ISHO Offices

Artists: Floriama Cândea, Giulia Crețulescu, Maria Nalbantova, Tabita Rezaire, Pipilotti Rist, Vitto Valentinov

Curatorial team: Cristina Bută, Monica Dănilă, Edith Lázár, Ann Mbuti, Adrian Notz, Cristina Stoenescu, Georgia Țidorescu

In 1515, Albrecht Dürer created his renowned Rhinocerus in response to a strange encounter: the first rhino since antiquity to travel to the European continent. But Dürer had never seen the depicted animal. Ganda, by its Gujarati name, drowned before reaching its destination. Its voyage around the world mapped a geopolitical trajectory and reminds us that less-known stories of exploitation and violence overshadowed the histories of exploration and discovery. Engaging with other works of fiction, such as Eugène Ionesco’s Theatre of the Absurd entitled Rhinocéros, the biennial follows the stories inspired by Ganda, reclaiming the imaginative play of science and art in an entangled world marked by environmental and societal transformations.

Existence is not an individual affair. Everything is connected in a state of intra-action, across time and space, always changing in a process of becoming. In this space, objects, substances, organisms and bodies move, touch, feel, transform and stretch in order to construct new functions and scenarios about the world. Their metamorphosis reminds us of the healing power of disruptive forces, whether it is employed to reconsider identity, language or other forms of life. Moving from ancestral pathways to fungus, cleansing rituals and processes of change make the invisible visible, question dominant perspectives and summon the unheard.