Valentina Karga
Residency period
11 February – 11 March 2019
About
The artistic practice of Valentina Karga (b. 1986, Greece) spans the fields of architecture, socially engaged art, and performance. Interested in creating alternatives to existing societal and pedagogical structures, Karga designs conceptual infrastructures that encourage engagement and participation to facilitate practices of commoning and sustainability. Her works have been presented at Athens Biennale, Greece (2013); transmediale, Berlin, Germany (2016); and the inaugural Thailand Biennale (2018-19). She is a founding member of Collective Disaster, an interdisciplinary, transnational, and nomadic community that works in the intersections of art, architecture, and the social realm and is currently Professor for introduction to artistic work in Design at HFBK Hamburg, Germany.
Focus
Working with a comparative methodology, Valentina Karga intends to delve deep into theories of prehistoric matriarchal societies. Still at an early stage of development, her inquiry embraces multiple sources and ultimately aims to intertwine myths, histories, and political implications of matriarchal societies with the Anthropocene discourse, engaging theories on the posthuman condition that advance the understanding of the planet as a homeostatic system where all living and non-living organisms are connected and interdependent. Among her current sources of inspiration are Helen Diner’s seminal work for women's cultural history, Mothers and Amazons, published in 1932; Marija Gimbutas’ notion of “archaeomythology” which blends archaeology, comparative mythology, and folklore; and Bruno Latour’s reading of the Gaia Hypothesis formulated by James Lovelock in the 1970s. During the residency, the artist aims to expand her understanding of feminine symbolism by researching prehistoric symbols and archaeological excavations in Southeast Asia.
Public programmes
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The current ecological, economic, social, and political crises point to a deeper ontological crisis: We are experiencing a transition from the hegemonic paradigms of modernity to a more fluid configuration of value systems. The artistic practice of Valentina Karga—which she calls “Designing Simulations as Art”—addresses this radical shift and experiments with the creation of social structures that allow for difference and sustainable forms of communal existence. Strongly process-oriented, her work often generates collective actions through the engagement of specific communities. In this talk, Karga will presents a selection of past projects and share about her current research interest in prehistoric matriarchal societies and early representations of the anthropos (the human being).
The talk will take place in the artist’s studio.
BIOGRAPHY
The artistic practice of Valentina Karga (b. 1986, Greece) spans the fields of architecture, socially engaged art, and performance. Interested in creating alternatives to existing societal and pedagogical structures, Karga designs conceptual infrastructures that encourage engagement and participation to facilitate practices of commoning and sustainability. Her works have been presented at the inaugural Thailand Biennale (2018-19); transmediale, Berlin, Germany (2016), and Athens Biennale, Greece (2013). She is a founding member of Collective Disaster, an interdisciplinary, transnational, and nomadic community that works in the intersections of art, architecture, and the social realm and is currently Professor for introduction to artistic work in Design at HFBK Hamburg, Germany.
Image caption: Valentina Karga, Coming Community, handmade bricks, various construction materials, installation view, Thailand Biennale, 2018. Photo: Thailand Biennale Catalogue Photographers.