TAMUNA CHABASHVILI . SERGEY SHABOHIN . ZHENIA STEPANENKO

The 24th of February 2022 is often described as the date that suddenly and irreversibly divided time into a „before“ and „after“. However, while it is indisputable that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia marked the definitive point of no return to a „before“, it also exists in a long line of a still vastly underrepresented history of brutal russian aggression against its neighboring states that can be traced back centuries.

The exhibition All the Dots Connected Form an Open Space Within investigates how experiences of violence, oppression, and the horrors of war can be addressed artistically, through personal observation of how they affect everyday lives and their surroundings, as well as through the diverse strategies of resistance and care that are created in response. The title describes a shift of perspective away from the certainties provided by the usual points of reference often marked by entries on a map or timeline. This shift is not necessarily to negate these points of reference, but rather to highlight the space in between that typically remains in the shadows.

Hereby, the exhibition invites us to question the grand symbolic gestures that are meant to stand alone and proposes a more intimate approach which allows to dissolve the sharp boundaries of temporality, view past and present as dynamic and clbosely connected.

In her textile works, Tamuna Chabashvili (*1979 in Tbilisi, Georgia) deals with protective spaces that are close to the body. Stories and memories of migration, displacement and collective trauma form the basis of Tamuna’s work. As such, her textiles are traces, archives and tools at the same time. The artist lives and works in Tbilisi and Amsterdam.

Sergey Shabohin (*1984 in Novopolotsk, Belarus) addresses the relationship between state control as well as gestures of solidarity and resistance in everyday personal life in his works. He is particularly interested in the topic of invisible and displaced knowledge. The artist lives and works in Berlin and Poznan.

Zhenia Stepanenko (*1996, Ukraine) examines how the relationship to the dacha in Ukraine has fundamentally changed since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Zhenia’s objects address how the experienced loss of security and privacy as well as the fear of a renewed occupation have manifested in everyday activities as a haunting. The artist lives and works in Berlin.

The exhibition is part of the project series War and Peace. Exchange across borders which the taz Panter Foundation launched in 2022 with support of the Federal Foreign Office.