Aleksandra Domanović - Kalbträgerin

In her work, Aleksandra Domanović (b. 1981 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia) takes a probing look at a wide range of phenomena of contemporary society, among them cultural techniques, scientific and technological developments, history and culture, popular culture and the shaping of national and cultural identity. Her work often has its starting point in the examination of the past and present of her home country, the breakup of Yugoslavia after the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the struggle for a new national and cultural identity. Many of her works are thus informed by her own biography, but they also set a universal example of the artistic examination of national and cultural identity, individuality, collective visual memory and commemorative culture. Domanović’s refined, subtle works are precisely conceived narratives, visualised through the use of iconic images or illustrations taken from other contexts.

Rein Wolfs: "Aleksandra Domanović reminds us of how fast society is able to adopt new habits and also ethics by the use and further development of science and technologies. She finds a way to express this in haunting images, yet empathic and thoughtful."

For Kalbträgerin, her exhibition in Bonn, the artist expands on one of her themes—Bulls Without Horns—and looks at current scientific research and development, namely bioengineering and the breeding of certain traits in cattle, like the lack of horns. She translates these ideas into sculptures, which she produces by means of computer modelling, 3D printing and casting in synthetic plaster. Her votive stelae are transformed depictions of the Greek Moschophoros (Calf-Bearer) of the 6th century BC, found on the Acropolis of Athens in the so-called Perserschutt (the rubble of the architecture and sculptures destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC). The artist fuses the science and culture of different eras, subtly and poetically questioning norms and beauty outside of norms.

Curator: Susanne Kleine
Director: Rein Wolfs
Managing Director: Bernhard Spies