Karolina Melnicka Hockle, 2020

Casa Filipka by Her Clique (February 13-16, Mexico City) is our inaugural group exhibition featuring over seventy works by 16 Eastern European women and non-binary artists. Curated by Filipka Rutkowska, the show is organized as an ephemeral art collection that tells a story of the journey to self [re]discovery. Showcasing a region that’s constantly in transition, where democracies are built on remnants of a communist past, the artists use their work to search for their individual, native understanding of identity, sexuality and belonging. The idea for Casa Filipka was inspired by the iconic ‘Casa Susanna’, a venue that functioned during the 1950s and 60s in Upstate New York, as a safe space for gatherings of trans-individuals and crossdresses. Artistic connections between Eastern Europe and Latin America have been based on their often peripheral social and political position to the world’s superpowers, hence the decision to set the inaugural show in Mexico City. With Casa Filipka we seek to encourage and explore the critical tools one can use for thinking about one’s body and identity.

Visit the show in person February 13-16 (address and opening times will be announced via our newsletter) or see the works in our online viewing room which we will launch on February 10.

Part of the sale proceeds will benefit Atzin, a non-profit organization that focuses on addressing priority needs like education, nutrition, water and health in remote areas of Mexico.

The glass sculptures conceived by Karolina Melnicka invoke places such as staircases or playgrounds, where a lot of teenagers and young adults living in Polish housing estates spend their free time. Her work, be it in a shape of saliva trickling down the stairs or inflated bubblegum, could be equally formed by an automated technology or a human hand. Due to that ambiguity, the works can be simultaneously viewed as stretchy and fragile while an object shaped by a mouth can be read as a symbol for regaining someone’s voice.