Anca Benera & Arnold Estefán: UnWorlding

The exhibition Anca Benera & Arnold Estefán – UnWorlding engages in a deep discussion about the ecology of the relationship between nature and culture, challenging us to reconsider the traditional distinctions between these domains.

The Art Encounters Foundation is pleased to present the exhibition of the artistic duo Anca Benera and Arnold Estefán: ,,UnWorlding“, a major exhibition by the Romanian artists based in Vienna, brought for the first time to Timisoara, which will take place on October 24, 2024, at 18:00.

The exhibition Anca Benera & Arnold Estefán – UnWorlding engages in a profound discussion about the ecology of the relationships between nature and culture, challenging us to reconsider the traditional distinctions between these domains. Themes that have preoccupied the artists in recent years include the militarization of nature, the exploitation of natural resources, ecology and extractivism in the context of the Anthropocene. They explore thus, particularly in the new work presented here, UnWorlding, the role of art as a mediator between the natural and man-made worlds, offering a new understanding of the interplay between them.

In this new work, Constantin Brâncuși’s sculpture Wisdom of the Earth is reimagined in a new form: a 1:1 scale replica made from a block of salt will be exhibited alongside a video work documenting the entire process of degradation through the sculpture’s interaction with animals and the weather.

This exhibition marks an important moment in a strategic collaboration between the Art Encounters Foundation and the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (nbk) in Berlin, a leading European institution. Following the success of the two artists’ first solo show in Germany, Rehearsals for Peace, presented last year at the nbk, DesFacerearea of the World brings together both the works shown there and a new work realized in the context provided by the Art Encounters Foundation, alongside many other works. Curators Krisztina Hunya and Diana Marincu represent the two partner institutions and bring together relevant and innovative works, offering the public a challenging and intense artistic experience.

The opening of the exhibition takes place on October 24, 2024, at 18:00 in the exhibition space of the Art Encounters Foundation in Timișoara (Bd. Take Ionescu 46C, ISHO House).

The exhibition will be open until March 01, 2025.

DesFacerea Lumii

The artists bring to the forefront pressing environmental issues that have preoccupied artists in recent years. Their research-driven practice focuses on the relationship between environmental history and resource politics, exploring how the military imaginary shapes the earth’s surface, climate and communities.

They address the global ecological crisis by weaving the narratives of non-human subjects and create interdependent links between humans, minerals, plants and animals. The new video installation Unmaking the World develops these investigations and explores the role of art in imagining possible worlds. Inspired by mythology and world origin narratives in which a cow shapes the world by licking cosmic salt blocks from the primordial void, the artists reinterpret Constantin Brâncuși’s iconic sculpture The Earth’s Couminous Earth (1907) as a life-size copy. The artists place the work in a meadow, encouraging interaction with animals. Gradually remodelled by animal tongues, it reveals the ecology of relationships as a continuum, where the territories of culture and nature are no longer separate but complementary.

Curatori

Diana Marincu

CURATOR

Diana Marincu is curator and art critic, artistic director of Art Encounters Foundation in Timisoara, member of AICA and IKT. In 2017 she received her PhD from the University of Arts in Bucharest, Art History and Theory Department, with a research on curatorial discourses on identity and periphery constructed in large-scale …

Krisztina Hunya

CURATOR

Artiști

Anca Benera & Arnold Estefán

Anca Benera and Arnold Estefán have been present on the international scene for over 10 years and have exhibited in the most prestigious institutions and biennials in the world. They are currently based in Vienna, but Timisoara is the city with which the artists maintain a special connection, as it is also the place where they started their first collaborative projects in the early 2000s. Their work has recently been shown at Manifesta 15, Barcelona (2024), CreativeTime Summit, New York (2024), 1st Klima Biennale, Vienna (2024), 5th Kyiv Biennial (2023), Tinguely Museum, Basel (2022), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022), Galleria Trafo, Budapest (2022), Migros Museum, Zurich (2021), MUCEM Museum, Marseille (2019) and mumok, Vienna (2017), among others.

Partners

Gallery

ISHO House

Bd. Take Ionescu 46C