HART Editions: "Beast" by Lena Kuzmich

HART Editions presents: “Embrace me” – by Lena Kuzmich.

Motive 1: “Beast” 70×100 cm on 170g inkjet paper glossy

In the course of accelerated reinvention and ceaseless differentiation of artistic and aesthetic discourses on the topics of body, gender and sex, fragmentation into a multitude of different parts seems to become normality. Elastic, changeable positions emerge, which can be reassembled to an infinite extent, and in respectively adapted individual interpretations become the powerful tools of each individual, who at the same time sees themselves challenged and liberated by these new possibilities of self-invention.

EMBRACE ME is a series of images that explore gender-non-conformity and queerness. It shows imaginative landscapes and hybrid representations of bodies through which stories of queer, non-binary, trans and other gender-non-conforming individuals are told. The exhibition functions as a portal to a world in which gender is not a set of rules in a power dynamic, but a free form of expression. Where the gender binary expands beyond its constricting logic and where gender gets questioned, repurposed, dismantled, reclaimed and abolished. Modern technology has made it possible to no longer define the self, concepts of gender, and personal identity exclusively in accordance with the facticity of one’s own body, but to access a variety of intuitive digital tools that potentially allow anyone to reinvent themselves.

Together with other individuals of the LGTBQIA+ community, Lena Kuzmich created a series of images that seeks to invite viewers into a world in which everyone can be who they want to be without being questioned or having to justify themselves. A world that allows space to be honest, vulnerable and reflective. Somewhere where each body can feel safe to fight existing shapes in order to find their own true form. Because being yourself is loving yourself.

ABOUT LENA: Lena Kuzmich (1998) is a video and photography based multimedia artist from Vienna, Austria and is currently located in The Hague, Netherlands where they study photography at The Royal Academy of Art. In their work they often create imaginative worlds in order to establish a new and redefined society in which the powerdynamics of gender and sex get disolved in individualism and appreciation. Their work is an exploration beyond taboos and functions as an act of liberation from the preconceived and stigmatized notions of society about the human body, gender and sexuality. Their often visually overloaded, childish aesthetics inspired by pop- and subculture are a counterpart to the dark, psychological topics they work with.