INTERVIEWS <<<

[20240515]

YYYYMMDD 01 20240515 10+QUESTIONS SIGGI SEKIRA

Whispering foreign tales dipped into dreamy twilight hues of celestial realms — reds, pinks, purples, blues, whites and blacks. Playful metamorphoses of malleable emotions — vulnerable and ominously raw. Incorporating the unspeakable. Their fairytale-like galaxies infuse our cryptic and petrified now with subtle glimpses of everyone’s fragility.

[01]

^[01]

00 — WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO EAT WITH US — AND IF YES WHERE WOULD THAT BE?

I imagine it somewhere in Wachau in spring. The nature is beautiful there and they have good wine.

Oh yes, this is such a beautiful area...

^[02]

^[03]

^[04]

01 — WHY DO YOU THINK WE PICKED YOU?

I remember we had met at a gallery dinner, where I knew very few people. I often feel a little shy in these situations. It was such a pleasure to talk to you about art as well as our daily life. I felt like we hit it off very well and we continued our friendship years later. It was an honour to have been picked by you for this interview and I think of it as a continuation of our shared connection.

Yes — it was at that dinner party organised by Christoph Meier, Hugo Canoilas and Nicola Pecoraro celebrating the group show “Schmalz” they curated back then at their space Guimarães here in Vienna. We also didn't know anybody there — besides our friend Hugo — and somehow you and us landed at the same table. We believe it was at the end of 2018 — which feels like an eternity already and so many things have changed since then, but our friendship only grew.

And we also still remember the first time we saw an artwork of yours “in person”. It was at the ANGEWANDTE FESTIVAL 2019 in the ceramics workshop.

^[05]

02 — WHERE WOULD YOU POSITION YOURSELF — IF YOU HAD THE POWER TO DO SO?

I would, of course, position myself as a contemporary Ukrainian artist based in Austria. I think of my work as dark folk that busies itself with ties to Christianity and paganism including many underlying auto-biographical themes.

03 — WHO WOULD YOU WRITE A "LOVE LETTER" TO?

*PLEASE SHOW US YOUR FAVOURITE ARTIST[S], CURATOR[S], WRITER[S] ETC. AND/OR ARTWORK[S] SOMEONE ELSE DID

If I could I would have written a love letter to Virginia Woolf and Eva Hesse. They were two women who inspired me to work and develop my own practice.

^[06]

04 — HOW DID THEY INFLUENCE YOU AND YOUR OWN PRACTICE?

Mostly by showing me all that was possible in their own mediums. I was very young then and impressed by their timeless quality, perseverance, and independence. Their work, however, bears no resemblance to my own.

^[07]

05 — WITH WHOM WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO AN EXHIBITION AND WHAT WOULD THIS SHOW BE ABOUT?

I would have loved to make an exhibition alongside Birgit Jürgenssen. Perhaps, specifically her drawings and photographic work, both examining the female form and societal issues. It could have a bit of a dreamy atmosphere surrounding the show but I don’t have a clear vision of it. It would need to involve the hand of a curator.

05.01 —DO YOU HAVE A PIECE IN MIND THAT WOULD HAVE TO BE DEFINITELY PART OF THIS SHOW — ONE OF YOURS AND ONE OF BIRGIT JÜRGENSSEN?

05.02 —AND WHICH CURATOR WOULD BE THE CURATOR OF YOUR CHOICE FOR THAT SPECIFIC SHOW?

The one artwork that immediately springs to my mind is a photograph titled “Nest” (1979), showing her wearing silky pantyhose and holding a nest with two tiny eggs between her legs. I think I would make a specific ceramic sculpture to go with it - a mythical humanoid creature who carries a little kitten as her baby, tied and wrapped in an umbilical cord, both suffocating.

I don’t have a specific curator in mind. I would say anyone who could see themselves sharing this vision. The dynamics of the collaboration can, too, be very important.

^[08]

^[09]

06 — HOW DO YOU DEFINITELY [NOT] START YOUR WORKING-PROCESS — WHAT TOTALLY DRIVES YOU AND WHAT NOT?

My working process always starts with a germ of an idea. I find it easier to work towards a project rather than freely spend the time in the studio. I need a goal. I make precise detailed sketches for all of my graphic work and no sketches for sculptures. It depends on which medium I’m working with but I do improvise a lot during the early stages of inception. Nevertheless, without having a clear idea in my mind, I cannot work. It’s usually the examination of my own life that drives me the most and the art market that absolutely doesn’t drive my work when I come up with ideas for a project.

We love the idea of the germ — which grows into something entirely entangled.

^[10]

07 — WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS/IS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE — AND ARE YOU AFRAID OF FAILURE/FAILING?

I am very much afraid of a failure, even though this failure is a bit subjective. I want to continue working further, precisely because I’m always searching and correcting all what hasn’t worked prior. My biggest challenge as an artist is merely surviving as one, of course.

07.01 — AND WHAT ABOUT [PROFESSIONAL] REJECTION?

I learned to deal with it much better in the last few years. I think it partially has to do with my own development as a person, independent of my art practice. My life’s trajectory dictates my art, after all. Of course, I’d like to be welcome and accepted in the community but a wish for acceptance ought not paralyse you as an artist. Life and work must carry on despite rejection. Too many interesting artists have been rejected in their lifetime.

08 — IS THERE A PLAN B?

There’s no plan B for me. Or rather, I hope to eventually find my way.

09 — TELL US A QUESTION YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ASKED AND ONE YOU WOULD NEVER ANSWER :)

Good question :) I think the art market is the one I would never answer and wouldn’t really know how to do it. Or very personal questions about my work and what stands behind it because I don’t like to fully spoon-feed someone with information. Work loses its mystery in that case, which is actually very important to my practice. One could ask about hopes and aspirations.

^[11]

^[12]

10 — WHICH QUESTION WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK US?

What was the biggest challenge in running your own platform? Do ever conflicts arise when one comes to the decision of which artist/exhibition to feature.

Actually the day we lost access to our account on Instagram in June 2021. We were not hacked or blocked or deleted — no — we simply could not log into it anymore. We were stuck in a so-called login-loop for two months that felt like an eternity. Every morning, on every single day we wrote a message to Instagram — into their nerve-wracking silent void — which was the only thing we could do. It felt absolutely draining and we became simply aware of how powerless we were against that tech-giant. We never got an answer from them — but magically one day (after we wrote them several messages that with their behaviour they cancel art and culture) we were able to log in again. But since then the fear stays that this will happen again — it somehow took the ease of using Instagram.

Regarding your second question — actually there are no real conflicts — and if so they are there to be discussed and solved. As we are in general (or at least most of the times) very rational and analytical: we approach a problem, we put down arguments and find a solution.

11 — WHOM OF YOUR NETWORK WOULD YOU DEFINITELY LIKE US TO GET TO KNOW?

Danielle Pamp, who is a queer Swedish artist and performer based in Vienna. She’s a dear friend of mine and we've known each other since 2015.

^[13]

00.01 — AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST — TELL US A SONG FOR THIS INTERVIEW :)

This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren.

^[14]

Siggi Sekira, born in 1987 in Odesa, Ukraine. Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Prof. Erwin Bohatsch, Michaela Eichwald, Thomas Winkler). Sekira has been working in Vienna since 2015.

Known for their work with ceramics and coloured pencil drawings, they gather inspiration from Sekira's childhood and other biographical aspects of their life, as well as Slavic mythology, the 1900 Wiener Werkstätte movement, Soviet avant-garde, and the spread of Western pop-culture after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Selection of the exhibitions include: "Über das Neue", Belvedere 21, Vienna, AT (2023); "Sweet Lies", Ludwig Forum, Aachen, DE (2021); Liste Art Fair Basel, CH (2022) with Polansky Gallery, as well as the solo at South Parade, London, UK (2022) and Polansky Gallery, Prague, CZ (2022).

[01] The Forest Song: All of Me Wants All of You, 2022, Polansky Gallery, Prague (CZ) / Photo: Jan Kolsky
[02] Wachau / Photo: Uoaei1 - CC BY-SA 3.0
[03] April’s News, 2020, Kandlhofer Galerie, Vienna (AT) / Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
[04] Nine Little Murmurs, 2020, Kandlhofer Galerie, Vienna (AT) / Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
[05] Sad Day Camille, 2021, Vienna (AT) / Photo: Siggi Sekira
[06] Lover You Should’ve Come Over, 2022, VBKÖ, Vienna (AT) / Photo: Flavio Palasciano
[07] Parties to Cover the Silence, 2022, South Parade, London (UK) / Photo: Corey Bartle Sanderson
[08] Nest, 1979 / Photo: Birgit Jürgenssen
[09] Away From Countless Blessings Pt.4, 2020, Ludwig Forum, Aachen (DE) / Photo: Simon Vogel
[10] The Forest Song: All of Me Wants All of You Vol. 2, 2022, Koenig2 by_robbygreif, Vienna (AT) / Photo: Simon Veres
[11] All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy, 2023, Belvedere21, Vienna (AT) / Photo: Johannes Stoll
[12] All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy, 2023, Belvedere21, Vienna (AT) / Photo: Johannes Stoll
[13] Diva in Quarantine, 2023, Künstleraus, Vienna (AT) / Photo: Danielle Pamp
[14] Spirits, 2020, Ludwig Forum, Aachen (DE) / Photo: Simon Vogel

©YYYYMMDD All content and design by Daniela Grabosch + Ricardo Almeida Roque unless otherwise stated. Images, Videos and Texts can only be used under permission of the author(s).