¬ Zuzanna Czebatul
The Gestures is a four-part series of flags that Zuzanna Czebatul developed for the site-specific situation at the ZK/U container and the context of Stories, Bodies and Ecstasis. The artist overwrote images taken during international political summits and conferences of highest relevance and urgency with the lettering “Event.” Here, Czebatul contrasts the extremely influential character of these political events, which bear witness to harmony, unity and a supposed strong willingness to act –in terms of attention and economics– with their irrelevant decisions and minimal real results. Resolutions of international climate conferences are often too soft and do not or not sufficiently respond to the current global climate crisis. Through the lack of consequence of many of these meetings the politicians depicted look more like gossiping, elitist power (and still predominantly) male alliances and cliques.
On a formal level, Czebatul uses the visual language and color palette of party advertising in election campaigns.
Captions for flag installation:
The Gesture I
Michał Kurtyka, Ewa Kopacz, 2018 COP 24 Katowice
The Gesture II
Xi Jinping, Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin, 2019 Osaka G20 summit
The Gesture III
Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron, Volodymyr Zelensky, 2022, Kyiv
The Gesture IV
Ursula Von der Leyen, Viktor Orbán, EU Parliament Brussels 2020
The Gesture I-IV
Flag installation & DJ set, 2022
Zuzanna Czebatul, born in 1986 in Międzyrzecz, Poland, lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and at the Berlin University of the Arts as well as in New York at Hunter College as a Fulbright scholarship holder. Her work has been presented in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally. In 2021, her first institutional solo exhibition in Germany took place at the Kunstpalais Erlangen.