curated by 2021- eureka! curated by Francesco Tenaglia

eureka! 

I am inclined to believe that there is no such thing as repetition. . . . The inevitable seeming repetition in human expression is not repetition, but insistence.

            —Gertrude Stein

The French philosopher Henri Bergson, in a collection of essays published at the beginning of the last century, identifies the essential requirements of comedy: it is inextricably linked to the human being; it needs a momentary distancing from the source of hilarity; and it is a phenomenon that cannot ignore sociality. Even when one laughs in solitude, one laughs in community. Comedy occurs, according to Bergson, when we are faced with behaviors that signal automatism, distraction, or insouciance. Imitations amuse when they reflect mechanical aspects of the imitated, which is then reborn as a double camouflage, like a puppet. The comedic moment, therefore, is a moment of rupture that highlights the mechanical taking over some possibilities of life. eureka! takes its cue from these reflections, reflecting procedures of comedy via works that manifest a disjunction with respect to the literal appearance that solidifies the personal or sociopolitical concerns that informed them. Similarly, the exhibition looks at comedy tactics—false clues, double entendre, hyperbole, circularity, puns, refrains—building a path that articulates different artistic practices in a narrative whose ultimate goal is not laughter. Like a story that mimics a frozen joke, but which—programmatically—doesn’t seek a release effect.

Isabella Costabile (*1991, New York, USA) lives and works in Milan and Grosseto. She studied at the Accademia di Brera in Milan and Zürcher Hochschule der Kunste in Zurich. During these formative years, she was also a member of the group of artists and art professionals who co-founded the project space Armada, active in Milan from 2014-2018. Her artistic practice consists in sculpture and engages with a compositional methodology characterized by the use and interpretation of found objects which she has developed over time reflecting on the possibilities of everyday language and the ambiguity of recognizable forms. She recently participated in the 17th Art Quadriennale in Rome and presented her first solo exhibition Life is a Moment in Space in 2021 at gallery Le Vite in Milan. 

Frieda Toranzo Jaeger (*1988, Mexico City, Mexico) lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico.
Her pictorial work with feminist and postcolonial concerns also manages to question the formal structures of the medium itself. Her practice also deals with the representations of masculinity and femininity in the visual culture of late capitalism. In 2016 Toranzo Jaeger was awarded the HISCOX Art Prize and a year later she obtained her postgraduate degree from the Hochschule Für Bildende Künste Hamburg, after having also completed her professional studies there.
Frieda has had the opportunity to participate in group and solo exhibitions internationally; Selected solo shows include: The Perpetual Sense of Redness, Baltimore Museum of Art; Fantasies of Autonomy, Arcadia Missa, London; Deep Adaptation, Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin; Autofelatio, High Art, Paris; and Die Windschutzscheibe, Reena Spaulings, New York. Her work has also been part of several key collective shows including: The Making of Husbands: Christina Ramberg in Dialogue at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Paint, AlsoKnown As Blood: Women, Affect, And Desire In Contemporary Painting, The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Her work has been published in editorials such as: Frieze (2019), Art in America (2018), Art Forum (2019) and Mousse 60 (2017).

Zac Langdon-Pole (*1988, Auckland, New Zealand) lives and works in Auckland (NZ). Questions of place, travel, and translation have long been central to the work of Berlin-based New Zealand-artist, Zac Langdon-Pole. His work frequently collapses the spaces between colonial, scientific, and geographic distances. In 2019, Langdon-Pole’s BMW Art Journey saw him travel through Europe and across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, following the pathways of migratory birds and celestial navigators. Langdon-Pole studied at Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland (2007-10) and at the Städelschule, Frankfurt (2014-15). His work was included in On the Shoulders of Giants, Kunsthalle Mainz (2016); La Biennale de Montreál (2016); and Art Basel, Hong Kong (2018); emic etic, Between Bridges, Berlin (2018); and Interbeing, Michael Lett, Auckland (2020). In 2017 Langdon-Pole was the recipient of the Ars Viva-Prize and in 2018 was selected as the seventh recipient of the BMW Art Journey. A survey of his practice, Containing Multitudes, was exhibited at City Gallery, Wellington in 2020.

Shaun Motsi (*1989, Zimbabwe, Africa) lives and works between Berlin and Frankfurt am Main.Graduated from HfBK Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main in the class of Prof. Judith Hopf work has been exhibited in solo and group presentations at The Wig, Berlin (DE), CFA, Milan (IT); Elvira, Frankfurt am Main (DE); Ramiken Crucible, New York (US); Kunsthalle Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (DE); Shedhalle, Zürich (CH); Page NYC, New York (US); Haus Wien, Vienna (AT); 3HD Festival, Berlin (DE); Longtang, Zürich (CH); Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin (DE).

J. Parker Valentine (*1980, Austin, Texas) is an artist based in Los Angeles. Her works have been exhibited at Krieg, Hasselt (be); Galerie Max Mayer, Dusseldorf (DE); Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Brussels (BE); The Juan & Patricia Vergez Collection, Buenos Aires (AR); Park View, Los Angeles (USA); Langen Foundation, Neuss (DE); Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (USA); 1857, Oslo (NO); Misako & Rosen, Tokyo (JP); Peep-hole, Milan (IT); Artpace, San Antonio (TX); Museo Marino Marini, Florence (IT); Contemporary Austin (TX); and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (MO), among others. 

Francesco Tenaglia is a critic and a curator. Artistic Director of Sgomento Zurigo exhibition space in Zürich, he is currently serving as part of the curatorial and research team at Museion (Bolzano) and he is professor of Art Theory and Criticism at Nuova Accademia d’Arte (NABA) in Milan. He has recently curated Urfaust (2021) at Tarsia, Naples; Nothing but Time (2021) at Goswell Road, Parigi; Cosmopolitan Haze (2020) at Bungalow-Chertlüdde, Berlino; 1550 San Remo Drive at Hot Wheels Athens; Il Ghirigoro (2019), at Pio Pico, Los Angeles. His writings have appeared on Il Foglio Arte, Art Agenda, Art Review, Artforum, Flash Art among others. He is on the board of the Almanac contemporary art project in London and Turin.