Magali Reus: Deeper Green 

Deeper Green, Magali Reus’s first solo show in Slovakia, presents three bodies of new work complimented by site-responsive interventions in the spaces of Kunsthalle Bratislava. The newly conceived constellation of the work positions itself in the main exhibition space of the late-modern building of the institution. Deeper Green probes the limits of artificiality, the commodification of nature, and the extractive logic of late capitalism. While engaging with the visual language of new materiality educated by the digital literacy of the recent past, Reus brings together seemingly disparate industrial and handcrafted processes and production methods, forming objects which oscillate on the border of the ready-made: elaborate assemblages that engage with post-apocalyptic sculptural expressionism. Reus’ recent work incorporates imagery and references vegetable and plant life, commonly growing across the European continent and beyond. While the work references the globalized agricultural market and its focus on monocultural production, it equally includes notions of personal reminiscences and memory. These seemingly contradictory languages set up frameworks that spark an interpretation imbued with nostalgia and sentiment. References to nature and its evolving societal perception rub up against design and the politics of representation within a market-driven late-capitalist economy. Are we buying jam for its sweet strawberry taste or for its rustic-looking packaging? What connections exist between economy, design, politics, and individuation? And, in what manner can these be systematically represented? How do we remember the taste of jam from childhood, and how do we perceive that taste now? In what way do we understand a continuous expansion as opposed to a de-growth?