Exhibitions views from Anaïs Horn: IN-BETWEEN, FLUCA Austrian Cultural Pavilion, Plovdiv, 2019. 

Curated by Boris Kostadinov.

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In her work IN-BETWEEN, Anaïs Horn (Paris / Vienna) puts herself in a long row of Romnia-portrayal, but challenges and questions the traditions, existing methods, and aesthetics of this depiction with her awareness of different angles of female subjectivity. The portrayed Romnia girls may come from different socio-economical backgrounds and live under diverse conditions within their hometown Plovdiv, but still share common aspirations for their future life. Anaïs Horn develops an intimate dialogue with the teenage girls and portrays them detached from their everyday environment in a “white cube” which leaves enough room for their personalities to unfold.

These portraits are printed on 12 semitransparent curtains in between which the viewers can stroll around, but the title also refers to current international discourse on Roma feminism, where the aspect of “in-between-ness” of Roma communities is highlighted as a chance for Romnia women to extend their networks beyond all nations and nationalities.

 

The project was developed during the artist’s two-month FLUCA residency in Plovdiv and is supported by the Cultural Department of the Province of Styria and the Federal Chancellery of Austria.

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Nothing is fixed here. There is not a portrait hanging on a wall that tries to nail down the personality of the portrayed through one singular picture. The fabrics are moving, not stable, tilting back and forth, moved by the wind or a person passing by – fluid as identities, fluid as biographies, away from essentialism, attribution, and final determination. But they can also act as a warning sign about how fragile and vulnerable being in flux can be - maybe even dangerous. (...)

With IN-BETWEEN Anaïs Horn sets up a way for a non-identitarian portrayal and rather follows a universal approach, backed up by the questionnaires that show the aspirations and shared dreams of these young women,
who, as said before, have quite diverse backgrounds. Some of the participants of IN-BETWEEN also noted, that due to patriarchal structures, not all girls they knew would be able to participate, but that they wanted to take part substituting for those, who couldn’t due to societal limitations in their near surroundings.

As Suzana Milevska is putting it, there needs to be a rethinking about how representation shapes culture through politics, as well as the other way round. Unfortunately, a long history of a very specified and problematic gaze on communities has affirmed prejudices and misconceptions, something that needs to be questioned by any means. Female complicity is needed to break habits, change views, and break a heteronormative, colonial, and toxic-masculine way of seeing the world.

 

From: Verena Walzl, Female Complicity