AKHMAT BIKANOV
SANNE VAASSEN

To Cure Melancholia presents an exploration of the passing of time, loss, and the intricate landscapes of memory.

Akhmat Bikanov delicately harvests dreamlike recollections, manifesting them through fleeting sketches and layers of watercolor. His images, both intimate and estranged, capture moments suspended in time, rich with longing for loved ones and places. Sanne Vaassen delves into processes of transformation and perpetual motion, reimaging non-linear timelines. Proposing alternative chronometers, she invites you to slow down and contemplate the passage of time.

Borrowing its name from Vaassen’s 2021 project, the exhibition sidesteps the linear and progressive, opting instead for an accumulation of landscapes and memories. Rooted in deep time, natural cycles, and memories layered like stratigraphy, this approach offers a reflection on the passing of time and our engagement with it, while also delving into the political and ideological dimensions of temporality, particularly through the lens of queer theory. Queer temporality challenges conventional notions of time, highlighting its cultural construction and the ways it reinforces societal norms. By resisting heteronormativity’s framing of time, queer time opens up space for alternative histories, relationships, and healing.