Our surroundings

Exhibition Recommendations from Kontur Magazine – August Edition

This month, Kontur Magazine turns its attention to the figures and phenomena of our immediate surroundings – whether urban or rural landscapes, or the living beings inhabiting them. The natural world around us, the rural environment, and the labor, animals, and mechanisms connected to them are often overshadowed by the density of everyday life, even though they raise numerous important and still relevant questions and concerns.

Zsuzsanna Ida Papp: Persona Cannabina // Ernest Zmeták art gallery

Curator: Zsófia Nagy
Nové Zámky, 22 July – 6 September 2025

The Persona Cannabina solo exhibition by Zsuzsanna Ida Papp is presented within the framework of the Ernest Zmeták Art Gallery’s series titled PROJEKT-1. The show centers on hemp cultivation and processing – an ancient, typically female-coded activity – and its symbolic and social implications. Composed of installations and video works, the exhibition draws a parallel between the combing of hemp fibers and women’s hair, and between the use of hackles and combs. In doing so, it offers an ecofeminist commentary on our societal structures and the legacy of peasant culture.

The exhibition revolves around two major works: sows. spins. breathes – Magia Cannabina is the documentation of a collective performance that took place at the Studio of Young Artists’ Association in Budapest in April 2025. The titular Persona Cannabina follows the journey of the hemp plant from soil to processing, through its personification – exploring the interrelations of the female body, labor, and nature.

Alžbeta Hrnčiarová: Dreams of Suburbia // Postpost Gallery

Curator: Viktória Pardovičová
Brno, 7 July – 19 September 2025

Dreams of Suburbia is the third project selected through the open call of the Postpost Gallery in Brno, evoking the atmosphere of a dormant urban landscape. Displayed in the gallery’s vitrine, the work is by Alžbeta Hrnčiarová, a recent graduate of the Open Painting Studio at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica.

Her artistic focus lies in portraying the landscape and urban environment as both physical and mental spaces. The painting presented here depicts a fragment of the city after dusk – emptied and still – showing a face of the city that we’ve all encountered at some point, when night begins to fall.

Wall Creeping // Torula

Curator: Klaudia Kosziba
Assistant Curator: Dominik Hlinka
Győr, 19 July – 1 August 2025

The group exhibition Wall Creeping at Torula Gallery in Győr brings together students and recent graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) and the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (Vysoká škola výtvarných umení v Bratislave), specifically from the mal+by painting studio.

The exhibition centers on a dialogue about the nature of painting and drawing, exploring the roles of abstraction and figuration, while seeking shared intersections between the two institutions.

A unique element of the show is a collective artwork created during the installation process through joint planning and execution. The technique used is buon fresco, one of the most complex and time-consuming painting methods, involving the application of pigment onto wet plaster.

The title of the exhibition was inspired by the wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria), a rarely observed bird that often hides in cracks of walls and cliffs – its name meaning “running on the wall.” The curatorial concept draws a parallel between the bird’s movement through fissures and the attitude required for painting: one of patience, attentive exploration, and a mapping of the surface, whether wall or canvas.

Participating artists: Yannick Booth, Clemens Grömmer, Juan Malte Haussen, Enrico Pacella, Ivan Penčev, Lisa Pirker, Karolina Svård, Julia Szczerbowska, Anna Mária Beňová, Martina Červenková, Tereza Darášová, Miroslav Klimek, Taya Kolesnyk, Martin Mikláš, Linda Olejárová, Jaromír Šplíchal.

Garden of Hooks // Jecza Gallery x Himera Gallery

Curator: Norbert Filep
Timișoara, 25 July – 7 September 2025

The group exhibition Garden of Hooks opened as a collaborative curatorial initiative between two Timișoara-based art spaces: Jecza Gallery and Himera Gallery. Now in its third edition, this annual summer show presents the works of thirty-one emerging artists across the two gallery venues.

The curatorial concept is built around the stages of gardening – preparation, organization, arrangement, care, and harvesting – drawing a parallel with studio practice and the reflective, structuring processes involved in artistic creation.

Participating artists: Blanca Amorós, Harita Asumani, Alexandra Boaru, Alina Bobeică, Alessia Borangic, Cristina Chirilă, Costel Chițimuș, Cristiana Cott Negoescu, Andonaș David, Anastasia Dumitrescu, Teodor Georgescu, Cosmin Grigoraș, Mariana Hahn, Andreea Ilie, Ana Ionescu, Yavor Kostadinov, Talia Maidenberg, Adrian Moisă, Adrian Novac, Vlad Oniga, Zsuzsanna Ida Papp, Iulia Paraipan, Patrycja Płóciennik, Sarah Popuț, Melinda Rus, Viktor Rónai, Detty Szabó, Tania Șimonca, Cătălina Ungureanu, Constantin Vulturar, Andreea Delia Voren.

Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives // EMΣT – National Museum of Contemporary Art

Curator: Katerina Gregos
Athens, 16 May 2025 – 15 February 2026

The exhibition Why Look at Animals? is rooted in a strong ethical and political commitment against the oppression and exploitation of animals. Its point of departure is John Berger’s 1980 essay of the same title, which explores the changing relationship between humans and animals – specifically the gradual detachment of animals from human life, as beings once embedded in its fabric became commodified, invisible products of consumption.

The exhibition seeks to draw attention to systemic animal cruelty and violence, while encouraging visitors to reconsider human-animal relations from new perspectives, in light of contemporary social and ecological realities.

According to the curatorial statement, the works on view approach the subject from multiple angles: they address how animals live and survive in urban environments, reflect on the forms of animal rights activism, and explore new interpretations of animal consciousness. In addition, the exhibition allows space for freer, more associative approaches, incorporating poetry, ecofeminism, animism, playfulness, animal creativity, and humor.

Participating artists: Ang Siew Ching, Art Orienté Objet (Marion Laval-Jeantet & Benoît Mangin), Sammy Baloji, Elisabetta Benassi, John Berger, Rossella Biscotti, Kasper Bosmans, Xavi Bou, Nabil Boutros, David Brooks, Cheng Xinhao, David Claerbout, Marcus Coates, Sue Coe, Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost, Mike Dibb & Chris Rawlence, Mark Dion, Radha D’Souza, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Jakup Ferri, Alexandros Georgiou, Igor Grubić, Gustafsson & Haapoja, Joseph Havel, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Annika Kahrs, Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Anne Marie Maes, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Nikos Markou, Angelos Merges, Wesley Meuris, Tiziana Pers, Paris Petridis, Janis Rafa, Rainio & Roberts, Marta Roberti, Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni, Lin May Saeed, Panos Sklavenitis, Sonic Space, Jonas Staal, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Oussama Tabti, Emma Talbot, Nikos Tranos, Maria Tsagkari, Dimitris Tsoumplekas, Euripides Vavouris, Kostis Velonis, Driant Zeneli.

Cover image: Paris Petridis: Bethlehem, 2012(Source: EMΣT National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens website, courtesy of the artist)