An individual exhibition of works by Aleksandra Liput combines different forms of visual art: drawings, ceramics and fabrics that make up an immersive installation imitating the space of oneiric reality. The exhibition will be opened on 6 September 2024 at Kunsthalle Ost in Leipzig and will be available to visitors until 28 October 2024.
“We Are a Dream” – an exhibition inspired by a book by Ursula Le Guin
Aleksandra Liput is a visual artist and curator specialising in exploring irrational motifs: ancient beliefs, magic, psychedelia and conspiracy theories, in which she looks for answers to contemporary problems. This time, she turns towards dreams, drawing inspiration from Ursula Le Guin’s book to which the exhibition title alludes. The plot of this science-fiction novel is embedded in a dystopian world full of violence and technological surveillance. When the main character discovers that even the sphere of dreams becomes a dangerous and hostile space, he tries to regain the possibility of free dreaming, which he treats as the individual’s last enclave of freedom.
Liput’s interpretation highlights the novel’s similarity to the present and the reality of the 21st century, in which – as Jonathan Crary, author of the book “24/7. Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep” points out – a process of gradual appropriation of our time, including our sleep, by the capitalist logic of efficiency and productivity has been going on.
Immersive space and oneiric reality
The artist creates an immersive space filled with monochromatic drawings on paper, full of semi-abstract forms that suggest portals, dream catchers, blurred masks or dream afterimages. The exhibition also features an expressive installation made of fabric and an installation combining ceramics with forms embroidered with a crochet. Their vertical forms represent subsequent layers of oneiric reality and individual ceramic forms resemble amulets and – through sharp shapes – defensive gear. The entire composition is supplemented by archetypal, disturbing representations of smiling suns, evoking mythologies of yet undiscovered cultures.
This space aims at arousing in viewers an impression of being in an oneiric reality that becomes a space for unlearning, forgetting, losing control, breaking away from harsh socio-political reality. Liput creates opportunities to forget about the civilisation and release our dreams: about becoming an animal or a child. This is also a moment of escapism and immersion in the feeling of safety, allowing for mental regeneration.
Curatorial guided tour
To learn more about Aleksandra Liput’s perspective, visitors will have an opportunity to participate in the guided tour in English, as part of which the artist, together with the curator, Michalina Sablik, will talk about the exhibition. The guided tour will take place on 7 September 2024, at 12:00.
The Adam Mickiewicz Institute welcomes you to the exhibition!
Curator: Michalina Sablik
Exhibition partners: Polish Institute in Berlin, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Project co-financed by: Leipzig City Office, Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn, Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen