY loud
November 22–December 2, 2023
Location: Galerie Peter Gaugy (Goldschlagstraße 106, 1150 Vienna)
Artists: Frederik Marroquín, Joseph Mong Sum Leung, Elham Hadian,
anto_nie, Leo Lisa Begeré, Nellya Dzhamanbaeva, Roswitha Weingrill
Curators: Deniz Güvensoy, Justina Špeirokaitė
Our memories are layered. They are like gently poured soil, heavy stones, and seeds sprouting and growing up to the present, occasionally hurt by pebbles. Time is not a horizontal line; we must dig deep to find our way back to that safe space and our beginnings. Can it still provide us with comfort? Each layer becomes autonomous, not keeping us rooted. Our roots lie within us, existing between our mind and body.
Our mind and body are the whole entangled in physical and mental experiences. The mental can become tangible through the making. Intangible sonic stories accompany other sensory experiences. Muted stories speak through the object's materiality. Telling them quietly makes them loud. The precarity of presence layered in the memories.
The stories of memories are told to others; they can be shared experiences or ones that create divisions. As we continue to share evermore, our concerns and judgments seem almost weightless to expel but carry significant weight when received. Power is rarely balanced equally.
Exercising power equates to demonstrating reliability: Can I trust only myself? Can I find my foundation within you? I might rely on you if you fulfill my requests, yet I will oppress you by exposing my resilience against dependency.
Where to access the grounding when rooting is so painful, and anxiety is so quietly loud?
Find more information on the program here.
apartment exhibition
Recreating Lost Spaces
Installation, performance, conversation
September 23, 2023
Location: Vienna, 10th district
Artists: Leo Trotsenko, Yuliia Strykovska, Elham Hadian, Margo Sarkisova
Curators: Margo Sarkisova, Justina Špeirokaitė
(What we lose never really leaves our life.
Experiences are never forgotten; they're transformed into a transparent 'border' between a person and the outside world. In any form, that transformation never stops. In circumstances of war, revolutions, and global changes, more and more people face forced migration. But how does this complex moment influence each personality and worldview? In the search for forms that can speak about one's story and gather feelings and codes, Recreating Lost Spaces is a statement of trying to capture almost 'unspeakable' things: memories, traditions, symbols, broken and destroyed parts of each artist's personal history into one unstable 'fabric' that can be destroyed at any moment. The fragility of that process and the stories that each work owns create a space for sharing and supporting in the vulnerable process of 'weaving' each personal reality)
More information on the program here.
Linner for homo ludens
A chance to exchange
August 29, 2023
Location: Gallery AG18, Annagasse 18, 1010 Vienna
Artists: Leo Trotsenko, Yuliia Strykovska, Nellya Dzhamanbaeva
To play is to engage in, occupy oneself with, or take part. In his book Homo Ludens (translates to mean Man the Player), Johan Huizinga suggested the instinct for play is the central element in human culture. Does it mean that life is a game everyone’s playing? Are we aware? Do we play with someone’s life? Our? Life is a game containing games, and: “Oh the games people play now / Every night and every day now / Never meaning what they say now / Never saying what they mean,” sang Joe South.
We all play by the rules we created. But not all of us follow these rules or take an active part in creating them. In the game of life, there are different levels to play, as there are different games in life people play—the war—always "nominated" as an important one. The ones on the battlefield are taking an active role, but nonetheless are not the only ones included in its principal element—survival.
Find more info on the program here.
Resilience & Care
May 20-21, 2023
Location: Fabrikraum
Artists: Zeynab Kirikou Gueye, anton_ie and Marina Leo Shamov
Curator: Deniz Güvensoy
In these two performative evenings, which will follow the first workshop of the Das Goldene Buch project, we will experience three different performative approaches that engage art with activism. All interested in the issues of trans-inclusive, queer feminism, anti-war, anti-discriminatory activism, ecology and more than human identities, the artists will present a set of a variety of manifesting political and artistic expression. Following the workshop, Zeynab Kirikou Gueye will perform ‘Homecoming’, an artwork based on story telling and a semi-hybrid DJ-Set. Sharing the nuances of learning about belonging through their embodied experience of returning to Senegal, a place of their ancestry, they will question what power lies in a Black queer consciousness multiplied by racially distinct contexts. On our second evening, anto_nie will present a lecture, taking you a ride into the world of queer/coded villains, queer monstrosity and its representation in horror movies. After that, Marina Leo will perform a rap performance “When somewhere there becomes somewhere here”, dealing with political oppression and queer resistance, based on the manifesto-songs of the Techno-Poetry cooperative, of which Marina is a member.
More info on the program here.