Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron: Stronger than memory and weaker than dewdrops

The exhibition Stronger than memory and weaker than dewdrops by Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron brings together never previously shown works and new productions around recurring themes in their artistic partnership: identity and otherness in a constantly changing world, the meeting and confrontation of cultures and populations, the repetition and transmission of history and histories.

To enter the exhibition is to enter a universe where reality meets myth and politics merge with poetry. Borders materialise and dissolve, articulating a space between constraint and freedom – the freedom of visitors creating their own associations or writing their own stories as they progress through the exhibition.

The title is a verse from the poem If I Were Another by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008). At times, the exhibition is inhabited by a special guide, an incarnation of the poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008). He wanders through the spaces reciting poems and making eye contact with visitors in order to initiate a discussion, share experiences and explore new perspectives.

Since 2013 Karolina Markiewicz (born in 1976 in Luxembourg, lives and works in Luxembourg) and Pascal Piron (born in 1981 in Luxembourg, lives and works in Luxembourg) have been developing a collaborative body of work that stretches across cinema, visual arts and theatre. At its centre lies the individual as part of the human community, torn between resignation and hope. In their poetically charged investigations, the two artists question contemporary myths and construct metaphorical narratives based on past events.

Their collaboration began in 2013 with the exhibition Everybody Should Have the Right to Die in an Expensive Car. In 2014 they co-directed their first documentary film, Les Formidables, which tells the story of five young migrants in Luxembourg. The same year they started the video blog kulturstruktur. In 2015 they launched Philoktet, a project comprising a performance of the eponymous play by Heiner Müller and an exhibition that established a parallel between Greek tragedy and Robert Oppenheimer’s work on the atomic bomb. Later that year they completed their second documentary, Mos Stellarium, in which they followed the everyday lives of six young refugees in Luxembourg. They represented Liechtenstein at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015 with a video installation in which different parts of the film were screened simultaneously so as to enable a nonlinear reading of the work. Since 2016, they have been working on Side Effects of Reality, an ongoing project consisting of 15 short films. In 2018 they conceived their first virtual reality project, Fever (presented at Casino Luxembourg in 2019), followed by Sublimation, a virtual reality film selected for the 76th edition of the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and accompanied by a live performance in collaboration with Yuko Kominami and Kevin Muhlen. In 2020 they completed their third VR project to date, My identity is this expanse, and presented the monographic exhibition pfh* at the Centre national de l’audiovisuel (Luxembourg). In 2021 they released their documentary The living witnesses in Europe and the United States, and presented the solo exhibition Stronger than memory and weaker than dewdrops at Casino Luxembourg.

Karolina Markiewicz studied political science, philosophy and theatre. She is an artist and filmmaker. Pascal Piron studied visual arts. He is an artist and filmmaker. Both also work as teachers. View their website here.