Holding Places

The artworks of Carla Åhlander and Aaron Amar Bhamra invite us to pause. To be slow with a space; to dwell in the air of a space, that “border between everything and nothing” to quote Aaron, be this one transformed through spatial gestures (Aaron) or one made newly available through photographic series (Carla).

A conversation through artistic affinities, Holding Places has emerged through the artist’s shared interests, be there formal or conceptual. From pedestrian refuse to walkways, here materials are approached in the most honest way, allowing the time and space held within certain subjects to move and migrate, naturally creating a “chain of associative thoughts” to quote Carla. The introduction of times had elsewheres into the gallery’s surround accentuates this sense of parallel motion. That is, this meeting creates a harmonious accord, a path beyond thresholds, where the sound of our own steps are welcomed.

On the face of things, the artworks in this exhibition speak in silence. But, as John Cage reminds us, “There is no such thing as silence”, silence begets sound. Indeed, as a generative noise, silence invites us not only to attune to all that is always already there (or not) but, as a physical state, silence establishes a room or place where the writ rules of fast action slowly transform inviting evocation.

Silence is a place which listens. An open and inviting pause (f)or breath.

The sense of conviviality at the heart of this exhibition is calm, its gestures subtly mucking-up the logistical management of time, allowing new points of departure, distances and horizons, to tip-toe all rose-footed into view. (Indeed, to leak out again.) This visioning does not imply loss or closure, as the differing creative bodies in Holding Places demonstrate. Here, split nutshells and sights of stairwells create a proximate space, all resonant, held open, a place unencumbered through shared thinking.

on the occasion of this exhibition, Belmacz will publish an interview with the artists facilitated by the writer Maximiliane Leuschner.

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Artist bios

Carla Åhlander (b.1966, Sweden) uses photographic series to provoke inquisitive looking. Exploring social structures Carla’s photographs subtly reveal the memories and histories occluded by surface appearances.

Select exhibitions include: Carla Åhlander & Camilla Løw, Belmacz, London; Geister, SCOTTY Enterprise, Berlin; 9th Norwegian Sculpture Biennial, Oslo; Kunstmuseum Olten; Musée du château des ducs de Wurtemberg, Montbéliard; Biennial for Young Art, Bukarest; TENT – Center for visual arts, Rotterdam; 4th Bodensee Triennale, Zeppelin-Museum, Friedrichshafen/Palais Thurn und Taxis, Bregenz.

Carla has received the Artistic Research Grant from Berlin Senate Department for Culture and has previously been the recipient of artist residencies at Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani in Venice, Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop, among others.

She has produced series photographic works for public space in underground station Schwartzkopffstraße in Berlin (After Work/nGbK), in Cologne (The Reclaim Award) and in Vienna (Prospective Sites, Europart).

Carla lives and works in Berlin, where she teaches Photography at Bard College Berlin and at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Aaron Amar Bhamra (b. 1992, Austria) often procures exhibition spaces that subtly expose their systematics and physical experience by incorporating imprints reminiscent of other spaces or past exhibitions. He occasionally uses recurring forms and materials, weaving a site of shifting personal and social archives.

Select exhibitions include: Deichtorhallen, Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg, Germany; Kevin Space, Vienna, Austria; Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna, Austria; MAUVE, Vienna, Austria; SYSTEMA, Marseille, France; Krinzinger Schottenfeld, Vienna, Austria; Galerie Le Carceri, Bolzano, Italy; Wien Museum MUSA; and PHILEAS Project Space, Vienna, Austria.

He lives and works in Vienna. Since 2020, Aaron Amar Bhamra and Monika Georgieva, have been running LAURENZ, an independent space in Vienna. Since 2021, he works at the Department of Expanded Museum Studies at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.