02/09 2022
Summer Sessions 2022: Brianna Leatherbury „Liquidation“ – Exhibition at HUiU gallery
The exhibition “Liquidation” by Brianna Leatherbury, a work developed at the Summer Sessions residency, co-produced by the Metamedia Association and V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, was opened on Thursday, September 1, 2022 in the HUiU gallery in Pula.
”This is the second time that the HUiU gallery hosts an exhibition of the work of an artist who is in residency at Summer Sessions. It is a network that brings together a dozen organizations around the world and Metamedia Association represents Croatia. In this edition, Metamedia hosted the artist Brianna Leatherbury. The network functions in such a way that we provide working conditions, professional assistance and mentoring to the artists who come to our organization. This year, Marko Grbac Knapić from Radiona Re-Gepetto of Zelena Istra, has provided support and space where Brianna could use all the tools that were necessary for the production,” – said Marino Jurcan from the Metamedia Association and explained that as part of of this network, one international artist comes to Croatia, and one local artist goes abroad for a residency. This year’s selected artist is Toni Mijač, who developed his work in Austria as part of the Schmiede organization.
Jurcan thanked the artist for dedicated work and expressed the hope that Pula has proved to be a good setting for the finalization of the project, given that the city abounds with buildings and facilities that are undergoing the same liquidation process. Leatherbury thanked everyone for coming and everyone at HUiU and the Metamedia Association for their support, both in the development of the work and in providing the conditions for its production and presentation.
”Pula is an inspiring, strange, but also charming city and I am very pleased that you came to the exhibition and looked at the results of my work so far.” – said the artist.
Brianna Leatherbury is an artist based in Amsterdam, which recent work begins with research that is both personal and structural. They create abstract systems that explore the material effects of economic forces through individual relationships. Using a combination of sculpture, performance, and documentation, their works are testimonies to the effects of our contemporary economies, interrogating presence and seeking new opportunities of relation. Leatherbury received the BFA from The Cooper Union in New York and completed a Fulbright Student Research award in Moscow, where they also held a residency at Gallery Elektrozavod. They recently participated in De Ateliers in Amsterdam.
“Liquidation” is a hybrid site-specific installation and film that documents the Netherland’s dispossession of certain histories and industries through its real estate. The installation consists of a greenhouse humidifier inhabiting several properties owned and auctioned by the Dutch Government online. Instead of water, the humidifier rhythmically fills these buildings with a mist of artificial sweat. Liquidation documents the historical dispossession of each building by its state for profit, with the humidifier as the ghostly and efficient protagonist. It collapses these different spaces and temporalities, as well as the economies they were attached to, into one hybrid virtual space.
This project was developed as part of the Summer Sessions Network for Talent Development in a co-production of Metamedia and V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media. Summer Sessions is an international network for talent development that offers residency programs for emerging artists, a productive atmosphere, quality production, and professional feedback in jumpstarting or developing professional art projects. Artists have the chance to present their work publicly within the network’s hosting country. Partners: V2_Lab for the Unstable Media, Schmiede, Sardegna Teatro, Goethe-Institut, museu zer0, Tabakalera.
