Brunnenpassage x Kunsthalle Wien
In the promise of the rising sun
Exhibition at Yppenplatz / Back entrance of Brunnenpassage (Brunnenpassage 71, 1160 Wien)
16/05 – 01/09 2024
The outdoor exhibition is presented by Brunnenpassage in co-operation with Kunsthalle Wien and Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien as part of the exhibition Genossin Sonne.
The newly commissioned work deepens Huda Takriti’s critical reflection upon various political and social histories and shows how the official and personal narratives thereof both conflict and intertwine with one another.
Developing upon a previous work, Clarity is the Closest Wound to the Sun (2023), Takriti takes the writings of Zohra Drif, a freedom fighter of the National Liberation Front of Algeria, as a point of departure. In Drif’s autobiography, the artist read a quotation taken from the poem Hypnos (1946) by a fighter of the French Resistance, René Char, which lent the work its title. Upon reading the full poem, Takriti came across the following paragraph that became the basis for the poster exhibited at Brunnenpassage: “We belong to no one except the golden point of light from that lamp unknown to us, inaccessible to us that keeps awake courage and silence.”
Hypnos, the god of sleep, becomes a symbol of collective amnesia in the work of Takriti, whose original video and new poster for Brunnenpassage highlight the importance of women who fight against oppressive regimes in their struggle for freedom – both for themselves and society at large. By situating the poster in the public space of Yppenplatz, Takriti aims to engage passersby to reflect on our connection to marginalized narratives of the past and on how we can collectively relate to those narratives from today’s point of view.