It’s that place we turn to, where we seek warmth and protection. This island to rest and retreat from crisis.
It is home.
A place – but also a feeling – of personal identity. This one place we originate from, but which we may have left behind or only just found after a long search. Or perhaps still hoping to find.
As individual as our home(s) may be, as diverse are the scenarios that make it a fragile entity whose continued existence we cannot be sure of. For the exhibition series THE FRAGILITY OF HOME, we have invited four artists to explore this fragility and the associated fractures and tensions in their individual artistic positions, each of which will be on display for four weeks at the CO³.
The presented works encompasses many perspectives: the individual, biographical view, when the home is disrupted by personal strokes of fate such as loss or domestic violence. Or by social factors such as gentrification and lack of affordable housing. There are also political causes of flight, such as persecution, oppression and war. And last but not least, nature, with its changing living conditions, takes its place in the artistic dialogue.
With our choice of artists, whose works deal with both political-global processes and personal-biographical backgrounds, we are pleased to be able to offer our audience new perspectives, to make new positions tangible and ultimately to offer impulses for new, individual perspectives.
LINDA
NADJI
layers,
lines &
repetitions
Opening:
Saturday 20.4.2024 from 6 pm
21. April – 18. May 2024
Wednesdays 16 – 19 pm
Saturdays 15 – 18 pm, or by appointment (info@co3art.com)
To kick off the “Fragility of home” series, artist Linda Nadji metaphorically and constructively intervenes in the exhibition space of CO³.
Exploring the dimensions of the venue, she creates scenarios based on the human body as the most primal form of home, reflecting themes of being and positioning.
The unusual interaction of healing earth from the ice-age sedimentary rock loess on the one hand and common building materials as well as textiles marked by traces of life on the other makes Nadji’s works oscillate between stability and fragility. As viewers, we are drawn into questions of home, identity, intimacy and solidarity.
Linda Nadji’s artistic practice is at the intersection of sculptural work, installation and performance. In site-specific works, Nadji takes on given situations and intervenes in them through sometimes marginal transformations. She creates new spatial images that direct the gaze away from a causal function and towards form and material, thus opening up new perspectives on the familiar.
The HOME series of works offers lush, dreamlike settings that show spaces left behind by humans. The photographs reveal the power of nature to consume and conquer a home. The artist comments on the HOME series: ” When I talk about war in my work, it refers to war in the world and also to my memories of war in my childhood. My most recent works are not only a personal exploration of nature, but also of the question of how nature can be political. What happens to the environment when people are displaced or destroyed by war? People are transient, but nature is a constant, unchanging entity. Nature will still be there when we are long gone.”
About the artist:
In her photographic work, Dashti makes references to history and contemporary culture. With a unique, almost theatrical aesthetic, she connects diverse cultural experiences and deepens her perception of the world around her.
www.gohardashti.com
GOHAR
DASHTI
HOME
Opening:
Saturday 8.6.2024 from 18 pm
9. June – 6. July 2024
Wednesdays 16 – 19 pm
Saturdays 15 – 18 pm, or by appointment (info@co3art.com)
NADYA
SAYAPINA
LETTER TO MOM
Opening:
Saturday 31.8.2024 from 18 pm
1. – 28. September 2024
Wednesdays 16 – 19 pm
Saturdays 15 – 18 pm, or by appointment (info@co3art.com)
To make the voices of the “others” visible, Sayapina uses an interdisciplinary approach of performance, multimedia, installation, painting and text. Her methods are based on the practices of community-based and socially engaged art, with the aim of giving space to the voices of the disadvantaged and shedding light on their issues through artistic means.
The multipart research project “Letter to Mom” explores migration through the stories of political refugees. Initiated in January 2021 during the artist’s forced migration to Ukraine, it continued across international art residencies, fellowships, and collaborations. Evolving through cycles, the project unveils various aspects of this complex experience. Characterized by methods of interviewing, collecting, archiving, and community interaction, the project involved about 200 respondents. Presented as multimedia installations, performances, drawings, participatory and art-therapy practices, it serves as a space to highlight the problem and seek to navigate and overcome traumatic experiences of the forced relocation.
Sayapina was arrested in her flat in Minsk in autumn 2020 for taking part in an art action against violence. After serving her sentence, she left Belarus and currently lives in Poland.
GABRIELA
KOBUS
MAGGIE’S GHOST
Opening:
Saturday 12.10.2024 from 18 pm
13. Oktober – 9. November 2024
Wednesdays 16 – 19 pm
Saturdays 15 – 18 pm, or by appointment (info@co3art.com)
In her artistic practice, she primarily creates installations and objects, but her oeuvre also includes drawings and paintings.
(www.gabrielakobus.com)
WILLI ANDRICK
DARIA PRYDYBAILO
EVDOKIYA
DokumentarFilm, 2024
(ca. 60 Min.)
Im Alter von 93 Jahren muss Evdokiya aufgrund der russischen Invasion aus Kyjiw in die Slowakei fliehen. Mit ihrer Enkelin Daria und der gesamten Familie ist sie 2022 gezwungen, ihr Zuhause in der Ukraine zu verlassen. Die Familie kann ein Pflegeheim in der Slowakei finden, doch Evdokiya verliert durch die Einsamkeit, in einem Land, in dem sie ihre Sprache nicht sprechen kann, fast ihre Stimme. Unser Film begleitet Daria und ihre Großmutter bei einem ihrer letzten Treffen und nachdem Evdokiya verstorben ist: Die Urne wird mit dem Zug zurück nach Kyjiw gebracht. Dort schlagen Raketen ein, wir hören die Sirenen. Wir fahren weiter im Auto in die Kleinstadt Hadyach, wo Evdokiya die meiste Zeit ihres Lebens verbracht hat. Hier findet die Zeremonie ihrer Beerdigung statt.
Regie und Kamera:
Willi Andrick
Konzept:
Daria Prydybailo
Premiere:
Freitag 4.10.2024 um 19 Uhr
Im Filmhaus Köln, Maybachstrasse, Köln
Fotoausstellung mit Talk Runde:
Freitag 4.10.2024 ab 20 Uhr
Im CO³, Thürmchenswall 66, 50668 Köln
PRESS
IMPRINT
THE FRAGILITY OF HOME
Eine Serie interkultureller
Perspektiven auf das Zuhause
Linda Nadji — April 2024
Gohar Dashti — Juni 2024
Nadya Sayapina — September 2024
Gabriela Kobus — November 2024
Gefördert von:
©2024 CO³
cologne | contemporary | concept