16.4–19.4 2015 Candyland på SUPERMARKET 2015 – Stockholm Independent Art Fair Maja Ruznic (US) Svarta Huset, Telefonplan LM Ericssons väg 26, bredvid Konstfack, tunnelbana mot Fruängen Öppet torsdag–fredag 12–20, lördag–söndag 11–20 Maja Ruznic, “The Innocent Bath”, bläck och gouache på papper, 79x107 cm, 2015 Maja Ruznic bor och arbetar i Los Angeles, men kommer ursprungligen från Bosnien och Herzegovina. Hennes målningar kretsar kring folklore, sexualitet, kvinnlighet och krigstrauman. De har en psykologisk intimitet och speciell fantasiartad kvalitet. Vi får en glimt in i kusliga, men samtidigt välbekanta landskap. Figurer av obestämt kön som är levande och döda på en gång träder fram ut mörkret. Så här skriver Maja Ruznic om sina målningar: “Conceptually, I look at how the woman’s body has historically been used in war as a site to assert power through rape and a vehicle for inter-generational trauma. Inspired by the writings of Julia Kristeva, I made paintings that explore the elements of war and violence that continue to ooze long after the violence has ended. Kristeva defines the abject as something that provokes disgust, a human reaction to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or between self and other. Kristeva associates the abject with the eruption of the Real into our life – the Real being the materiality that shows us our own death. Her writing creates an opening for me to look at how women who have been raped in war carry guilt and shame for the rest of their lives and continue to be degraded by their communities. The figures in my narrative paintings are broken, defeated and dirty. Some of the figures have missing limbs and it is difficult to differentiate between the victim and the aggressor. Despite their embodied traumas, I have imbued these figures with a redemptive quality and given the abject within them a place to thrive.”   Maja Ruznic är inbjuden av Malou Bergman www.ontheedgeofreason.com SUPERMARKET – Stockholm Independent Art Fair Hundratals konstnärer visas av 64 konstnärsdrivna gallerier och andra konstnärsinitiativ från 29 länder. Paneldiskussioner och performancekonst på tre scener. www.supermarketartfair.com