Artists

Lesia Pcholka and Uladzimir Hramovich, Zofia nierodzińska, Alicja Rogalska, Aykan Safoğlu

Press release

Opening: 20.11.2024, 7 - 9 pm
Curated by Zofia nierodzińska and Stephan Koal

There is a magic and a challenge inherent in long-distance relationships, an eroticising tension of the unfinished and unprotected and the constant challenge of maintaining emotions over large spatial distances.

So close and yet so strange: the exhibition and the accompanying program trace the arc of long-distance relationships from foreignness in a country that is not one’s own, to being de facto a stranger in one’s own body, from normative to non-normative.

The exhibition Fernbeziehungen (Long-Distance Relationships), a collaboration between KVOST and the Lectwo Gallery in Poznan, deals with the theme of migration, especially labour migration, that almost always involves a move from less privileged countries and regions to more industrialized and wealthier countries. Its direction is therefore specific: from east to west, and from south to north.

In Germany as a whole, and in Berlin in particular, the largest groups of migrants come from Turkey and Poland. How does the situation of the so-called ‘guest workers’ from the mid-20th century affect the self-esteem and life chances of their descendants? How does migration, associated with the transition period and then the eastward expansion of the EU, affect the status of migrants.

Featuring artists Lesia Pcholka and Uladzimir Hramovich, Zofia nierodzińska, Alicja Rogalska and Aykan Safoğlu. the exhibition explores how the experience of migration shapes one’s identity and relationships with others. This includes those who have left their country of birth, those who have chosen to stay, and those who have been left behind. By focusing on human relationships and connections, the exhibition does not aim to compare the often very different and personal migration stories that have inspired the artists’ work. Rather, it is about relating how migration experiences structure not only the material, but also the emotional aspects of life in different ways.