8th Berlin Art Fair
Irma Markulin concerns herself in her works with the functionality of the staged view in political contexts. She uses existing photographical and documentarian footage for this purpose, to harness images that are well fixed in collective memory. This element is combined with her personal story as a child in former Yugoslavia and the experiences she made during the civil war.
She is especially interested in the specific phenomena of propagandistic mass-choreography that is current up to today, to which she is referring via their origins in Russian avant-garde dance theatre of the 20ies and 30ies of the 20th century. The ornamental compositions of her paintings in combination with the motives made out of miniature surfaces of brush strokes set against each other, ask about the contradiction of individual and crowd in political systems and the construction of identity in socialism.
The foundations of her works can be found in her contention with scientific works by S. Freud, J. Butler, S. Kracauer and G. Le Bon. The outcome of this research are the large scale painting installations, broaching the issue of public and private sphere due to their mobility and double-sidedness, while serving as an arena for collective memory at the same time.
Translation Philpp Koch
opening of the exhibition 2011, 8th Berlin Art Fair
opening of the exhibition 2011, 8th Berlin Art Fair