HÉLÈNE F. A (POST)MINING ALLEGORY arose out of a confrontation with spaces affected by open pit mining in Romania, Germany, and Serbia. A disembodied voice haunts the production of landscape, pointing towards its feminization as a vehicle for scaled-up exploitation under so-called ‘green’ capitalism.
After a tender moment of exchanging the stories behind their own scars, two women, performed by the filmmakers Larisa Crunțeanu and Sonja Hornung, find themselves abandoned by their guide in the middle of a quarry. Once they have seen the deep mark that decades of mining have left right before their eyes — another kind of scar — the two join in a dizzying ritualistic game, a true theoretical and aesthetic spectacle about what is lost as a result of extractivist thinking. A capitalist realist spectacle, and so perfectly paradoxical: sometimes intellectual, other times emotional; at times engaging, at times alienating. (Călin Boto)
Sonja Hornung’s artistic practice takes as its starting-point crises spurred on by private property formats and financialisation, investigating how these affect the relationship between bodies and spaces. Alongside her collaboration with Larisa Crunțeanu, collective work, for example with artist Daniele Tognozzi or Kollektiv x-embassy, have been important to her practice.
Practica artistică a Larisei Crunțeanu ca performer, artistă video și colecționar de sunete se mișcă de la realitate la ficțiune într-o conversație nesfârșită cu spectatorul. Lucrările sale creează contexte în care se reactivează fapte și amintiri, încurajând un efort comun și apariția de noi practici. Multe dintre proiectele sale reflectă asupra noțiunii de colaborare și asupra ideilor din spatele obiectelor și poveștilor.
