Mirror

Mirror

curated by Basak Senova and Jonatan Habib Engqvist

Through the lens of prolific and internationally renowned artists, the project aims to offer reflections, echoes, and parallel narratives in a unique environment, with the potential to expand the understanding of the Mediterranean region and beyond. The initiative explores the relationship between time, cultures, and the city of Agrigento, inviting a dialogue on how the city can reflect itself and be reflected through these narratives.

The project presents itself as a visual and conceptual analogy of a broken mirror, in which the fragments reflect different elements: Agrigento, water, cinema, photography, music, and the audience. This mosaic of experiences takes shape in a multidisciplinary event at the Teatro Pirandello in Agrigento, organized into three interconnected chapters featuring an experimental exhibition and a film screening, staged in three acts for each “performance” in August. Spectators will be invited to immerse themselves in the experience as if attending an opera. During the intermissions, the curtain will rise to reveal a photography exhibition on stage, allowing the audience to interact directly with the artworks. Each event will follow a specific structure: two acts and a 30-minute transmission, with a total duration of 60–90 minutes.

A book titled Mirror will document the interaction between art and the city through the perspective of a stray cat, “Surfaro,” who roams around Agrigento. The text will interweave dialogues and reflections emerging from the artist talks, with contributions from 5–6 participating artists and representatives of the partner institutions.

The screening program and the book will be shared through special events hosted by partner institutions in various European cities, creating a cultural bridge between Agrigento and the European artistic context. This project seeks to create a unified, multidimensional cultural experience that connects Agrigento’s local narratives with an international audience, generating dialogues about time, space, and identity.

Do you know the curator and the curator

Basak Senova is a curator and designer (MFA in Graphic Design and PhD in Art, Design and Architecture) who has been writing about art, technology, and media since 1995, initiating and developing projects and curating exhibitions. From 2020 to 2022, she directed the Octopus Program, a research-based educational platform, as a visiting professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She is currently a senior postdoctoral researcher at the same institution with her PEEK project The Atlas (of Creative Mechanisms): [Curating–Conducting]. Senova curated the Turkish and North Macedonian Pavilions at the Venice Biennale in 2009 and 2015. She also curated UNCOVERED (Cyprus, 2011–2013); the second and fifth editions of the D-0 ARK Underground Biennial of Contemporary Art (Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2013, 2019); the Helsinki Photography Biennial and Jerusalem Show VII: Fractures (2014); Lines of Passage (Lesbos, 2016); and the inaugural exhibition B7L9 in Tunis (2019). She chaired the Art Gallery for SIGGRAPH 2014 (Vancouver) and led the CrossSections project, curating exhibitions across Europe (2017–2019). She concluded the Octopus Program in 2022 with exhibitions in Tunis and Vienna and has continued curating shows in Tbilisi, Palermo, Berlin, Pretoria and Istanbul.

Jonatan Habib Engqvist is a curator, author, and occasional educator. He is co-editor of Ord&Bild, and has curated experimental projects and exhibitions on four continents, including biennials and international festivals such as Art D-0 ARK Underground, the VR Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, Cycle Music&Art Festival in Berlin/Reykjavík, Survival Kit Riga, Sinopale in Turkey, Momentum Biennale in Moss, Norway, and the Reykjavík Arts Festival. He was the founding director of the Curatorial Residency in Stockholm, director of visual arts at Iaspis, curator at Moderna Museet, and has worked at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. His writings have been widely published in multiple languages in books and exhibition catalogues around the world.