gabriela benish-kalná.
2024.
Inter-Species Refuge
27.7. - 27.8. 2024
ArtMill Center for Regenerative Arts, Czech Republic
Curator: Gabriela Benish-Kalná
Artists: Fuad Alymani, Natália Kalná, Kateryna Khramtsova, Václav Mach, Sean Roy Parker, Anjan Salzer, Adam Sochorec, Gilles Yann
Based on transformative artistic practices explored in the Transformative Territories project, we are collaboratively creating a space for inter-species refuge, regenerative and alternative agricultural practices, exploration of queer ecology and regenerative pastoralism to benefit local fauna, flora and community, and a safe space to promote holistic health and care for human and non-human species. The 'living lab' will see the intersection of science, art and social practice, for research and adaptation to local climate change impacts. The inter-species sanctuary will be open to the public as a space for experiential and alternative education and offered for use by communities of struggle - minority and historically oppressed groups, through programs such as OUT:HERE - Queer Šumava, beginning in Summer 2025.
Louder
23. 2. – 29. 3. 2024
GAMU, Prague, CZ
Curated by Gabriela Benish-Kalná
Artists: Fuad Alymani, Jakub Hons, Jana Preková, Michelle Joy, Kateryna Khramtsova, Yeva Kupchenko,
Cannupa Hanska Luger, Václav Mach, Felicia Rice, Martin Zetová
“As artists, we live on the periphery. But we are the mirrors. We are the reflective points that break through a barrier.” -Cannupa Hanska Luger
With the rise of global information infrastructure we have become direct witnesses to the growing number of humanitarian and (un)natural disasters, wars, armed conflict and displacement. Most of these geopolitical crises are perceived to occur on the periphery relative to the Euro-Western world. This exhibition explores various artistic practices as a language that transcends borders, bringing the periphery closer to the center. Louder holds space for different artistic approaches as responses, reactions and resistance to these crises, creating a space of amplification.
“The role of the artist in the social structure follows the need of the changing times:
In time of social stasis: to activate
In time of germination: to invent fertile new forms
In time of revolution: to extend the possibilities of peace and liberty
In time of violence: to make peace
In time of despair: to give hope
In time of silence: to sing out ”
– Judith Malina
2023.
Sometimes in Winter, exhibition cycle "Seasons"
19. 12. 2023 – 18. 2. 2024
Galerie Kurzor, Center for Contemporary Art, Prague, CZ
Curated by Mariana Serranová
10_ft_under
This concrete object imagines a world after civilizational collapse. Functioning as a protective time capsule, this concrete shell withstands nuclear winter, hidden ten feet underground, unearthed to provide a variety of heirloom seeds grown, preserved and exchanged over centuries.
Ruins and (r)evolution
5. 6. 2023 – 30. 7. 2023
House of Arts Ústí nad Labem, CZ
Curated by Mariana Serranová
post_dirt
In this ongoing body of work, Gabriela Benish-Kalná offers glimpses of hope and possible solutions to the ongoing polycrisis of our time in the form of an elaborate mind map based on her long-term research. Through her subjective view of the planetary scale degradation and detrimental consequences of the Anthropocene, she maps the contending futures of a solutions-oriented utopia and a dystopia in ruins, exploring the territory in between.
Imagine A Breath of Fresh Air
June 5–July 30, 2023
Studio Teatr Galeria, Warsaw, PL
Curated by Jindřich Chalupecký Curatorial Collective - Barbora Ciprová, Veronika Čechová, Tereza Jindrová, Karina Kottová
and Paulina Olszewska (Galeria Studio, Warsaw)
Artists: BCAA System, Gabriela BK, Joshua Citarella, Mark Fridvalszki, Seana Gavin, Eva Jaroňová, Nam June Paik, Kinga Kiełczyńska, Diana Lelonek, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Milan Ressel, Leon Romanow, Adéla Součková, Maja Smrekar, Superflux, Suzanne Treister, Ondřej Trhoň & Nela Pietrová
post_dirt
In her body of work post_dirt, Benish-Kalná offers glimpses of hope and possible solutions to the ongoing environmental crisis in the form of an elaborate mind map based on her long-term research. She also explores the opposite outcome through a set of objects imagined as made in a world of environmental collapse, where the remnants of humankind need to rely and survive on the relics and debris of civilization in post-humanist collaborations with natural technologies.
In preparation for survival amidst deteriorating ecological and geopolitical conditions, this mixed media work connects key moments of agricultural history to imagine a future after the Anthropocene. As an exploration of possible existences within post-societal and post-environmental collapse, the installation includes objects with distinguishable DIY aesthetics— a seedbank, and a portable vermipack: a compost- and fertilizer-making backpack, made of upcycled and found bags and woven straps. The vermipack acts as a low-tech protective apparatus where a human becomes the steward of other more-than-human agents, protecting and caring for the worms living within it, that regenerate soil from which humans can grow the food necessary for survival. The cement seed bank stores a variety of heirloom seeds cultivated and exchanged over the past four years through the ArtMill Center for Regenerative Art where BK runs ArtDialog. All the objects/prototypes in BK’s installation focus on the survival needs of human and more-than-human agents, on the regeneration of human body and soil alike.
This research-based work was inspired by Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, a science-fiction novel written in 1993, which takes place in post-societal and post-environmental collapse in the year 2024.
Drafting Protopia
November 2023
Soho Studios, London
Gabriela Benish-Kalná, Natália Kalná, Connor Drew, Stefan Fiedler
This exhibition stands as an invitation, a collaborative exploration that encourages us to envision an equitable future that honors the delicate balance of our planet's carrying capacity. As a response to the seemingly dystopic future humanity is facing, artists come together to imagine futurisms that counter the discourse of the Anthropocene. Confronting the limitations of the burgeoning Solarpunk movement, each work explores solutions that traverse disciplinary boundaries and navigate the intricacies of contemporary polycrises. Through various mediums, each artist materializes their unique approach to the unfolding future, drafting their version of Protopia.
2022.
Paragraph in Glyphs
June 2022
Kampus Hybernská
Curated by FAMU
post_dirt
In this ongoing body of work, Gabriela Benish-Kalná offers glimpses of hope and possible solutions to the ongoing polycrisis of our time in the form of an elaborate mind map based on her long-term research. Through her subjective view of the planetary scale degradation and detrimental consequences of the Anthropocene, she maps the contending futures of a solutions-oriented utopia and a dystopia in ruins, exploring the territory in between.
4+4 Dny v pohybu
27th International Festival of Contemporary Art
To Be someone Else, Somewhere Else, Sometime Else
5. - 16. 10. 2022
Site specific exhibition of contemporary art for the former sports center Erpet Smíchov
Curated by Gabriela Kotiková and Denisa Václavová
This large exhibition of visual art, which also includes works on display in Erpet’s gardens, works with the festival’s motto while responding to the space itself. We invited a broad range of artists representing various age groups, viewpoints, and positions. Many of them responded to the apocalyptic artificial landscape inside the building with a sense of humor and exaggeration. Futurecide is here and now, and our ever more frequent tendency to run away from ourselves only increases the emptiness between who we are and where we belong.
to be a dead duck
large-format photographic installation
Waste of Time
21.1. - 30.1. 2022
NGO DEI, Prague
You Are Here
In this ongoing body of work, Gabriela Benish-Kalná offers glimpses of hope and possible solutions to the ongoing polycrisis of our time in the form of an elaborate mind map based on her long-term research. Through her subjective view of the planetary scale degradation and detrimental consequences of the Anthropocene, she maps the contending futures of a solutions-oriented utopia and a dystopia in ruins, exploring the territory in between.
2021.
Don't Panic
2021
Prostor Olga, Praha, CZ
geo.site.1: meta_morphosis
Meta_Morphosis is the first of a series of geocaching locations of a collaborative educational project to regenerate degraded land, brownfields, and artificial parks into food forest - small, self-sufficient ecosystems of coexisting organisms, where every plant and animal has its function. Humans are not above nature, we are a part of its web and can become its stewards.
2020.
Fotograf Festival X
Uneven Ground: significant other, unknown place, unknown other, significant place
9. 10. –1. 11. 2020
Galerie Jelení
Curated by Stephanie Kiwitt, Tereza Rudolf, Anna Voswinckel
Gabriela BK, Ranaji Deb, Dajana Düring, Gordon Endt, Jette Held, Saki Hoshino, Paul Kluth, Sarai Meyron, Hanna Samoson, Leevi Toija, Jakub Tulinger, Valentin Wedde, Zoe Zaucker
Where We Stand
A criticial exploration of privilige.
2019.
Architekti Temna
25. 1. 2019 - 1. 2. 2019
Kasárna Karlín, Praha, CZ
Gabriela BK, Adam Směták, Adina Šulcová, Blanka Kristová, Klára Jakešová, Jan Štulo, Martin Dušek, Kajetán Tvrdík, Lucie Ščurková, Jan Slíva, ”Chantal Gálová”, Lukáš Němec and others
https://www.kasarnakarlin.cz/en
The Black Snake
Emerging from the old swimming pool, this four metre long site-specific installation references the resistance against the DAPL pipeline, “the Black Snake” that was predicted to come from the North many generations ago.
performance, installation, site-specific, multimedia
Benátské Bienále nad Jizerou - Inevitable Necessity
28.-30.6.2019
Benátky nad Jizerou, CZ
“Environmentalism Today/This Arch Will Not Save Us”
Even a plastic raft built from hundreds of recycled plastic bottles won’t save us, when the rivers are dry.
The project’s title is a hint towards the one of the most established international festival of contemporary art in Venice. However, we would like to take a critical position towards the strategies and tendencies of the contemporary art business and towards the state of things in general. The framework of the first Benátky biennale project is triggered by an urgent feeling of emergency and necessity to alter our current relations towards the environment. The artworks exhibited in the Biennale should reflect mostly upon topics of ecology and current social problems, both in the local and global contexts. Through the subtitle “The Possible is Necessary,” we are pointing out the importance of independent thinking and of individual action in our age of ”post-truth“: the fragility of artistic and civil rights and conditions, and our urgent responsibility towards the next generation. What yesterday still comprised many possibilities, can turn in several years out to have only one solution, an “inevitable necessity”.
Butterfly Effect
28.6.2019 - 5.7.2019
Karlovy Vary
The Sixth Mass Extinction
Created by light, the dark spreads through phases, an uncontrollable extinction of our own creation. Six black and white photograms exposed on rescued Bromofort papers disposed of by the Czech Television. Organised by YouAllDroveMeCrazy Artist Collective.