Ioana Cojocariu, Iulian Vitalis Cojocariu, Monika Czyżyk, Torsten Zenas Burns, Hanne K. Burns
The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were convinced of an afterlife, and the sarcophagus served as the eternal dwelling for the one resting in it. Most sarcophagi were made of stone and placed visible, above ground. Exhibited. Like a coffin or a container of memories, a bearer of both sorrow and joy, a physical reminder. In the exhibition Sarcophagus, the three artists Ioana Cojocariu, Monika Czyżyk, and Torsten Zenas Burns work with their own histories, both actual and magical family ties, and memories as an artistic material. Based on mythology, the gestures of the hand throughout history, and the search for connections and kinship, works by Ioana Cojocariu’s father Iulian Vitalis Cojocariu and Torsten Zenas Burns’ mother Hanne K. Burns are also included in the exhibition.
What remains after someone has passed? What do we save, and why? And how do we communicate visually through time and across generations?
Through the works, we follow the complex paths of grief and memory. Monika Czyżyks’ sculpture Sky Burial relates to the four elements through its four sides. The title refers to the Tibetan ceremonial burial method in which the deceased is placed on a mountaintop. Torsten Zenas Burns’ video and image-object series Faseskift, without beginning or end, consists of fragments that bear witness to the presence of the artist’s family as well as psychedelic phenomena, Scandinavian folklore, and astrology. Ioana Cojocariu’s photographic series Dust Readings can be seen as the result of a removal or cleansing, both in its literal and figurative sense. What remains?
The idea of the sarcophagus has the dual meaning of carrying both the wounded and the healingsimultaneously. It serves as a reminder of how grief and memories transform over time. The sorrow of not having fully appreciated someone during the time we shared with them. Sometimes distance is needed in order to observe and understand. In the exhibition, the physical and emotional traces of grief are linked together. Here, there is the silent presence of loss and the material preservation of memories. Grief, but also healing and new kinships, moves through and manifests in the space.
Curators: Julia Björnberg and Anna Johansson