Nika Autor's work at an international group exhibition in London
The Mosaic Rooms in London is staging Constellations of Multiple Wishes, an international group exhibition co-curated with curator Bojana Piškur from Moderna galerija in Ljubljana.
The exhibition also features a new film commission, Sunny Railways by Slovenian artist Nika Autor.
As the website of the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia London says, the exhibition contemplates entangled recent histories, from the foundations of the Non-Aligned Movement.), the exhibition brings together archival materials, existing and newly commissioned works that connect peripheral geographies, agitating relationships between time and memory.
Alongside Nika Autor's new film Sunny Railways, the exhibition includes works by contemporary artists such as British artist Larry Achiampong, Kuwaiti-Portorican artist Alia Farid, the Belgrade collective KURS (Miloš Miletić and Mirjana Radovanović), and Egyptian artist Basim Magdy. There is also archival material on view.
In Sunny Railways, Nika Autor traces the construction of the Šamac-Sarajevo railway. In 1947, bonded by the spirit of solidarity, thousands of young people in voluntary work brigades from all around the world joined the construction effort. Bringing to the fore two completely different temporal, social, and political realities, the film contrasts the construction of the railway with the ongoing tragedy of refugees traveling the Balkan Route.
Nika Autor studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She obtained her PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her practice is primarily based on experimental videos and documentary films, film essays, photography, and spatial video installations.
Examining migrations, women workers' rights, and the politics of memory, her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries and at festivals in Slovenia and abroad, and have won a great number of awards. Autor is part of the collective Newsreel Front (Obzorniška Fronta), an informal collective of workers hailing from film, visual art and political theory and art practice fields. In 2017, she represented Slovenia at the 57th Venice Biennale.
The exhibition runs until 4 July 2023.
Film still: Sunny railways, Nika Autor, 2023. Curtosy of the artist.
