Duo exhibition I Don’t Eat Flowers brings together the practices of Spanish artist and activist Daniel García Andújar and Estonian artist Marge Monko. Presented together for the first time, the works of the two artists who originally come from different cultural contexts, are united in the Hestia exhibition space. The exhibition contemplates the topics of social and political circumstances of labour: continuous working-class struggles, the value and precariousness of artists’ work, and the emancipation of women.
The show borrows its title from Marge Monko’s artwork I Don’t Eat Flowers (2009/2011). It is a poster piece which subtly marked the start of the last economic crisis in Europe in 2008 and the activation of the art workers’ movement in Estonia at that time. In the current exhibition, the slogan refers symbolically to the recurrence and repetition of labour struggles throughout the critical periods of our times.
In both Andújar’s and Monko’s work, the usage of various graphic testimonies of the 20th century – either collected from archives, posters, pamphlets or streets – indicates the necessity to notice and critically reinterpret the slogans and messages in our surrounding environments. Works assembled in the exhibition invite us to actively engage in the narration of our collective histories and individual aspirations.
I Don’t Eat Flowers
Curated by: Merilin Talumaa
June 9th – September 11th
Hestia Art Residency & Exhibitions Bureau
Topličin Venac 14/9 – 4th floor
Belgrade, Serbia
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Photography: Nemanja Knežević
