BABEL

You enter the space and feel the tension. Is this, what you see, the result of looming chaos, or is it merely the calm before the storm? The walls rustle, pulse, you hear voices and shouting. Yet, there is utter silence. A strange odour hits your nose, thickening the ambiance; accompanied by echoes of ancient cries and different languages. Once adorable faces and mythological figures morph into eerie freaks from a nightmare. There is no peace, no understanding and no resolution. The continuous flow and energy, coupled with pressing gestures are the remnants of a fleeting madness. The exhibition BABEL presents a spatial dialogue between the works of the Vienna-based artist Céline Struger and her Prague-based counterpart Ester Parasková. This debut combination presents a variety of media along with different conceptual approaches. The selected works create an intense setting that engages all senses. The different narratives draw on popular culture, contemporary society, mythology or (fictional) history. The layering of ideas, mixing of content, visual expression and personal symbolism takes them into new contexts. The project title refers to the perplexing clamour and cluster of multiple voices, and to the symbolism of its codified form linked to the story of the Tower of Babel. The muddle, fragmentation and breakdown of communication. We perceive voices speaking to each other, whilst understanding vanishes. New interpretations and raw emotions emerge, transcending the limits of language. Large-format paintings by Ester Parasková (b. 1993, Kuřim; currently based in Prague) preserve expressive drawing records in between fluid automatism and elaborate reflections on the contemporary world. Their raw naturalism and nude visuality is striking at first glance. Traces of dirty shoes, motion, quick scribbles and shaky handwriting are accompanied by appropriations of familiar cartoon characters or text slogans. Her visual collages oscillate between conflict and charm, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, irony and weightiness. Parasková anchors the imaginary bedlam through functional composition, contrast and colour combinations, elevating it through critical view of the society, violence, consumerism or the functioning of the world of art. The works by Céline Struger (b. 1982, Klagenfurt; currently based in Vienna) are based on traditional sculpture, which she updates through found materials or technical elements. They appear as mix of dystopian residues of past cultures, combining historical pre-images fused in personal mythologies and captivating fictions into new contexts. Two sculptures - hybrids of grotesque gargoyles and fountains where we discover fragments of different cultures or religions – dominate the exhibition. Struger creates odd figures combining a three-headed version of the god Janus, symbolising the past, present and future, with her own vision of Cyclops with multiple eyes, transforming his originally restricted view into the ability to perceive reality from multiple perspectives. Original mythological (anti)heroes emerge through a complementing pair of wings or claws of Harpy, changing knowledge and testing the boundaries of fantasy, myth or (pseudo)spirituality.