This Is Not For You

Memory can either be characterized as a deliberate attempt to recall the past or it can be evoked without conscious efforts, while chaining is the concept that there is tendency In which remembering a scene can trigger a series of other ones that might be related. Accordingly, bouts of nostalgia presents itself as an overlaying of persons, objects and events from different time periods. This nonlinear relationship with time implies a blend of past experiences through the lens of present emotions, which is inherently a reconstructive process that pieces together a subjectively coherent but distorted narrative. In Literature fragmentation is a storytelling device to bring together disparate elements by pulling the plot in opposing directions, that can be read in isolation and/or as a part of a whole. The notion of speculative autobiography is central to the work of Joschua Yesni Arnaut practice, where the reaching for blank spaces in his family's past in form of photographs, documents and objects is a guiding principle. Although, a solo exhibition, the artist invited befriended painters and illustrators into a dialogue to collaborate, while also crediting his deceased grandfather Omer Arnaut with co-authorship, who was a photographer in Ex-Yugoslavia for a local newspaper in Bosnia, specifically in regards to the dealings of the socialist leader Josep Broz Tito. However, instead of focusing on the political documentation the emphasis lies on commissioned work for a theater stage play from the 1970s, as well as private snapshots, found in the archive. In his research the artist also appropriated recent official letters by German institutions, as a result of an investigation concerning the mysterious life of his father, a criminal justice lawyer, who switched sides and disappeared. This is being interpolated with the found footage of the former, held together as sequence panel by an emergency stretcher. Central element is a confessional chair framing an oil painting of an infamous album artwork that depicts a gruesome scene, which Invites the viewers into an intimate but nonetheless confrontational space. In preparation the canvas was buried for a whole month during this last winter. The exhibition „This Is Not For You“ presents itself as a dense collision of anecdotal imagery, by different layers of authorship. It engages with themes such as the theatricality of nostalgic interpretations, an exploration on variations of vanitas motifs, as well as finding moments of tenderness within aggression.