TRACES OF TIMELESSNESS _____ 16.02.2024 - 03.03.2024

Kuenstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg, DE

The wooden, long elements in this installation "Cargo 200. Experimental projections on surfaces. 5.7." are constructivist details, referring back to the dream of a better world that the constructivists dreamed of. So what went wrong? We are now in the "future" and a better world is not in sight. This work is also done in the technique of iconography, but without specific religious figures. The black square in this work is the place of burial. Since we don't know all the dead, we don't know their names and fates, we can barely make out a few coffins in the work in the projection from above. This work as a whole is about war as a phenomenon, not just about current events.

With their visual and symbolic language, the artists Polina Shcherbyna and Sofiia Yesakova refer to the cyclical recurrence of world-historical events. The themes of violence and resistance are inherent in the human experience of life. Our ability to adapt to the senselessness of war and tragedies of any scale contradicts our knowledge of their destructive consequences.

Catastrophes leave their scars on the human soul.

Jinseok Lee completes the body of the exhibition with his work "Metamorphosis and Apocalypse". In it, he reflects on the course of a life characterised by constant torment, which only finds its liberation in self-responsibility. Lee thus refers to his literary role models, the forerunners of existentialism Franz Kafka and Søren Kierekegaard.

with artists Polina Shcherbyna, Jinseok Lee, Sofiia Yesakova

Cargo 200. Experimental projections on surfaces. 4.2., 150 × 25 × 10 cm, Acrylic, gesso and wood board, 2024

In the work "Cargo 200. Experimental projections on surfaces. 4.2.", the artist uses a completely emotionless graphic element/chart, which is an example of our perception of statistical, emotionless data. If you look closely, you will notice the inscription Cargo-200, as well as coffins in the upper perspective, which is a senseless, dry counting of dead soldiers. Mass casualties have become mundane, and people in turn see everything as statistics and counting. It is also a reference to the architectural plans of concentration camps, neat and precise, looking at which it is impossible to believe in the cruelty taking place in the recent past, as well as in the reality of those events. The human past, and such artefacts, are sources of information about what we can do to other people. Our fears are not always the same as what is truly horrifying

Cargo 200. Experimental projections on surfaces. 4.2., 150 × 25 × 10 cm,  Acrylic, gesso and wood board, 2024. Close-up

Installation view of the exhibition "Traces of timelessness"  at Kuenstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg, DE, 2024

Cargo 200. Experimental projections on surfaces. 5.7., 60 × 70 × 9 cm, variable dimensions (pine wood planks), Acrylic, gesso and wood board, pine wood planks, 2024