A Forged and Delicate Future – PARALLEL

Visiting is free of charge:
August 18, 2021 – September 19, 2021
Tuesday – Friday: 2pm – 7pm
Weekend: 11am – 7 pm
Closed on Monday and on public holidays.
Capa Center
Curator: Eric Lawton
Exhibiting Artists: Gustavo Balbela, Elsa Gregersdotter, Andrej Lamut, Ida Nissen, André Viking

A Forged and Delicate Future highlights five international artists — Gustavo Balbela, Elsa Gregersdotter, Andrej Lamut, Ida Nissen and André Viking — who reconstruct past-and-present-day ephemera in order to navigate the world’s fragile state and propose alternative futures. In this exhibition, contemporary artists frequently combine disjointed text and image fragments against the backdrop of countries and homes infiltrated by rising authoritarian governments, disinformation campaigns, and ecological disasters. By twisting, stretching, and rearranging archival combinations of media, a more precarious and nuanced reality emerges.

A medium of found documentation, the archive can take the form of newspapers, family photo albums and even invasive plant species. Rather than submit to a chaotic and absurdity filled status quo, these artists dive headfirst into the disorder, treating each item they discover as a wholly formed piece of artistic material. Each shard of content can be reconfigured in each artist’s own image as a way to make sense of the world and, ultimately, of themselves.

While some artists reflect on the external world, others turn inward. Some focus on personal memories, while others question whether the archive can fully encapsulate truth. As family narratives and stories pass down through generations, they often shift and mutate as time progresses. Ultimately, the works refl ect an ambiguity of possibility, casting aside notions of absolute truth in favor of liminal realms punctuated by questions without answers.

Eric Lawton
curator

Changing Times

PARALLEL is a platform connecting creative European photographic organizations, where the eighteen participant institutions from sixteen countries of the European Community select and mentor new artists and curators participating in the program and create opportunities to organize exhibitions to present their works. During its 2018-2021 cycle, as a member of the platform, Capa Center has been successfully contributed to organizing several programs and in August 2021, it will host the closing exhibition of the cycle: in two curatorial projects selected through open call works of 11 young artists will reflect on the buzzword of the final cycle, being valid also for our present age: Changing Times.

The other chosen curatorial project: Of This World – Envisioning Alternative Cartographies

Of This World – Envisioning Alternative Cartographies – PARALLEL

PARALLEL – European Photo Based Platform

Created in 2017, PARALLEL is a network of creative organizations that aims to facilitate cross-cultural exchanges between creators and institutions and to provide mentoring and showcasing opportunities across Europe. The large and diverse nature of this network ensures a wide geographical spread and provides fertile ground for fostering new dialogues, sparking fresh ideas, and helping to boost creativity. The work process is implemented in two phases in annual cycles: Creative Guidance — selection, tutoring, peer learning, and curatorship for new creators; and Exhibition Platform — a wide exhibition network engaging exhibitors, universities, and art schools. As one of PARALLEL’s seventeen participant institutions, the Capa Center has contributed to organizing several programs, including the closing exhibitions of the cycle, A Forged and Delicate Future and Of this World — Envisioning Alternative Cartographies. In these two curatorial projects, works by 11 young artists reflect on the final cycle’s guiding thematic framework Changing Times: Art Facing a New World. Using different media and creative strategies, these emerging lens-based artists explore how art can contribute to a more sustainable post-pandemic future. PARALLEL is supported by the European Commission’s Creative Europe Programme, and designed and led by Procur.arte, a Lisbon-based cultural association.