Maja Janczar The Soup, 2022

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.

Maja Janczar’s recurring motif is a reduced anthropomorphic figure – in her works, the human is basically transformed into a visual sign. The collection of illustrations featured in the exhibition present a set of genre scenes where everyday activities like barbecue, eating or playing a game of Twister are warped by presence of a lifelike visual sign – which hints at a mysterious code behind the scenes. The cartoonish grin of the characters creates an impenetrable barrier – their psychology is unintelligible and their relationships seem to be guided by an enigmatic, almost robotic-like choreography.