mixed media installation and a performance
5 images, dimensions variable, 15 min
plastic folie, woven threads, textile hardener, pigment, red spot lights, performance score, spoken and sang word, flashlight
2025
Pictures from the exhibition “Leakage, Breaching, Motley Tongues” in Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna, Austria © Pille-Riin Jaik and 2 & 4 Jorge Luna, 1 & 7 Sattva Caru Giacosa, 6 Olia Sosnovskaya.
CONCEPT
In the artwork and accompanying performance one can spot circular shapes, historical loops, Meteorite craters, Nato military enlargements, broken threads, limestone mines and 90’s Eurovision pop song titled “Keelatud maa” (forbidden land) by Maarja Liis Ilus.
The photographic images on the wall are half transparent and hanging on loose moldy looking threads appearing as almost floating in the air, but still connected to each other by visual shapes and broken threads. The two red spot lights create a stage for the images as of something being in a process of development or a feeling of a lurking threat.
The textual layer added by the performance points to geopolitical complexities of the Baltic region, where a certain Eurovision-like need to prove oneself is often the only way to provide the land with security. It draws parallels between the Kaali Meteorite that fell on the island of Saaremaa in Estonia and the close by located Nato Eastern border defence system scanning the skies to avoid bombs: can a geopolitical Meteorite truly ever be escaped from? What does it mean for border regions to live in constant fear?
Half song, half text, the performance creates a haunting landscape where certain repetitive melodies and historic rhymes are stuck in a closing loop like a broken record.
Documentation of the performance video on request.
You may find the published performance score in collaboration with BAL Conference here.
CONTEXT OF THE SHOW
"Leakage, Breaching, Motley Tongues" in Kunstraum Niederoesterreich .
Participating artists: andrea ancira, Caitlin Berrigan, Emily Sarsam, Gris García, Izidora I LETHE, Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun, Olia Sosnovskaya, Olga Zovskaya, Pille-Riin Jaik, Tekla Aslanishvili, Vrishali Purandare, and Yen Noh.
Leakage, Breaching, Motley Tongues draws on Aruna D’Souza’s framing of “imperfect solidarities” which embraces incomprehension as a possibility for political alliance. While empathy and mutual understanding are often seen as positive traits and foundational elements of solidarity, they can inadvertently become homogenizing forces, tied to ideals of “diversity” and “inclusivity” that overlook deeper, unresolved tensions. At its worst, empathy-based solidarity can even bolster neo-fascist ideologies, masking their harmful effects. Alongside Amitav Ghosh and Édouard Glissant, D’Souza asks whether solidarity can emerge based on linguistic and cultural opacity. Dwelling in incomprehensibility offers an alternative that creates the potential to preserve differences and enable solidarity beyond unity. It opens up a space for leakage, breaching, and motley tongues—giving way to new relationalities within difference. Collectively organized by the artists with support from Laura Birschitzky, the exhibition looks into these potentials across various formal and conceptual practices.
Leaking, Breaching, Motley Tongues was a cooperation between Kunstraum Niederoesterreich and the PhD-in-Practice program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Documentation of an earlier version from "Curated Timeframe", organised by Daniel Hüttler and Janina Weißengruber, Proyecto Celesta, Madrid, Spain. © by Pille-Riin Jaik and Potenziale Fragile,