An
event by the Department of Artistic Strategies.
The Island Tides Initiative
invites you to a special curatorial talk with
Renan Laru-an. He will speak about his latest show Eclipse
at the Vereinigung Bildenden Kunstler*innen Österreichs (VBKÖ), which includes artists Rheim Alkadhi, Lani Maestro, Prajakta
Potnis, Lenka Vítková, and Wu Mali.
Laru-an speaks about his unusual approach to display and exhibition,
using the word Eclipse as a stand-in for an unlikely and spectacular occurrence, one that momentarily leaves you in the dark.
As Laru-an says “Unlike a lecture, a thematic showcase, and an essay, I hope that we sense the enzymes of artistic practice.
Hunger, daydreaming, a hum, color, a leakage, murder, a flame. When we detect this in an eclipse, we may begin to relate why
art necessitates exhibition and how their dynamics yield catalytic, or even combustible, visions.”
Eclipse
is an exercise with the exhibitionary and an experiment in depiction. For an extended period of time, the site of VBKÖ
turns into a medium where the artists expose the flesh of their artistic thought. Concepts and ideas, positions, ideology,
and topics: they dissolve in the space, like molecules constantly interacting with one another, changing states. The guest-viewer
realizes that when an artist self-discloses the atom of her artwork, the practice and theory of art-making leave our classical
understanding of interpretation and representation. The artists in Eclipse offer excursions—as in breaking away from a loop—in
the exhibition that synthesizes objects and subjects, artistic volition and intuition.
Eclipse opens
on 22 October 2026 at 6:00 pm at the VBKÖ (Maysedergasse 2/28, 1010 Vienna). This event is realised in collaboration with
the VBKÖ and the Philippine Embassy in Austria.
More information on the VBKÖ website
