Works

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VALENTINA MURABITO. MYTHOS UND MAGIE

The Süd­deut­sche Zei­tung cal­led the Berlin-based photo artist Valen­tina Mura­b­ito (born 1981 in Giarre/Sicily) „alche­mist“ because she deve­l­o­ped a new che­mi­cal pro­cess in the dar­kroom crea­ting ana­log pho­to­graphs of fan­tas­tic beings. Her second exhi­bi­tion in our gal­lery is mainly dedi­ca­ted to the group of works “Bes­tia­rium”: Based on the 16 exhi­bi­ted works from the years 2019 to 2021, it beco­mes clear that Mura­b­ito is trans­fer­ring end­an­ge­red ani­mals into the world of mythi­cal crea­tures and the ima­gi­na­tion — the last place assi­gned to them if no pro­tec­tive mea­su­res are taken to pre­serve their habitat.

28 May 2021 – 3 July 2021

The exhi­bi­tion can now be visi­ted wit­hout prior regis­tra­tion and wit­hout ente­ring con­tact data. Regard­less of this, the exis­ting hygiene mea­su­res apply.

The fol­lo­wing works are pre­sen­ted in the show:

VALENTINA MURABITO. MYTHOS UND MAGIE

The Ita­lian artist Valen­tina Mura­b­ito (born 1981 Giarre/Sicily), who lives in Ber­lin since 2009, is known for her extra­or­di­nary hand­ling of ana­log pho­to­gra­phy by expo­sing wood, steel, tis­sue paper, con­crete and ent­ire walls.
Her group of works “Bes­tia­rium” deals with the extinc­tion of spe­cies due to cli­mate change and urba­niza­tion. Valen­tina Mura­b­ito pho­to­graphs threa­tened spe­cies as well as ani­mals whose habi­tats are end­an­ge­red. Pho­to­gra­phy plays a spe­cial role in this con­text because it pro­ves that these ani­mals still exist. Murabito’s photo expe­ri­ments move the ani­mals into the world of mythi­cal crea­tures and the ima­gi­na­tion — the last place assi­gned to them if no pro­tec­tive mea­su­res are taken to pre­serve their habi­tat. Bes­tia­ries were medi­eval illus­tra­ted ani­mal poems that told of the adven­tures of “bene­vo­lent” uni­corns or “cou­ra­ge­ous” dra­gons, but also of real ani­mals, and brought them into con­nec­tion with the Chris­tian doc­trine of sal­va­tion. They held up a mora­li­zing mir­ror to people in the man­ner of the fable, so that they should take the sup­po­sed pro­per­ties of real and mytho­lo­gi­cal ani­mals as an example. Unlike today, ani­mals had a cen­tral place in medi­eval society, as they were con­side­red being part of divine crea­tion.
In her con­tem­porary ver­sion, Valen­tina Mura­b­ito uses this low-threshold and tim­e­l­ess approach to remem­ber the beauty of ani­mals through her mythi­cal crea­tures. In doing so, she dis­pen­ses with tra­di­tio­nal levels of mea­ning and sets mono­chro­ma­tic and bichro­ma­tic color accents like the photo pioneers of the 19th cen­tury who ele­vate the image sub­ject to the aes­the­tic sphere of the magi­cal and archaic. In gene­ral, Murabito’s sub­jects do not always cor­re­spond to rea­lity in terms of ana­tomy and color, but appear defor­med — a pic­to­rial meta­phor for the appro­pria­tion of nature through the world­view of early cul­tures. This magi­cal power inherent in the pic­tures also makes Mura­b­ito ask about the func­tion of the artist today, and fur­ther­more whe­ther the magic of the pic­ture as a con­stant sub­text con­ti­nues unchanged.