TRACES OF TIMELESSNESS _____ 16.02.24 - 03.03.2024
Kuenstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg, DE
The long wooden elements in the installation "Cargo 200. Experimental Projections on Surfaces. 5.7." are constructivist details, referencing the dream of a better world once envisioned by the constructivists. But what went wrong? We are now living in that imagined "future," and yet a better world remains out of reach.
This work also employs the technique of iconography, though without specific religious figures. The black square represents a burial site. Since we do not know all the dead—their names, their stories—we can barely make out a few coffins in the overhead projection. The piece, taken as a whole, speaks to war as a broader phenomenon, not just a comment on current events.
Through her visual and symbolic language, the artist addresses the cyclical recurrence of world-historical events. Themes of violence and resistance are deeply embedded in the human condition. Our capacity to adapt to the senselessness of war and tragedy—regardless of scale—stands in stark contrast to our awareness of their devastating consequences. Catastrophes leave indelible scars on the human soul.
Sofiia’s work does not offer comfort or resolution. Instead, it demands engagement—a challenge to viewers to recognize their role within the cycles of history and to reflect on the choices that either sustain or disrupt them. Violence does not return—it never leaves. Resistance is not heroism, but the final tremor of a being unwilling to yield to the void. The artist offers no salvation; she charts the anatomy of despair, showing that lucidity is not a virtue, but a burden too heavy for most to bear.
Curated by the curatorial collective of the Kuenstlerhaus Sootbörn
Group exhibition
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. Installation view of the exhibition "Traces of timelessness" at Kuenstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg, DE, 2024. Close-up
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
Cargo 200. Experimental projections on surfaces. 1.3., 30 × 30 × 3 cm, Acrylic, gesso and wood board, 2022
