From February 22 to March 22, 2013, the Atelierhaus Quartier am Hafen showed a site-specific media installation with new works by the artist Anna Sokolova, curated by Anne Mager, as part of its exhibition program. The indoor and outdoor interventions shown in the solo exhibition “Black-White-Black” explored issues of monumentality and artistic autonomy through the symbolism of the flag.
The raising of a flag is always a symbolic act. Proudly positioning herself, the Belarusian media artist waves a gigantic flag in her latest work “Schwarz-Weiß-Schwarz. Manifesto” a gigantic flag, a white bar on a black background rises through the air. Anna Sokolova’s work, however, is not so much a political statement, but focuses on the reduction of form and the definition of space.
The Belarusian media artist (born 1975 in Minsk, Belarus) has been exploring the interactions between architectural environment and sculptural potential of the moving image for several years. Her basic element is the movement of a white line on a black background. In her “Ornament” series, she sets this in alternating formations in a dialogue with the respective architecture and the viewer. Now Sokolova transfers the element of the black and white ornament into three-dimensional space. Both in the exhibition space and on the outdoor grounds of the Quartier am Hafen, the flag undergoes a repurposing as a sculptural medium. With “Schwarz-Weiß-Schwarz” Anna Sokolova formulated a manifesto of artistic sovereignty and formal-aesthetic autonomy.