- Our inheritance was left to us by no testament -

Our inheritance was left to us by no testament
12 November – 19 December

With the gallery shut until 2 December, watch a video of gallery director Niamh Coghlan introducing our latest exhibition 'Our inheritance was left to us by no testament' now on our website.

A prelude to the gallery’s 12-month programme dedicated to the work of German-born, American political philosopher Hannah Arendt, launching in January 2021, this exhibition looks to the preface of her 1968 publication Between Past and Future, which opens with an aphorism by the French poet René Char: “Notre héritage n'est précédé d'aucun testament,” or as Arendt translates, "our inheritance was left to us by no testament." Put simply, the absence of testament, for Arendt, meant a break from tradition.

Taking this quote as a point of departure, the group exhibition looks to the work of seven female post-war artists from Eastern Europe. It speaks to possibilities in art without testament, without tradition, situated and grown out of particular moments in history, that after the Second World War, and the individual narrative of each exhibited artist.

Featuring work by Alina SZAPOCZNIKOW, Renate BERTLMANN, Barbara LEVITTOUX-ŚWIDERSKA, Běla KOLÁŘOVÁ, Erna ROSENSTEIN, Jagoda BUIĆand Jolanta OWIDZKA.