Sometimes I can see it all perfectly • Nona Inescu, Marge Monko, Ola Vasiljeva • 17.11.2018–12.01.2019

Invited by Alisha Danscher

* Inspired by Robert Ashley and accompanied by F.R. David “All distinctions are mind, by mind, of mind” edited by Will Holder

“Sometimes a whole story, except the parts are all mixed up and I don’t know which part comes first. Sometimes it’s begin at the end. Sometimes it’s begin in the middle. Sometimes I can see it all perfectly. Just like it was true.” The Crack, Robert Ashley

The phrase Sometimes I can see it all perfectly oscillates between lucidity and obscurity. It brings along its own negation: Most of the time I cannot see it all perfectly. Memories, thoughts, voices are often intermingled and inversed. They appear and vanish and it therefore seems unfitting to consider a narrative through chronology and other time-based hierarchies. What can a narrative of myself or anyone be, produce, change? How much do personal and collective narratives intermix? And how are they continuously reproduced, rewritten and haunted by the ghosts from my putatively own history on the other hand? Sometimes you encounter moments or incidents that produce cracks and enable you to become attentive to neglected connections. This is rare and risky and can make you vulnerable. The show’s eponymous phrase is embedded in the poem “The Crack” by experimental composer Robert Ashley. Intended to insert his previously absent voice into the opera Con- crete from 2007, Ashley composed The Crack alongside six other pieces dispersed throug- hout the issue All Distinctions Are Mind, By Mind, Of Mind published by F.R. David. The idea of the crack is many-sided and carries with it theoretical approaches ranging from psychoanalysis to theories about space and architecture. In the poem a state of mind is depicted that brings forth a potential crack in perception. The text not only enumerates various circumstances that open up a space for this difference in perception, but it touches on the multifaceted nature of memory. Ashley’s meditation about the Janus-faced crack works through both frightening and illuminating changes of consciousness: Sometimes I can see it all perfectly.

The show brings together three artistic positions associated with the crack as an outsider, a confession or a structure. It is dedicated to the singular, ephe- meral encounter in as much as to the absence of conjunctures with a crack.

Nona Inescu (*1991, lives and works in Bucharest, RO) completed her studies in 2016 at the National University of Arts in Bucharest (Photography and Video Department). Her practice is interdisciplinary and encompasses photographs, objects, as well as instal- lations and video works. Relating to her theoretical and literary research, Nona Inescu’s work is centered around the relation between the human body and the environment as well as the question of the subject in a post-humanist condition. Recently she is working on the human interaction with natural, prehistoric elements, especially with stones.
Her solo shows took place at SpazioA, Pistoia (2018); at Exile, Berlin (2017) or at Sabot Gallery in Cluj (2015) amongst others. Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as Manufacturing Nature / Naturalizing The Synthetic, Frac des Pays de la Loire (2018); 10 Years of Love, SpazioA, Pistoia (2018) or Gestures of Tomorrow at Kunstver- ein, Nuremberg (2016) amongst others.

Marge Monko (*1976, lives and works in Tallinn, EST) is trained as photographer
and graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2008. Utilising photography, video and installation, her work is often concerned with themes related to the women’s role in society and is influenced by psychoanalytic and feminist theories as well as by the theory of visual cultures. Marge Monko received the Henkel Art Award of 2012 and was nomi- nated for the Köler Prize in 2012. She participated in Manifesta 9 (2012) and had vari- ous solo and group exhibitions including a solo show in the mumok, Vienna (2013). Her works can be found in collections including the Estonian Art Museum; Tallinn, the FRAC Lorraine, France or the mumok, Vienna.

Ola Vasiljeva (*1981, Ventspils, LV, lives and works in The Hague, NL) graduated from Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam in 2009. Her work creates dis- plays in which sculpture, drawing, video and found objects commingle, often including the given environmental or architectural structures and contexts. Rejecting fixed plots and narratives, her work produces landscapes that spur imaginations and the unconscious and evade hierarchies. Still single characters and the preoccupation with certain struc- tures such as the academy and the theatre continuously reappear throughout her work. Recent solo exhibitions took place at Indipendenza Roma (2018); Quartz Studio, Turin (2018), Grazer Kunstverein (2017), Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2017); Supportico Lopez, Berlin (2017); Passerelle CAC, Brest (2017); Kunstverein München (2016); Gale- rie Antoine Levi, Paris (2016); and Vleeshal Markt, Middelburg (2016), amongst others.

F.R. David is a bi-annual typographical journal dealing with the organisation of reading and writing. The publication was initiated in 2006 at De Appel, Amsterdam and is edited by typographer and artist Will Holder (* 1969, Hatfield, UK).