Barbara Kapusta
Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany
30 June – 1 October 2023
It is a regular occurrence that parallels between the acts of playing and making art are drawn. After all, playing implies opening oneself up to new possibilities as creativity and imagination take over. Especially in early childhood, play is vital for cognitive development and helping to build confidence. Both art-making and play have an experimental element to them, in that the person embarks on a journey without necessarily knowing where he or she will end up. Language also plays an important role in each case; language can construct narratives and scenarios that guide the act of play, while for art and the discourse around it, text and criticism act as both aid and analysis.
As an artist, Barbara Kapusta is particularly interested in the interplay between art and language, and her works weave together drawing, sculpture, moving image and text. For Kunstverein Braunschweig, Kapusta produced a series of newly commissioned works for a group exhibition alongside Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, Nina Emge, Lamin Fofana, Tarek Lakhrissi, Ndayé Kouagou and Julia Phillips. The group exhibition considered how language shapes community. The interdisciplinary exhibition project Words Don't Go There presented space-related sound and text works as well as videos and performances.
Kapusta’s works covered the interiors of Kunstverein Braunschweig like a second skin, overwriting traditional perceptions of an exhibition space and transforming it into a place in which language can flourish and take hold. The works occupied several rooms in the historic architecture of the Kunstverein and be activated through a public performance by the artist. Within the framework of the exhibition, Kapusta’s new commission – co-produced by Phileas – contributed to Kunstverein Braunschweig’s broader focus on language and community, as well as marginalisation and resistance.
The works and installations of Barbara Kapusta (born 1983 in Vienna, Austria) examine the relationship between body, space and language. They have been presented at institutions including Kunsthalle Wien; Belvedere 21, Vienna; Kunstforum Wien; and MAK, Vienna, and have been acquired for the collections of mumok, Vienna; Landessamlung Niederösterreich; and Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.
This is her first collaboration with Phileas.
