Titled “Peripheral Sun,” the exhibition at Vin Vin gallery charts a new configuration of Kelet (East in Hungarian) by approaching Dieter Roelstraete’s selected theme with alternative methods of mapping in mind. The concept of orientalization of the East introduced in the last section of “Kelet”, coined by Palestinian-American scholar and writer Edward D. Said, designates the system of representation the West has traditionally exerted on the East. A term rooted in epistemologies and myths most evident during the Cold War and revived by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This outlook also came to describe not only the perceptions of Western Europe regarding Eastern Europe, but also towards other non-Western societies, keeping them at the periphery both physically and symbolically. The city of Vienna, in which the exhibition takes place, has historically been the most Eastern point of Western Europe and the most Western point of Eastern Europe, standing in-between the push and pull of historic and religious frontiers.
The exhibition features the artworks of four artists: Joël Andrianomearisoa, Kapwani Kiwanga, Marin Majic and Maja Ruznic. The selected artists hail from the Eastern Coasts of Africa and the Balkan peninsula, yet each one has a distinctive approach in relation to aspects of nationalism and holds no central attachment to one specific identity or country. The exhibition explores how the cartesian and symbolic meaning of borders erode with displacement and migration. Themes of longing, nostalgia, the in-between and melancholy manifest in each of the artists’ works through a multiplicity of media: painting, installation, drawing, and collage.
“Peripheral Sun” initiates a debate about whose compass is acknowledged when thinking about the East and recognizes the different poles of influence that exist today. The layout of the exhibition design leads the viewer to accustome to alternative vantage points without relying on a specific linear route, thus creating an open network of exchange with no set trajectory.
As inspiration, takes Alighiero Boetti’s early 1970s to the 1990s. The artist’s maps are not comprehensible without their frames series that the Arte Povera movement’s central figure developed throughout his career. The brightly coloured maps designed by Boetti and embroidered by Afghan craftswomen portray each country by its flag and illustrate the geopolitical realities of the world from the as the trims are the points of reference which contain dates and details relating to the map. These inscriptions relate to Boetti’s dual concepts of ordine e disordine (order and disorder) as there is no order for reading the trim, the viewer must look in multiple directions laid at the fringes to decipher the maps. Echoing the intention and title of this exhibition, the maps are read first from the periphery (trims) before engaging with the centre.
“Peripheral Sun” foregrounds a multi-perspectival outlook by focusing on narratives which encompass a decentred and shifting flux of ideas. It brings into light narratives from the traditionally designated margins, some lesser known, some that may have been forgotten or hidden.
at Vin Vin, Vienna
until October 8, 2022