NEW WORLD
Olia Mishchenko, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor
Exhibition
Koffler Gallery, 2008
Photo documentation by Isaac Applebaum
New World presents a new drawing installation by Toronto-based, Ukrainian-born Olia Mishchenko and video work by Romanian artists Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor. These artists address the elusive promise of progress through their shared experiences of growing up in Communist systems. While Vatamanu and Tudor witness daily the hopes and anxieties of a society struggling to redefine itself, Mishchenko has experienced the process of displacement and adaptation inherent to settling in a new land. Originating from distinct but overlapping viewpoints, their works address the turmoil and expectations intrinsic to rebuilding one’s life on unknown territory.
Infused with insight on bureaucratic structures and utopias of efficiency, Mishchenko’s work situates itself ambivalently, with humour and tenderness, between a critique of productivity gone mad and an enchantment with poetic idealism. Her meticulous pen and ink drawings depict what appears as a pre-industrial society of constructors, in the process of endless production. Visitors may discover through a viewfinder a landscape of impossible structures, piecing together an unfolding narrative about a space still in the making, relentlessly planned and built, yet never achieved.
In their practice, Vatamanu and Tudor investigate the visual, emotional, and socio-political aspects of the architectural landscape. In their video piece, Il Mondo Novo, the construction site becomes a metaphor for the political territory of a nation that faces its own transformation with wary anticipation. The piece references an 18th Century fresco by Giandomenico Tiepolo in which a curious crowd gathers in front of a street performer’s tent, presumably to view images of the Americas projected through a new optic invention. In the video, a group of onlookers gaze out onto the still formless ground of a new building site. Marking the transition from old to new layers of architecture, the construction site is charged with expectation, inviting along with the viewers’ gazes their subjective projections.
The process of re-imagining our homes, our cities, and our societies is fuelled by our need to dream and to actively construct our happiness while constantly readjusting to new ground. Ultimately, New World contributes relevant perspectives to the discussion of ideas about our shared future.
In their practice, Vatamanu and Tudor investigate the visual, emotional, and socio-political aspects of the architectural landscape. In their video piece, Il Mondo Novo, the construction site becomes a metaphor for the political territory of a nation that faces its own transformation with wary anticipation. The piece references an 18th Century fresco by Giandomenico Tiepolo in which a curious crowd gathers in front of a street performer’s tent, presumably to view images of the Americas projected through a new optic invention. In the video, a group of onlookers gaze out onto the still formless ground of a new building site. Marking the transition from old to new layers of architecture, the construction site is charged with expectation, inviting along with the viewers’ gazes their subjective projections.
The process of re-imagining our homes, our cities, and our societies is fuelled by our need to dream and to actively construct our happiness while constantly readjusting to new ground. Ultimately, New World contributes relevant perspectives to the discussion of ideas about our shared future.
Artist Info
Olia Mishchenko was born in Kiev, Ukraine and moved to Canada in 1997. She studied architecture and art history at the University of Toronto prior to becoming a practicing artist. Mishchenko’s artistic practice is predominantly drawings-based and concerned with built environments. She is also an active member of the Terrarea collective that is engaged in site-specific installations. Mishchenko lives and works in Toronto, where she teaches in the Environmental Design Programme at OCADU, and at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor are Romanian artists based in Bucharest who have worked together since 2000. They represented Romania at the 2007 Venice Biennial and have exhibited widely at various institutions, including Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien, Berlin (2006); Isola Art Center, Milano (2005); Exit Art Gallery, New York (2004); Play Gallery, Berlin (2004); and Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2003). They have participated in numerous international festivals, such as Festival Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin (2005); Cybersonica 03, ICA, London (2003); and attended artist residencies at Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien, Berlin (2006); AIR Vienna (2005); USF Verftet, Bergen (2005); and Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen, Innsbruck (2004).
