Strategies of Escaping
Exhibition project | 2014
Funded by the Women’s Promotion Fund
The gallery »Gefängnis Le Carceri« in Kaltern (South Tyrol) is a former prison of the late Baroque period. In line with its curatorial concept, the gallery invites an artist from the region (Maria Walcher) to engage in artistic dialogue with another artist (Luisa Roa) for the purpose of developing a joint exhibition.
In collaboration, Walcher and Roa came up with the theme and title of the exhibition »Strategies of Escaping« which focuses on the significance of prisons and strategies of escaping – even beyond the prison walls. The exhibition is set in the microcosm of the narrow, low-ceilinged vaulted rooms and artistically examines various aspects of imprisonment and escape.
For Roa and Walcher, prison is not only a physical place. Even the body, the mind or constructs of culture, society and family can be prisons as well. Some people react by fleeing or creating small worlds of their own, microcosms that offer them freedom. The exhibition project also focuses on moving away and emigrating as aspects of escape. Millions of people are on the move either as citizens of a »global village« or as a result of economically and politically motivated migration.