News
2015-04-21
The exhibition "Edge of Chaos" in Venice
On the occasion of the 56th Biennale di Venezia, Vita Zaman and Nicola Vassell are pleased to present, Edge of Chaos (Expelled from Paradise), an exhibition featuring works by LaToya Ruby Frazier, Gianluca Malgeri, Audra Vau and Egle Rake.
On the occasion of the 56th Biennale di Venezia, Vita Zaman (Vilnius/ LA) and Nicola Vassell (NY) are pleased to present, Edge of Chaos (Expelled from Paradise), an exhibition featuring works by LaToya Ruby Frazier (USA), Gianluca Malgeri (IT), Audra Vau (LT) and Egle Rake (LT).
“Edge of Chaos” explores the creative responses of Frazier, Malgeri, Vau and Rake to global tumult using the framework of feminism and ecology. As chaos reigns from climate change to political and economic volatility, there is an increasing parallel between patriarchy, social injustice and the degradation of nature. Seeing all life as valuable, these four artists share an outlook that celebrates the earth as sacred and acknowledge our interdependence upon the natural world.
Ecofeminism and sustainability form the exhibition’s foundation. It links theory and activism, viewing the oppression of women and pillage of the earth as intrinsically related. Saluting women’s interconnectivity with the earth, ecofeminsim challenges domination of one subject over another as a means of optimizing wealth‐based power and extracting finite resources without replenishment (e.g. man over woman, culture over nature, racism that extends to specieism).
The cosmic thread for the exhibit is found in Edge of Chaos theory, which explores how one system transforms rapidly into another. Edge of Chaos is the zone between order and chaos that exists a fraction away from the collapse of a system. When an ecosystem is poised at the brink of decimation, the trick is to harness the power of small agitations that occur moments before ruin to alter the composition of the system— without completely destroying it. Imagine the rumbles that occur right before an avalanche.
This idea suggests a possible evolutionary fix for dominions that need to balance resilience with adaptability. For humanity, utilizing traditionally female values like parity, nuturing and cooperation can bring new wisdom.
In the exhibition, LaToya Ruby Frazier presents an autobiographical and highly personal video, which documents illnesses that she and her mother suffer caused by the systematic industrial pollution of their Pennsylvania town. The sculpture of Gianluca Malgeri resemble utopian architectural models, and are based on his investigation of the Lithuanian symbolist painter/composer, Mykalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis whose work bears the elegy of nature and principle of synesthesia. Audra Vau’s video and photographic series examine her intimate relationship with a local, post‐agricultural Lithuanian landscape in which the train between a community’s natural resources and its reliant inhabitants is palpable.
LaToya Ruby Frazier (b.1982, Braddock, Penn., USA) collaborates with her family, blurring the lines between self‐portraiture and social documentary. Solo exhibitions include A Haunted Capital, Brooklyn Museum (2013) and WITNESS, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (2013). Group exhibitions include Busan Biennial, South Korea (2014), New York Art Now, Palazzo dell Esposoizioni, Rome (2013), Whitney Biennial 2012, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2012) and The Generational Triennial: Younger than Jesus, New Museum, New York (2009). An upcoming solo exhibition will be at Galerie Michel Rein, Brussels (2015).
Gianluca Malgeri (b.1974, Calabria, Italy) creates multifaceted work that aims at the unexpected. Using photography, drawings, sculpture, installation, video and collage, his work reflects the cities in which he lives. Politics, history and nature inform his borderless artistic language. Solo exhibitions include God Bless You, GaleriArtist, Istanbul (2012) and Insha’Allah, Magazzino, Rome (2011) Apollo and Daphne, White Rabbit, Berlin (2009). Group exhibitions include The Naturalists, Castellucio di Pienza, Siena (2013), Spheres 4, Galleria Continua, Les Moulins (2011), When Things Cast No Shadow, Berlin Biennale, Johann Konig Gallery, Berlin (2008) and Do It, Foundazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (2003).
Audra Vau’s (b.1970, Vilnius, Lithuania) creative practice encompasses video, photography, land art, sound and performance. Her work examines the pliable realms of perception, emotional intelligence and connectivity. Interaction with her local surroundings is key and manifests in forms as varied as bucolic photographs and live action cultivation. Vau has exhibited on numerous occasions at Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius. Recent exhibitions include Three Stories at Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center, Vilnius (2011) and Home Grown at Christine Koenig Gallery, Vienna (2014). In April 2015 she will have a solo exhibition, Anime Mund at Max Lust Gallery, Vienna.
Curated by Vita Zaman and Nicola Vassell
6 May – June 29, 2015
Casa Donati, Dorsoduro 1051, 30123 Venice, Italy
From Monday to Sunday from 11am to 6pm
Sponsors: Lewben Art Foundation, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the Italian Republic, Italian Cultural Institute in Vilnius
