Artists: Mateusz Choróbski, Antonio Fiorentino, Enrique Ramírez, Emilija Škarnulytė, Tanja Thorjussen
Assuming that our existence is dominated by the search of happiness, few realms of human activity unveil the dynamics of this search – with all its fervency and paradoxes – better than our travels. They express, though indirectly, our notion of what constitutes the sense of life apart from the obligation of work and the fight for survival.
Alain de Botton, The Art Of Travelling
What is travelling? A physical movement in time and space? A spiritual journey through memories and fantasies? A way to discover the mysterious unknown? A longing to find a new kind of sensation within yet undisclosed realms?
Undoubtedly, travelling has always been connected with a fascinating experience. The movement itself already implies a process, a transformation, a passage from one state into the other, during which one becomes a hopeful wanderer, a utopian explorer.
Let us take you on a trip that will constitute a poetic and dreamy metaphor between the reality and fantasy, between tangibility and intangibility, between now and then, here and there. Let it become a perfect kind of space for a unique experience which would lead you to the roots of your existence constituted by memories, flashbacks, traditions, myths, phantoms. Do not hesitate to enter the timeless labyrinth that will guide you through a vision of somewhat obliterated past towards an unknown mysterious future. Immerse in magical landscapes, let yourself become bewitched and possessed by them. Perform a symbolic march, a spiritual ceremony guiding you towards better self-awareness, the rite of passage bringing you closer to unravelling the mystery of life. Explore this moment until the enigma of the universe permeates you, and the surrounding reality becomes a poetic simulacrum, while you turn into a mystical traveller.
Marta Wróblewska
Enrique Ramírez was born in 1979 in Santiago de Chile. Since 2010, he lives and works between Paris (France) and Santiago (Chile). He studied popular music and cinema in Chile before joining the postgraduate master in contemporary art and new media of Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains (Tourcoing, France). In 2014 he won the discovery price of Les Amis du Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. He has since exposed in some major places asLe Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou, Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton or le 104), France (le Grand Café, Saint-Nazaire) and in Central and South America (Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico ; Museo de la memoria, Santiago ; Centro Cultural MATTA, Embajada de Chile en Argentina, Buenos Aires). In 2017, he is invited to the 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia curated by Christine Macel.
Tanja Thorjussen (born in 1970) is an artist living in Oslo (NO). She holds a BFA from KHIB in Bergen (NO) and Parsons The New School in New York (USA). Her artistic medium spans between drawing, lithography, performance and land art that often explore the theme of liminality and the in-between of a place, state or time. Current works focus on the mystic and spiritual in nature, and the science embedded in indigenous knowledge and ancient mythology.
Emilija Škarnulytė is a nomadic visual artist and filmmaker. Between the fictive and documentary, she works primarily with deep time, from the cosmic and geologic to the ecological and political. Recent group exhibitions include Hyperobjects at Ballroom Marfa, Texas; Moving Stones at the Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; and the first Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art; as well as a new commission for Bold Tendencies, London and a solo show at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. Škarnulytė is the winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2019 and was representing Lithuania at the XXII Triennale di Milano. She is participating in Toronto Biennial of Art 2019, Toronto, Canada; 95% of the Universe is Missing, Science Gallery, London, UK. She currently co-directs Polar Film Lab, a collective for 16mm analogue film practice located in Tromsø, Norway.
Mateusz Choróbski, born in 1987, Poland; based in Warsaw. In his artistic undertakings, he tests various ranges and scales of artistic expression: from short films to complex arrangements in gallery spaces, or contextual activities in public spaces. He cooperates with Warsaw-based Wschód gallery.
Antonio Fiorentino, born in Barletta, Italy 1987. His work is realized with a practice that goes through sculpture, installation and video. His research is aimed at experimenting with matter, altering its transformation processes and the passage of time.
He received awards for emerging artists, including the 2015 Talent Prize and the New York Prize XVI 2018. Among the national and international institutions where he exhibited are: Italian Cultural Institute of New York (2018); MUSAC Leon, (2018); MUHNAC of Lisbon, (2017); HANGAR Lisbon, (2017); ISCP New York, (2017); Swiss Institute of Rome, (2017); The National Gallery of Rome, (2016); HIAP Helsinki, (2016); Kunst Meran (2015); Villa Arson Center of Contemporary Art Nice, (2014); American Academy of Rome, (2013); Contemporary Locus, (2013); Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, (2012).