Eastern european art life

An Interview with Natalia Sielewicz, curator of the Estonian Pavilion

The Easttopics team spoke with Natalia Sielewicz, curator of the Estonian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, featuring artist Merike Estna. The interview touches on the politics of waiting as an artistic form, the relationship between care and painting, the contradictions of Eastern European identity, and what it means to make art amid ongoing geopolitical and …

Laura Põld at Kahan Art Space

Artist: Laura Põld Title: Beautiful Pulsating Web Curator: Lilian Hiob-Küttis Venue: Kahan Art Space, Vienna Photos: Manuel Carreon Lopez / Kunstdokumentation In her new textile and ceramic works at the Eva Kahan Foundation, Laura Põld continues her longstanding exploration of alternative modes of knowing. Moving beyond the dominant assumption that thought begins and ends with …

Marko Tadić at TROTOAR

Artist: Marko TadićTitle: Funga RoboVenue: TROTOAR, ZagrebCurator: Martina Marić Rodrigues Exhibition text: Ana Devićphotos: Damir Žižić With his Funga Robo exhibition, Marko Tadić presents a cross-section of his recent works, in which he examines speculative visions of the city of the future from the perspective of artistic ecologies. The title, Funga Robo, refers to mushroom (fungal) …

An Interview with Louise O’Kelly, curator of the Lithuanian Pavilion

At this year’s Venice Biennale, one pavilion stands out not only for its aesthetic language but for the questions it raises about our relationship to each other and to the natural world. Eglė Budvytytė’s work draws on ancient animist worldviews while quietly pushing back against the logics of contemporary capitalism. We spoke with the curator …

Magdaléna Roztočilová at Studio PRÁM

Artists: Magdaléna Roztočilová Title: Where the Body Won’t Fit Curator: Iva Mladičová Venue: Studio PRÁM, Prague Photos: Anna Pleslová The themes of identity, the expression of the plasticity of colours and shapes, and a creative approach to the originally conceived, fundamental morphological element of the sculptural body are the three principal sources that combine to …

Paula Tončić at Galerija Manuš

Artist: Paula Tončić Title: Eyes without Face Text: Lea Vene Venue: Galerija Manuš The exhibition Eyes without Face is based on in-depth research into materials that carry the potential for magical and ritual manifestation. Each carefully selected material encapsulates multiple past lives, initiating a process of further transmutation. Unique organic histories are layered collage-like to …

Read morePaula Tončić at Galerija Manuš

Šárka Koudelová at Museum of Arts and Design

Artist: Šárka Koudelová Title: Sol Curator: Piotr Sikora Venue: Museum of Arts and Design Benešov, Czech Republic Photos: Silvie Heřmanská Time reflects itself in art with indifference. It slips through it like sand in an hourglass, leaving behind traces—more or less visible—that reveal the secret of its passage: relativity.Water represents a different measure of time: …

Group show at Galerie AVU

Title: The Cake is a LieVenue: Galerie AVU, PragueArtists: Anna-Marie Berdychová, Valentýna Janů, Tereza Kalousová, Bety Krňanská, Markéta Slaná, Nik TimkováCurators: Lamija Čehajić and Jirka SkálaPhoto documentation: František Svatoš The exhibition The Cake is a Lie presents works by six Czech and Slovak artists: Anna-Marie Berdychová, Valentýna Janů, Tereza Kalousová, Bety Krňanská, Markéta Slaná, and Nik Timková. …

Radovan Čerevka at Bratislava City Gallery

Artist: Radovan Čerevka Title: Heroes’ Prop Room Curator: Peter Megyeši Venue: Bratislava City Gallery The exhibition Heroes’ Prop Room presents the results of a long-term artistic research project focused on former and current military sites in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Through a complex multimedia installation composed of videos, objects, and paintings, Radovan Čerevka reflects …

Magdalena Karpińska at Polana Institute

Artist: Magdalena Karpińska Title: Music for a Panic Attack Venue: Polana Institute Photos: Olga Tuz One of the inspirations for Magdalena Karpińska’s latest painting series is tarantism, a cultural and therapeutic phenomenon documented in rural southern Italy, particularly in Apulia, since the Middle Ages. Closely linked to the agricultural calendar and the harvest season, tarantism …

Andreea Anghel at 66P Subjective Institution of Culture

Artist: Andreea AnghelTitle: The Blind ManVenue: 66P Subjective Institution of Culture, Księcia Witolda 66, WrocławCurator: Paulina Brelińska-GarsztkaPhotos: Małgorzata KujdaPostproduction of photography: Andreea Anghel Andreea Anghel’s exhibition “The Blind Man” treats the archive as a living, creative process. Its title alludes to the 1917 Dadaist magazine “The Blind Man”, founded in New York by Marcel Duchamp, …

Sofie Tobiášová and Adam Vít at UNA

Artists: Sofie Tobiášová and Adam Vít Title: From A to X (too much love) Venue: UNA, Milan Photos: Michela Pedranti The exhibition unfolds as an investigation into movement, instability, and identity as a condition in flux, addressing the contradictions embedded in the contemporary search for meaning and belonging —to a place, a practice, or to …

Group show at CAC

Artists: Kateryna Aliinyk, Maithu Bùi, Anna Engelhardt and Mark Cinkevich, Forensic Architecture, Philipp Goll, Nikita Kadan, Lina Lapelytė, Bjørn Melhus, Deimantas Narkevičius, Henrike Naumann, Oleksiy Radynski, Indrė Rybakovaitė, Trevor Paglen, Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, Basma al-Sharif, Michael Stevenson, Hito Steyerl, Fedir Tetianych, Peter Wächtler, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Jan Eustachy Wolski, Tobias Zielony; and Berta Tilmantė, Neringa …

Maja Štefančíková at Gallery Sumec

Artist: Maja Štefančíková  Title: Spatial Sketches  Performers: Silvia Bakočková, Viktória Malá, Nela RuskováCurator: Eliška MazalanováVenue: Gallery SUMEC, BratislavaProduction: Ľuboš Lehocký, Gallery SUMEC  Technical support: Matej GavulaPhotos: Adam Šakový Before dust was rationally and scientifically explored, broken down by knowledge into ever smallerparticles, and revealed to contain an entire universe of parallel microworlds, it was imagined as thesmallest possible entity, …

Tobias Izsó at Kunstverein Dresden

Artist: Tobias Izsó Title: The AccountantVenue: Kunstverein DresdenCurator: Eva Slabá In his installation for Kunstverein Dresden, Tobias Izsó (1997, Vienna) creates a sculptural environment that oscillates between material contradiction and social construction. Assamblages and objects are displayed throughout the exhibition space as if they had slipped out of someone’s diary – enigmatic items of personal …