MIDDELBURG.- On Water, Flow and Warped Time is a group exhibition that features work by Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Ewa Ciepielewska, and artist duo HUNITI GOLDOX (Areej Huniti & Eliza Goldox).

In our western society, time is seen as a linear process revolving around growth and progress. More than ever, humanity is focused on productivity and time management. But how can we experience time in our current society? Can we move through the world differently? The artists in the exhibition On Water, Flow and Warped Time explore the phenomenon of ‘time’ from various contexts and perspectives, focusing on water(ways) as entities from which we can learn to collectively live together; a counter-narrative to capitalist notions, contemporary productivity, and colonial structures.

In July 2022, Nomaduma Rosa Masilela and Thiago de Paula Souza invited artist collective HUNITI GOLDOX to participate in the residency FLOW / PRZEPŁYW for a week as part of Vleeshal’s International Nomadic Program 2022-2023. FLOW / PRZEPŁYW is a residency project by artists Agnieszka Brzeżańska and Ewa Ciepielewska that takes place on a boat. Artists are invited to flow along the currents of different rivers in Poland and Germany. Areej Huniti and Eliza Goldox were invited to float over the Polish river Wisła. During the residency, the four artists lived together on the boat and along the side of the river while they explored what it means to be at the mercy of the flow of a river as an artist and as a human being.

The entrance to On Water, Flow and Warped Time has been moved to the back of the former city hall of Middelburg, where you pass underneath an existing relief of a ship and feel an enhanced experience of time. The first work in the exhibition one comes across, lies in the courtyard outside of Vleeshal. It is a boat that resembles the one that Brzeżańska and Ciepielewska use for their residency. A sail, specially produced for FLOW / PRZEPŁYW by Ciepielewska, will be attached to the pole of the boat.

HUNITI GOLDOX presents the installation Measuring Time Through the Fall of Water with as its central point a water clock whose sound resonates in the exhibition space. A water clock is an ancient system in which time is measured by the dripping of water. In this installation, HUNITI GOLDOX combines natural and digital elements that refer to scientific and indigenous forms of knowledge production.

The work of Ewa Ciepielewska consists of stories written during her travels on the river and sounds that are recorded along riverbeds. These can be read or listened to in a ‘sweat lodge’ made of willows from Zeeland or in a large hammock, made of a fishing net. These works both reflect how we could potentially slow down in a fast-paced society by creating space for storytelling and introspection.

The ceramics of Agnieszka Brzeżańska might remind you of mystical, godlike creatures that carry ancestral knowledge. These ‘ancestors’ represent how our contemporary bodies respond to cultural perspectives and question what is nature and what is culture. Placed on platforms and in a fountain, the ancestors will be scattered around the space and serve as a guide throughout the exhibition.