Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen

In her solo exhibition, the Franco-Colombian artist Gina Proenza (*1994, lives and works in Lausanne/CH) will present a broad spectrum of new works. The young artist`s works tell stories of tropical creepers and remote villages of Central America, they combine the poetic with the sculptural and in the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen will focus on the fate of the white grubs in Switzerland during the early modern period.

In her exhibitions, Proenza combines numerous cultural and temporal influences but refrains from classifying them. Instead, the artist is interested in the resulting gray areas as well as the mutual influences, revealing a personal view towards the ambiguity of things. By mixing different media such as image, text, and installation, she thus succeeds in creating a sophisticated and at the same time sensual visual language, where unstable backgrounds, lettering on advertising light boxes, and animal faces with outstretched tongues collide.

The exhibition «Moving Jealousy» at the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen takes as its starting point archives of the cantons of Fribourg and Vaud dating back to the 15th and 16th century, in which the white grubs were blamed for a widespread crop shortfall. Subsequently, the vermin were expelled from the fields in a verbal indictment by the authorities. Whether they complied with this demand remains unknown. However, at the time, this was considered a standard procedure by the authorities.

Through the works produced for «Moving Jealousy» Gina Proenza explores this historical event, as well as the nature of such standardized processes. Do these sequences remain only absurdities from the past? In which ways are we affected by them today? How do we communicate? Do we understand each other at all? In addition to site-specific installations and new works, existing series will be continued, referring to the working process and the (visual) language of the artist. Ambiguity is expressed in the exhibited works through subtle changes in both expression and narration, as established meanings give way to new interpretations. The role of the visitors is no less complex: through the playful component of Proenza`s works, as well as the interaction between them, they themselves become temporarily part of the exhibition. Based on the recorded historical dialogue between humans and animals, «Moving Jealousy» creates a space for fundamental questions of comprehension, external influences, and interpersonal relationships.