Escaping the Infinite Maze

Escaping the Infinite Maze

“Escapando del Laberinto Infinito”

Solo exhibition by Len Murusalu

Curated by: John Ángel Rodriguez

Private view: 2nd of April 2016 from 11 am to 2 pm
Closing: 5 pm 29th of April 2016


PERMANENTE is pleased to present "Escaping the Infinite Maze", a solo exhibition, which brings us, the artistic work of Len Murusalu (Estonia).

Len is presenting four works created during the PERMANENTE residence in Bogota. Working with painting, photography, video and installation, Len explores issues around collective memory, mythology and the perception of time, timelessness and perishability.

The linguistic, anthropological and ancestral roots of Estonian culture influence Len’s research. The end of Soviet occupation in Estonia in 1991, when the country rapidly transitioned into a western democracy, brought a complete turnaround in the society, which had to reform, rebuild and adapt to new ways of thinking. As many others of the new generation of Estonian artists, Len remembers a few years of the soviet times from her childhood, enabling her to better perceive the contrasts between then and now, and to understand the value of our everyday freedoms that can’t be taken for granted.

Len’s other influencers’ range from the context of the European art scene to Scandinavian, Greek mythology and Asian philosophy.

The exhibition consists of four projects.

“Better One Day as a Lion than Hundred as a Sheep” is an installation with a set of old fashion chairs and a video, which invites viewers to consider how we make choices. The luxurious chairs are covered with shards of glass in concrete, like the fortified walls around Bogota’s buildings, making it impossible to sit on them. The viewer can only choose to sit on an old simple chair, or walk away, just as the character in the video has decided to do. The installation symbolizes hope that there is always an option to seek something better.

In the second part of the exhibition, titled “Golden Borders”, Len brings us closer to her pictorial work, continuing her ongoing "Perceptual Zones" series. In these paintings, she explores the mental images of territories, borders and fictional maps. On the surfaces of her canvases, we can detect fragments of imaginary landscapes, divided by golden borders. We are invited to question, whether our perceptions should be enforced with strict borders and how much should we leave room for changes, as we obtain new information and experiences?

The third part of the exhibition, titled "Search for the Golden Age", is a video installation, which superimposes a video projection over a golden embossed line of the horizon on the wall. This piece brings together a collection of images photographed in different parts of the world. It illustrates the constant restlessness of the capitalist culture and the quest for material possessions.

The fourth work carries the same title as the exhibition, “Escaping the Infinite Maze” and seeks for a way out from the never-ending search for something better. Realizing that the maze is infinite can bring peace of mind. Understanding, that one is already where they need to be makes escaping irrelevant.

The exhibition "Escaping the infinite Maze" by Len Murusalu (Estonia) is part of the program or art residencies that PERMANENTE launched in 2016.


About Len Murusalu

Len Murusalu is an Estonian visual artist working with painting, photography, video and installation. She was born in Tallinn in 1984 and studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2009, she graduated the University of East London with a BA in Fine Art.

Len’s work explores issues around collective memory, mythology, and timelessness. Her work has been exhibited in Helsinki Art Hall, Finland; Estonian Contemporary Art Museum; The Rag Factory, London and Freies Museum Berlin among other places.

www.lenmurusalu.com


About PERMANENTE

PERMANENTE is an independent art space, which holds a residency program. Our residencies are open to interdisciplinary creators.

PERMANENTE is an autonomous space that offers a platform to promote various training alignments, through the joint participation of international artists, we seek to disseminate artistic practices that we consider within the local art context, are still in process of germination; with this initiative we aim to encourage the creation of transdisciplinary projects and invite creators trained in different areas of knowledge.

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