Csilla Klenyánszki: The Reminiscence of Being a Woman

About

WAGNER + PARTNER is pleased to announce Csilla Klenyánszki’s first solo exhibition in Germany, Reminiscence of Being a Woman. Klenyánszki’s practice is concerned with the phenomena of time and gender, which she presents conceptually, but also very playfully across photographic series and video works. These works are informed by quasi-performances and installations, which the artist stages as a self-portrait using her body and the everyday objects in her midst. Investigations around ‘balance’ – both physically and metaphorically – inform the background to Klenyánszki’s artistic approach.

Objectification and the societal expectations of women are explored ironically in the abovementioned series, whereby she applies a kind of semantic analysis to works of varying artistic genres. Inspired by a literary parlance, a giant flower bouquet springs from her lap or she transforms a table with high heels into a rebellious mare. Renowned art historical works also make an appearance in the series: French Loaf, which references the motif of the reclining woman, be it Monet’s Olympia or Tom Wesselmann’s Pop Art and is combined with baguettes a la Dali. The photograph Chair acknowledges Erwin Wurm’s social sculpture.

Pillars of Home is a series that Klenyánszki identifies as “30-minute installations” in which she creates fragile towering structures of seemingly random everyday objects from her environment. Created almost to a ticking clock, these absurd sculptures, which Klenyánszki captured in a photographic series of 98 works, are enthralling on the one hand due to their image and colour composition that plays on objectivism, dynamism and abstraction. Harnessing artistic creations like a tripod with recreational and household items, the series becomes symbolic of everyday life. Moreover, Klenyánszki’s installations question what it means to be a self-employed young mother. In this respect, her search for balance takes on another dimension. Carefully placed in equilibrium and jammed between floor and ceiling, these tenuous conditions are guaranteed a certain fleeting stability.

Csilla Klenyánszki was born in Budapest in 1986 and lives and works in Amsterdam. Following an education in literature and communication sciences in Budapest, she studied photography from 2008 to 2012 at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. In 2016 and succeeding a CBK (Centre for Visual Arts) Rotterdam Grant, she was awarded a Mondrian Fund Amsterdam scholarship, which supported, amongst other projects, the development of the Klenyánszki-founded initiative, Mothers in Arts.