WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? by Steffi Alte, Saskia Te Nicklin & Patrícia J. Reis
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WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
by Steffi Alte, Saskia Te Nicklin & Patrícia J. Reis
Opening: 29.9.2023, 19h
Midd opening: 14.10.2023, 19h
Finissage: 3.11.2023, 19h
Exhibition duration: 30.9 – 3.11.2023
Opening hours: Every Saturday from 14h to 18th
About the exhibition:
“A culture of domination is anti-love. It requires violence to sustain itself. To choose love is to go against the prevailing values of the culture. Many people feel unable to love either themselves or others because they do not know what love is.” Bell Hooks (1994)
In the light of the current situation deeply shaped by conflicts and disasters caused by anthropocentric politics, actions and practices, we ask ourselves the question: “What’s love got to do with it?”
In her writings Bell Hooks identifies Love as a blind spot within the human struggle for liberation, from oppression and exploitation. The white male supremacist domination of the planet attributed to love becoming a symptom of weakness, that love has no value. We might have forgotten what love really is or perhaps we’ve never really understood its meaning since it became capitalized and traded as a commodity-chain, sold as desire that can and should be consumed at a fast pace. Love in its true meaning is something that people might feel ashamed to relate with, as an old-fashioned concept, in the same way Tina Turner declined love in her musical success hit in 1984.
Loving is a verb that demands for action and for choice and can become an important tool to decolonize and to demystify systems of oppression. We need to critically question our position within the planet of beings and things. To love is to care for the others. Love is rooted in community, in exchange and democratic choices. In order to recover love we need social changes rooted in new love ethics. The exhibition “What’s love got to do with it?” aims to be an essay and a tribute to new love politics acknowledging caring as a crucial facet of Love for creating, repairing, and empowering our relations with the world.
Photo © Janine Schranz
With the kind support of:
About Steffi Alte, Saskia Te Nicklin & Patrícia J. Reis
Steffi Alte (*1980 (D)) is an installation and media artist. Based in Vienna (AT), she employs various formats and media to explore the mutual relationship between animals, humans, and other life forms. In her cinematic works, Steffi Alte continually recombines her sculptural and performative practices. At this intersection of performance, object, and the camera's gaze, she builds tensions and narratives rooted in her fundamental interest in experimentation.
Steffi Alte graduated in 2011 under the supervision of Heimo Zobernig at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Since 2018, she has been working as an assistant in the Drawing Department at the Academy.
Saskia Te Nicklin
(*1979, Copenhagen) works with mixed media in her paintings and drawings. For the show, Saskia Te Nicklin’s charcoal drawings on the walls show beings and plants interacting with each other. The interactions could be perceived as lying in a gray-zone between caring and abuse, where conform roles change. On the floor, an old collection of insects and lizards are being carried around on a conveyor belt in an endless circle, reminding us of our mortality and consumerism. Some recent shows include, Wonnerth Dejaco, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Zina Gallery and Kunstraum Schwaz.
Patrícia J. Reis
(*1981, Lisbon) is a media-installation artist whose practice encompasses different formats and media to question and expand human-machine affinities through new materialism and feminist hacking lenses. In her installations she often appeals to the visitor’s sensoriality in an intimate and sensual way, encouraging them to become active participants. Her work was just recently exhibited at the Havana Biennial in Cuba, at the Kunstraum pro art, Hallein and at the Group Show „RGB EXPIRA: 2022“, Castelo e Paço dos Condes, Ourém, Portugal. In 2021 was awarded with the Outstanding Artist Award in Media Art by the Austrian Chancellery for Culture.
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