Alternativa 2016: Damage & Loss

The Alternativa 2016 Damage and Loss exhibition is an attempt to capture the constant experience of loss and the complex, multi-layered consequences of distress. It links personal human experiences, historical traumas and economic, political and environmental conditionings. Personal integrity, dignity, health, relationships, safety, access to resources, and last but not least, life, are the values many fear losing most. Their loss not only results in a traumatic experience for individuals, communities and societies but the anxiety, shock and dysfunction they breed are often politically and commercially exploited.

Artists: Anna Baumgart, Ursula Biemann, Karolina Breguła, Karolina Brzuzan, Ella de Burca, Gabriella Csoszó & Lívia Páldi, Daniel Dressel, Dariusz Fodczuk, Ingela Johansson Zuzanna Janin, Sven Johne, Hiwa K, Anton Kats, Anna Królikiewicz, Honorata Martin, Hanna Nowicka, Ekta Mittal, Rozhgar Mustafa, Anneè Olofsson, Agnieszka Polska & Witold Orski, Salam Atta Sabri, IM Heung-soon, Katarina Šević and Tehnica Schweiz (Gergely László & Péter Rákosi), Dominika Skutnik, Mariusz Tarkawian, Milica Tomić, Mariusz Waras

The works presented at Damage and Loss span a wide array of genres and forms from sculpture, installation, drawing, to video, photography and performance. Employing different strategies and apparatus some of the works examine the process and the profound impacts and paradoxes of neoliberal globalisation while others open up fictional and poetic scenarios to unfold insights of a more intimate nature about how loss, conflict, abuse, political violence, and alienation burden and reshape human existence. A particular set of positions highlight connections to the physical site of the shipyard and its intricate social and political history.

The exhibition Damage and Loss Alternativa 2016 is dedicated to the memory of the artist and photographer Konrad Pustoła (1976−2015) who participated and contributed in many ways to a number of Alternativa issues.

The Alternativa International Visual Arts Festival is a strategic element in the process of fulfilling the Museum of Contemporary Art project and is carried out by the Alternativa Foundation as commissioned by the National Museum in Gdansk.  

Curators: Anna Nawrot, Lívia Páldi, Aneta Szyłak
General Producer: Maksymilian Bochenek
Artistic Director: Aneta Szyłak

The project is supported by the City of Gdansk.