dream.lab
Solo Exhibition by Rivane Neuenschwander (Brazil)
September 13, 2024 – February 23, 2025, KinderKunstLabor for Contemporary Art, Curated by Mona Jas in collaboration with Andreas HofferThe first major exhibition at the KinderKunstLabor opens on the weekend of September 13 to 15, 2024: in her solo show with a comprehensive accompanying programme, Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander will realise an immersive spatial installation on the topic of dreams. The artist’s first solo exhibition in Austria will also feature works developed in creative processes with children from St. Pölten. In preparation for her artistic endeavours at the KinderKunstLabor, Neuenschwander has already reached out to the children from the Children’s Advisory Groups and the art ideas workshop. For the KinderKunstLabor exhibition Träume von Räumen (Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, 2023), the artist already investigated on-site the significance of dreaming for humanity, the perception of time in dreams, the fleeting nature of dreams, and the difference between dreaming and daydreaming. Nature and democracy will also take on a bigger role in the next steps: How can we dream with and from the perspective of nature? What does is mean when dreaming is an oracle for Indigenous peoples? Can dreaming help us to expand our political imagination?
Rivane Neuenschwander encourages children to engage in a close dialogue, her artistic processes and methods provide a shared space for co-creation experiments, which in turn stake out new paths for her own art practice. The outcome will be shown in the exhibition at the KinderKunstLabor from September 2024. At the exhibition, children and young people can meet and exchange ideas with artists, art mediators, and scientists in barrier-free school and kindergarten workshops, talks, performances, guided tours, and open workshops.
Neuenschwander’s installation Chove Chuva (2002) was on display in Träume von Räumen (Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, 2023) in the Benedikthaus. Water in 31 metal buckets suspended from the ceiling dripped down into buckets below on the ground, which caught the drops while serving as resonating bodies. Each day, the water that had fell into the buckets on the floor was refilled into the hanging ones, which created a perpetual water cycle. The sound of dripping water elicited a dream-like state, while reminding visitors of water’s vital importance for the habitability of the Earth. The metal material of the buckets harked back to the history of the exhibition venue: this building in St. Pölten – its core dates back to the 16th century – was home to ironmongers from the 18th century onwards.