BIG IDEAS – Political Ideologies and their aftermath
03/12/2020 – 08/01/2021
Sarri Elfaitouri, Soukaina Joual, Yoshinori Niwa, Kosta Tonev
curated by Christine Bruckbauer and Elisabeth Piskernik

Due to the current governmental COVID-19 Regulations we adapted the exhibition scenography by presenting the art works in the big show window and on the pavement area in front of philomena+ !

The exhibition project BIG IDEAS deals with political ideologies and concepts for a better world. Often it was revolutionaries with promising visions, who gained a large number of followers, seized power and finally made their ideas the political programme of their country. They mostly failed and left a society in ruins.
BIG IDEAS brings together artists from several continents. Some of them were witnesses of a failed regime themselves and have been dealing with the subject artistically for several years.

Sarri Elfaitouri, Radical Libyanism, series of 10 digital collages
03/12 – 09/12/2020, philomena+ vitrine

The series “Radical Libyanism” by Sarri Elfaitouri showcases possible causes for the catastrophe, incoherence, and chaos in today’s Libya. The 24-year-old artist with an architectural and philosophical background reinterprets these attributes into new urban environments. Instead of fading them out, Sarri Elfaitouri incorporates them into his opulent collages consisting of neatly arranged living environments with a golden background reflecting utopian hope. “Radical Libyanism” is not only a critique of the radical era of the Libyan revolutionary politician Muammar Al-Gaddafi, but also of the difficult situation in the current day Libya.

Yoshinori Niwa, Releasing Euro Banknotes into the Danube River and Looking for them as Lost Items in the Countries Downstream, bill board
03/12/2020 – 08/01/2021, philomena+ garden

Yoshinori Niwa‘s works carry self-explanatory slogan-like titles and are mainly installed on the street and in public spaces. In recent years the artist has explored the history of communism and has been involved in projects that explore the nature of national history. Among his most famous works are, Looking for Vladimir Lenin in Moscow Apartments, 2012, and Withdrawing Adolf Hitler from a Private Space, created for the art festival steirischer herbst in 2018.
For BIG IDEAS, Yoshinori Niwa is starting a new billboard series in the public space of Vienna, with slogans inspired by Muammar al Gaddafi’s vision of a society without wage labour and the incident of 100.000 Euros found by Vienna police floating in the Danube.