But you, yourself, with your own hand must open this door
Group Show at Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany
Unstable Grounds
Primal Fears
We Are all the Monsters We Create- within Human Shells
2024
Anita Muçolli’s artistic practice explores the connection between the emergence of dystopias as a reaction to technological progress and apocalyptic depictions of the end of the world. Her work illuminates how we see ourselves in a dynamic field straddling new technologies, biotechnology and the relationship between humans and animals.
Muçolli has produced two new groups of works especially for the exhibition, which reflect her first encounters with her Kosovarian roots: not born in Kosovo herself, the country only existed for her via her family’s stories until she was ten years old. Her father’s tales, who himself grew up on a farm, naturally tended to be about animals: in addition to everyday stories, they also included morality fables that were common in Kosovo and were intended to frighten children and were used thus to inculcate good behaviour. These include the fable about a spider that crawls out of the ears of naughty children. Based on this story, Muçolli produced three ceramic objects covered with a black glaze for the exhibition. The objects take the form of stylised spiders, which can also be interpreted as tree branches or human hands. Placing them in the space on various visual axes activates the objects within the context of the exhibition: it seems as if the animals or plants are literally proliferating, as if they are leading a weird, uncanny life of their own. This “monstrous” dimension, as Muçolli herself calls it, is reinforced by the unnatural black colour and patina of her ceramics. At the same time, her interest in hybrid forms of existence caught in the limbo of human, animal and plant realms manifests itself here. They are at once scenarios that are becoming increasingly probable due to scientific progress.
Her second work is an object inspired by a piece of playground equipment in her home town. Muçolli made a seesaw out of stainless steel, which consists of two railings and two flat platforms attached to them by means of chains. As a deliberate analogy to a bridge, Unstable Grounds symbolises the challenging balancing act that a person performs when oscillating between two countries, dual identities and different cultures. For Muçolli, the object is a metaphor for the dysphoria relating to her roots and the associated ‘twilight’ existence between two worlds.
