LINNER FOR HOMO LUDENS
A chance to exchange

August 29, 2023

AG18 Gallery, Vienna
Curated by QMA

16:30 Opening of the exhibition by Leo Trotsenko
17:00 Participatory art practice Stitching the Treads of the Culture by Julia Strikovska
18:30 Cooking performance Boorsok by Nelly 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. Artist Leo Trotsenko, after being played by others, plays already played part and replicates Katya Buchatska's Survival Tablecloth, choosing embroidery as a medium to outline traces and imprints of the existence of subjects that are not a play.

In the participatory art practice Stitching the Treads of the Culture by Julia Strikovska play element acts as the foundation for more complex cultural exchanges. By inviting participants to sit down  together around the table and take a needle and a thread, the artist is aiming to uncover certain notions that have become lifeless or "sacralized" elements removed from their original purpose.

Another game in the “menu”  is based on mythopoiesis or myth-making. In many cultures, our ancestors are living in the imaginary (by us) world and from time to time, they visit ours. Artist Nellya Dzhamanbaeva’s participatory performance Boorsok uses the literal plasticity of dough to exchange the traditional and new forms with assigned symbolic meanings. The smell of the frying oil “stretches” through time enabling intergenerational contact irrelevant to cultural identity.

The tablecloth is the repeating element during the entire linner (a late lunch or early dinner). While Leo Trotsenko and Julia Strikovska's works share the aspect of embroidery, Nellya Dzhamanbaeva and Julia Strikovska aim to connect with participants through sharing and reflecting. The exhibition, participatory art practice and participatory performance LINNER FOR HOMO LUDENS is about the evaluation of the significance of the play element in our lives through the exchange. It is a chance to reclaim the agency of the rules of the games we play.


About artists
Leo Trotsenko (1994, Ukraine) studied the history and theory of art at the Lviv Academy of Arts and at the Kyiv Academy of Media Arts. Co-founder of the photo-initiative Periscope_ua, in 2017 joined the self-organised artistic initiative DE NE DE, which explores urban transformations due to decommunisation politics and promotes a critical rethinking of the Soviet heritage, member of the noise band Shinomon Taj. Leo has also worked with sound art, performance, video, intersections, and land, since 2022 with embroidery. The practice focuses on the theory and history of music and art, micro-communities.

Julia Strikovska is an artist, curator, lawyer and MBA graduate from Kyiv, Ukraine. The main part of her artistic research and practice belongs to the word and text as the means of creating and mapping reality and experience as the universal ‘record’ of reality perceived. The topics also include the matters of identity definition: personal, cultural, and social, as well as the identity of the larger groups such as communities, countries, regions, etc.

Nellya Dzhamanbaeva is an artist, art manager, and curator from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Since 2010, she has curated exhibitions and educational projects in contemporary art, film, and music. Nellya participated as an artist in a number of exhibitions and launched several projects in Vienna.

_
The event is part of the QMA Artsist Collective 2023 program.