Witches, Orientalism & Unconsciousness as Protagonists of Viennese Modernity / Cultural Forum Warsaw

New Austrian-Polish dialogue exhibition at the ÖKF Warsaw

Through the artistic works of Ana Hoffner and Anka Leśniak, artifacts and historical phenomena of Viennese modernism are addressed, but also re-articulated. The Austrian artist Ana Hoffner reflects on the question of Habsburg colonialism and its connection to psychoanalysis as well as historical avant-garde art by interweaving filmic and photographic material from Bosnia and Herzegovina with footage from the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna and fragments of the artistic world of ideas of the Surrealists. Her Polish dialogue partner Anka Leśniak, in turn, walks in the footsteps of artist Theresa Ries and her work The Witch, which reflects Vienna’s historical spaces of possibility, but also ‘absorbs’ and discusses further developments in Vienna. The exhibition takes place hybrid: It will be opened – in front of a very limited audience – by the artists on site at the Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw, and the subsequently produced 3D version of the exhibition will be presented to the internet audience on the occasion of an online artists talk.