MITHU SEN
A Prayer Unanswered
Opening: November 7, 2024
Duration: November 8, 2024 – January 11, 2025
Opening Speech: Elsy Lahner, Curator Albertina
A PRAYER UNANSWERED is Mithu Sen’s third show at Galerie Krinzinger. Exploring the intricate relationship between violence, vulnerability, the void, and verses,she draws her inspiration from Albrecht Dürer’siconic “Praying Hands”(Betende Hände), housed in the Albertina Museum, Vienna. Dürer’s drawing, depicting his brother’s hands, carries themes of sacrifice, faith, and familial devotion—themes that deeply resonate with this exhibition. Rethinking Violence and Vulnerability: This exhibition investigates how vulnerability can act as a form of resistance, reversing traditional narratives of violence to expose fragility as a powerful tool in confronting systemic harm. The work highlights the interconnectedness of global crises—wars, genocides, environmental destruction—and how these seemingly isolated events mirror systemic oppression. Ecological collapse, disappearing rivers, and absent landscapes of children reflect an ongoing cycle of human violence, all deeply rooted in patriarchal structures.
The exhibition blurs personal and social boundaries, revealing intricate connections between emotions, ecosystems, societies, and power. By using cartographic interventions, drawings, and multimedia, it maps the emotional and political impacts of global crises, critiquing authoritarianismand its erosion of human rights going hand in hand with a fueling of violence. The visuals evoke faith in humanity while simultaneously grappling with the despair of global crises. Childlike drawings, unreadable scripts, and somber videos represent this tension, making the exhibition both poetic and political.
