ANOTHER DINNER RUINED
’On Survival’, Britta Rettberg Gallery, Munich
2021
Curator: Caterina Avataneo
Click on the image or press <— / —>
On occasion of On Survival, Anastasia Sosunova presents a site-specific installation revolving around an existing table of Britta Rettberg Gallery. Inspired by the writings of Sarah Ahmed, Sosunova approaches the object of the table as a place of conviviality and encounter, but also a theatre of debate and potential dissonance. In this work, the artist refers to the Eastern European myth of Samobranka and stages a magicaltablecloth which according to tales provides an abundance of food appearing out of thin air, but might offer spoiled or oversalted meals in case of its mistreatment.
Employing this symbol as a metaphor of invisible domestic labour, Sosunova sets the tablecloth with a series of Karavai pie sculptures which magically materialize on the table. Traditionally symbolizing an act of acceptance to the community and a heteronormative family, the Karavai pies here reveal a rather toxic metallic core with monstrous etchings. The table implies a collective audience, but who is actually welcomed to join the buffet rests unclear.
Photos: Dirk Tacke