Burned House Horizon

18 January - 9 February 2025

Open Thursday–Sunday 12–6pm
PV 17 January 2025, 4-8pm

Press Release

Burned House Horizon looks at the Neolithic civilisation known as Cucuteni-Trypillia to process trauma in the present time via contemporary myths, communal rituals, ancestral healing & speculative fiction. This civilisation inhabited the lands of present-day Ukraine, Romania and Moldova, but its history remained largely uncovered until the fall of the Soviet Union. The Cucuteni-Trypillia lived in circular settlements (shaped as the rings of a tree section) and were excellent potters, who created painted vessels, astronomical calendars, anthropomorphic figurines and pottery miniatures that were connected to the veneration of land and fertility, solar-lunar cycles and goddess-centred spirituality. Mysteriously, they were also cyclically burning down their houses, leaving behind only clay sculptures. Our exhibition is named after this extensive phenomenon, which archaeologists called ‘Burned House Horizon’, and its concept is inspired by finding relations with (and learning from) this civilisation.

With these ancestors as guides, the exhibition expands its horizon to a transnational scale by inviting artists from across the globe to see themselves as ‘future ancestors’ who will leave artistic gestures and traces behind, for future generations. The exhibition will therefore act as a ‘time capsule’ where the public will enter a speculative future time in which they will find the archaeology of a queer, transnational community that created works based on intimacy, shared intents and healing, spiritual practices. All the works have been created specifically for this exhibition and as a result of a residency that we conducted at the Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre (October 2024) and a series of community workshops held at QUEERCIRCLE (November 2024).

Departing from the Cucuteni-Trypillia, we will move through experiences of homelessness, displacement and (forced) migration alongside the transformative potential of home-making, kinship formation and land-based spirituality from a queer perspective. We aim to connect (spiritually and materially) with queer communities from countries hit by wars or civil unrest - with their consequent displacement - and, most crucially, with those directly affected by the war in Ukraine. Similarly, many queer and trans people have had to leave their homes, past lives and memories to find freedom in painful yet regenerating processes of self-affirmation. Because of the difficulties in finding a place in society, many queer and trans people also live in poverty or are homeless. Together, we attempt to start healing intergenerational trauma with creativity, and in dialogue with this ancient civilisation’s offerings, to create personal and collective fabulations in response to the traces and the silences that are left behind. 

In this speculative archaeological site of future ancestrality, we will find interactive installations and works created by the seven artists that are part of this show, together with the pottery figurines of queer deities that were created by the many participants that took part in our ritual clay-making workshops: specifically, Eastern European & Central East Asian queer communities (via United Queerdom) and queers affected by homelessness (via The Outside Project), among other LGBTQ+ participants. In response to what the exhibition is moving within you, visitors are encouraged to bring an object they could leave in the space in return for a protection charm.

Artists:

Byuka aka Fortune Tailed Beast, Alex Hincapié, Ayshe-Mira Yashin, Gisou Golshani, n:u (fka melissandre varin), Sym Stellium, V(A)

Curated by Giulia Casalini & Byuka aka Fortune Tailed Beast

Press enquiries: 

Giulia Casalini giulia.casalini@cuntemporary.org

The exhibition is open Thursday - Sunday, 12-6pm.
Also open upon appointment. Please contact giulia.casalini@cuntemporary.org for arranging out-of-hours viewings.

Partners:

Outreach: United Queerdom & The Outside Project
Production & promotion: Queer Art Projects
Promotion: performingborders
Venues: QUEERCIRCLE & Mimosa House

Exhibition funded by:

Artists’ bios:

Giulia Casalini @queer___femme (she/they) is a curator-artist and transfeminist community organiser based in London. Their PhD has analysed queer-trans-feminist live art from a transnational perspective, in an attempt to decentre the Euro-Anglo-American aesthetic canons and discourses. Their writing is based on embodied responses to the artists’ works and uses a ‘deep sensing’ method to understand the artists’ singular perspectives beyond the spoken word. As a curator, their methods have been reflecting upon the ethics of care and co-creation, with transnational, queer community-building at the core. Their practice spans from institutional to alternative spaces, with a focus on performance, audience participation and engagements across diverse communities, establishing collaborations across the globe. 

She has been co-founder and artistic director of the non-profit arts organisation Arts Feminism Queer (aka CUNTemporary, 2012-2021), and the founder of its Italian branch Archivio Queer Italia (2014-2017). She sits on the advisory board of Mimosa House (London) and is a Live Art Associate UK. Selected curatorial projects: ‘Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi: Performance as Life’ (documentary, 2024); Diwata (British Council, Philippines, 2024); #WIP (Queer Art Projects, online, 2020); EcoFutures (multi-venue festival, London, 2019); Still Burning (Konsthalle, Varberg, 2019); Transitional States (touring, including Peltz Gallery, London and CCCB, Barcelona, 2017-18); Transformer (Richard Saltoun, London, 2014). She has published in peer-reviewed academic journals, art magazines and more popular outlets. 

Byuka aka Fortune Tailed Beast @fortunetailedbeast (they/them) is a migrant performance artist & witch, playing at the intersections of poetry, dance and film. Their work explores folk futurism and practices of queer-animist world-building through community rituals, speculative fiction, embodied ecologies & ancestral healing. 

Byuka is the curator & main facilitator of Lunarrr Playgroundz @lunarrrplaygroundz - a platform exploring ritual practices for the queer community. They are the co-creator of Intimate Animals collective, in which they explore practices of multispecies mythmaking - both in performance & workshops. Through the collaborative project ‘Your pain is humming in my vertebrae’ they have been exploring transgenerational trauma within the context of post-Soviet countries. Specifically, this project wants to examine the transformative & healing potentialities of collective storytelling, experimental writing practices and ritual technologies. Their work has been shown at the Royal Albert Hall, Iklektik, Camden's People Theatre, the National Gallery, Barbican, Guildhall and Ugly Duck. They have been featured in the series ‘Witch’ on BBC Sounds.

Alex Hincapié @hincapiendo (she/they) is a performer and community organiser based in London. “As part of my practice, I use textile, soil, clay and wax to create site-specific installations, usually set in queer underground environments. I employ crafts-making and participatory games to bring people together, celebrate queer identities and personal stories. I am passionate about arts and crafts as a tool to foster ideas and solidarity.” 

They held performances and workshops at Turf Projects, Queercircle, Gasworks, Arcola Theatre, Southbank Centre, SET studios, Hedonifest (Bureau of Silly Ideas), Colour Factory, Rich Mix, Riposte, Haringey Fringe Festival, Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery and Applecarts. They attended and supported FiBRA residency in Oaxaca, Mexico (2019).

Gisou Golshani @gisougolshani (she/they) is a London-based artist from Iran. She performs rituals of belonging and resistance through sound art, performance, and poetic chants. Her work explores fictioning, hauntology and speculative world-building to reflect on issues related to land, liberation and collective healing. 

Her recent exhibitions and performances include: Bayt AlMamzar (Dubai) Iklectik Artlab (London), Deptford X festival (London), Emergency Live Art festival (Manchester) Diasporas Now UK tour (Hull) and New Art Exchange (Nottingham, UK). She is regularly invited to take over radio shows with experimental mixes, including Radio Alhara’s Sonic Liberation Front worldwide radio takeover (September 2022), to bring attention to the Jina revolution in Iran. She took part in Disturbance, an experimental residency for queer performance and video artists at Ugly Duck in London, first as an artist (November 2022) and then as a jury (April 2024). In July 2023, she was part of Lost and Found's East African Soul Train residency, with showcases in London, Gaborone and Bangalore. 

Ayshe-Mira Yashin @ayshemira (she/her) is a visual artist and tarot reader studying Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts. Her practice involves illustrative forms of earth-body art, and includes linework, printmaking, artist books, moving images and multimedia collages with textiles, pressed leaves and menstrual blood. Her current work involves creating decolonial feminist art as political acts of defiance against imperialism and patriarchy in the context of her ancestral home, Nicosia. She created the Earth Mother Magic Tarot, a risograph printed tarot deck based on lesbian embodiments of the Earth through anticolonial lenses of ecofeminism. Her practice includes providing tarot readings with her deck in women’s and/or queer spaces, illustrating stories based on matriarchal and goddess-centred mythologies, as well as creating murals for social movement spaces. 

Her art has been exhibited as part of The Courtauldian’s ‘Tongue in Trees’ issue launch at Photobookcafe (London, 2022), ‘Xhibit’ at The Koppel Project (London, 2022), ‘They/Them/Their: Naturally Not Binary’ at IMT Gallery (London, 2022), ‘A to Zine Show’ at QUEERCIRCLE (London, 2023), ‘Do You Buy This?’ at Ugly Duck (London, 2023), and ‘Manifestations: Views of the otherworldly in painting and drawing’ at NiMAC (Nicosia, 2024). 

n:u (fka melissandre varin) @n.u.practice (they/them) is an undisciplined atmosphere-maker . Intimacy, embodiment and healing emerge from their work contributing to freedom and liberation.⁠ They collaborate with artworkers, companion-materials, and cultural spaces - unearthing transformative ways to play (the process through which we feel and propel change) on molecular and infrastructural levels. Fundamentally, their work is to re-invest in transformative embodiment (re-member, feel, be present to, and heal our inherent wholeness) with unusual artistic experiments.

Most recently commissioned by Eastside Projects and FABRIC, experimenting between Dakar and Birmingham with exceptional artists and artworkers (2023-2024). n:u is currently a MAIA Fellow (2024-2025). They have previously been invited to make artworks by organisations including Fierce Festival (Birmingham); Ikon Gallery x Vivid Projects (Birmingham); Kutlturfabrik (Luxembourg); Coventry Biennial (Coventry); ShapeArts (London); Warwick Arts Centre (Coventry). They have given talks, mentorship and workshops at Brunel University (London); San Mei Gallery (London), The New Art Gallery (Walsall), The Theatre and Performance Research Association TaPRA (online International audience) and Grand Union (Birmingham). n:u has curated in art spaces such as Ban Workshop (Dakar), Arcadia Gallery (Coventry), Vivid Projects (Birmingham).

Sym Stellium aka Sym Mendez @systellium (they/them/it) is a movement/performance artist, facilitator and ritual maker - with the exploration of connection/communication on micro and macro levels at the core of its practice. Its work mainly revolves around bodily autonomy, ancestral & psycho-somatic roots to physical pain, and furthering collectivity - and possibilities of liberation - from the inside out. Using a combination of movement, soundscapes, chanting and meditative practices, Sym attempts to create embodied expressions of the ethereal and break down internalised colonial belief systems.

They have been commissioned by organisations - and performed in spaces - including C-DaRE, Grand Union, Coventry Pride x Belgrade Theatre, Diasporas Now, Fierce Festival, We Out Here Festival, Graves Gallery and Clapham Grand. They have led talks and workshops across the UK (e.g. Peaks of Colour, Andro & Eve, B.O.O.K, Eastside Projects, Colours Youth, UNMUTED) and have offered artistic and spiritual care support across the UK, Luxembourg, Germany & Finland.

Vlada Vazheyevskyy aka V(A) @1hatek1ds (she/they) is an anthropologist and performance artist from Kyiv, Ukraine currently based in Scotland. In their performance practice, they focus on working towards a collective otherwise for the commons to inhabit and archiving post-capitalistic imaginaries. They make up ½ of the DViJKA collective, with which they have edited and translated the book ‘Queer Ukraine: An Anthology of LGBTQI+ Voices During Wartime’ in February 2023, and continue to work on Ukrainian queer theory and history. 

Most recently they have created a one-to-one performance installation at Untitled Tbilisi’s The Blue of High Zenith performance art week entitled An exercise in time travel #01 (2024) and took part in ‘Kissing Doesn't Kill: Ania Nowak and Guests’ exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2023).