Tactics of Desire: A Prescription for the Explorer, the Fisherman, the Fish
The middle part of the exhibition delves into the ways in which water has—in different cultures, religions, and communities—deeply shaped and conditioned everyday rituals and ceremonies and carried people and their stories across space and time. It entails two solos iterations, where the works of Stephanie Imbeau and Marko Stojanović take over the entire space of the Podroom gallery on 28th-30th April and 9th-11th May, respectively, while its central part, “The Other Side of Water: Forces of Habit,” takes place 4th-7th May and, alongside Imbeau and Stojanović, also gathers the works of Mariam Kalandarishvili, Maryam Katan, and Roshanak Amini.
In Shifts (Procession), Imbeau’s moving sculptures and performance series pay homage to and represent how water acts as a shepherd to those who wander from one shore to the next, or visibly shape and alter the landscape, both slowly over time, and abruptly. Stojanović’s photographic series 19th of January, shot over the course of three years, proposes a queering understanding of an Orthodox tradition which takes place on the Epiphany holiday. The series takes a broad look at the events, organized by different entities from church, state, and the royal family, in which men race swimming to a wooden cross, and priests bless the waters in which the competition takes place. While Kalandarishvili’s installation Tertiary Effects recontextualizes the weaponization of water, particularly in the context of public displays of dissent, Katan’s video installation Tactics of Desire unravels the layers of the touristic gaze and examines the exploitative relationship between human and nature. Finally, Amini’s audio-video installation Threshold brings together stories of resistance, analyzing the notions of hope attached to the manifold meanings of the phrase “the other side of water.”
Tactics of Desire is on display in Podroom Gallery 14th-16th April, 4th-7th May, and 16-19th May.
“Through storytelling and rebuilding of a personal narrative, Tactics of Desire uncover notions of touristic gaze and the exploitative relationship between human and nature. This work takes its viewer through a journey to discover the origin of a fish the artist had once eaten. This search becomes an excuse to indulge in one's fascination for knowledge and a metaphor for the human desire to relive the pleasurable.”