Opening reception: Tuesday, March 25, 2025 | 6:00 – 8:00 pm
On view: Wednesday, March 26 – Thursday, March 27 | 11:00am – 6:00pm
Location: Residency Unlimited, 360 Court Street (main green church doors), Brooklyn NY 11231 (map)
Please join us for our first group exhibition of the year featuring works by RU artists: Tsvetomira Borisova, Dana Nechmad, Dominik Stibernik, and Jana Zatvarnická. It also includes a collaborative notebook “Bodies in Transit” – a project in progress developed by Dana Nechmad with contributions by herself and fellow artists. “Transitory Gestures” is curated by RU Curator Data Chigholashvili.
This text, at least a part of it, is written during an express trip on the day of daylight savings in this part of the world. Speed and rhythm of movement have an intricate effect on one’s perception. Transit is an essential aspect of residencies, especially in a vibrant and big city such as NY, where one is often on the go. “Transitory Gestures” explores a complex relationship between time, space, and body. Featured works were created by the artists mostly during their residencies in NYC, and through different approaches and mediums, they express diverse reflections on this theme. We find direct references to the city and one’s movement within, as well as bodily representations in different states and forms.
Paper, drawing, and thread in Dana Nechmad’s works show the interwoven complexity of personal and collective experiences. The delicate piercing on paper through embroidery makes connections with various drawn figures, or parts of them, showing the slow passage of time, and fragility, decay, or endurance. Topics of life and death, as well as desire and sexuality, emerge in the works of Jana Zatvarnická, where bodies are both very present and somehow insubstantial. Her research of ecofeminism and the occult come together in sensual expressions through paintings where bodies and plants often merge. Dominik Stibernik reflects on how NYC influenced his artistic approach – his photo documentations of movement within the city differ from his previous subtle interventions that often deal with subjects that we don’t see. However, these photographs still follow the pattern and hint at anonymity in the vast urban network. The fast speed of NYC is an important aspect of Tsvetomira Borisova’s work. Her phone camera footage from city explorations merges with the personal rhythm that she observed during the residency, offering a visual essay of her experience, moving around a busy place, and finding moments to relax and hope.
Head, body, and feet are the three main parts of “Bodies in Transit” – a collaborative notebook project by Dana Nechmad, which follows the surrealist technique of “cadavre exquis”. While creating the first body in the notebook, she invited fellow artists at RU to contribute to the three sections but on different pages. The contributions are made by Dana Nechmad, Tsvetomira Borisova, Milena Keller & Noah Reusser / speedmaus, Daniela Ruocco, Cristina Massena, LuLu Meng, and Genuardi/Ruta. The pages / parts of this notebook / collective body can be turned randomly – interweaving various gestures each artist made in it, building on exchanges while in transit.
Click above to see the images from the program
About
This program is supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
