a/oholics

WORKSHOP & COLLECTIVE ART WORKS (adO/Aptive)

a/o-holics workshop &

Hopeaholic’s, Conspiraholic’, Topoholic’s and Surplusaholic’s Boards, 2024

Oppressive,

Out of reach,

Anonymous,

Amnesiac.

When thinking about addiction in pathological terms, one rapidly thinks of its pharmacological responses: cures, support groups, abstinence. But, what is it that we can be -aholic or -oholic of? Is it really just sugar, golf, work, drugs?

What if we repurpose this marker to gain a critical point of view on other aspects we have an equally compulsive and disorderly relation to?

In the frame of the A-/O-holics workshop we would like to think of addiction as markers of sociological, political and even philosophical standpoints and tendencies. We will employ technics and methods borrowed from popular addiction treatments like support groups and 12 steps and 12 traditions programs) to deal with 4 concepts we want to suffix the -a-oholic marker to: Hope, Topology, Surplus and Conspiracy. In the workshop we will gather Hope’aholics, Topo’holics, Surplus’ aholics & Conspire’ aholics in working groups for the -a/-oholics club, that will be active in the shopping mall of Center Skanderija Sarajevo. Within this gathering, we will not only work on our addictions, but also on collective art pieces that will be presented in the context of the exhibition Giddy Flames at Collegium Artisticum on the day after.

organized by Daniel Hüttler & Janina Weißengruber

Work details

Hopeaholic’s Board 1 (purple), 2024
Wood, cork, acrylic, paper, stickers, accessories
30×50 cm
In Collaboration with Iris Fabre and Lucille Leger

Conspiraholic’s Board 1 (yellow), 2024
Wood, cork, acrylic, paper, stickers, accessories
30×50 cm
In Collaboration with Helen Weber, Nana Sorgo and Ana Likar

Topoholic’s Board (green)
Wood, cork, acrylic, paper, accessories
30×50 cm

Surplusaholic’s Board (blue)
Wood, cork, acrylic, paper, accessories
30×50 cm

Exhibition Text

Giddy Flames refers to the architecture and history of both the exhibition space and Privredni Grad or Trade City, the underground shopping mall that hosts it. Well past its prime, most of its stores seem to be abandoned or closed, echoing the twilight grey of the show’s dimly lit scenery. The exhibition follows an idea of a magical place, hidden in the dark and forgotten corners of this relict of 20th-century architecture—a place where things follow a different logic. The shopping mall is located in the center of Skenderija, a cultural, sports, and trade center since 1969 in Sarajevo.

A cocktail of euphoria and regrets working through your system as you wait 18 minutes for the last bus. Or you ran and just made it inside as the door was closing. Dizzy head. A single light is flickering in the back of the bus. There’s only you, the driver, a girl with leather headphones, whose flaky skin is covered with stuffed animal stickers, X’s where their eyes used to be, and the skater boy who used to bully you in high school (except you are 23 and he is somehow 40 and balding). The driver squints under a tiny reading lamp, identifying coins for change. The girl’s face glows in the light of her phone. Shadowy figures rush past the windows as the bus takes off.

Curated by

Teuta Jonuzi & Julian Siffert

Artists

adO-Aptive (Janina Weißengruber & Daniel Hüttler),
Teuta Jonuzi,
Sebastian Koeck,
Lucille Leger,
Ana Likar,
Fritjof Krabbe Nørretranders,
Julian Siffert,
Lisa Sifkovits,
Kai Philip Trausenegger,
Helen Weber,
Lulzim Zeqiri