Adriana Czernin

Born 1969 in Sofia, Bulgaria
Lives and works in Vienna and Rettenegg, Austria

In her new small-format drawings, Adriana Czernin combines two very different forms: a sharp, crystalline geometric body, and a fluid, amorphous, organic shape which are intertwined in an ambiguous embrace. The organic form seems to be determined, but also held and protected by the geometric body. At the same time, it penetrates its vessel and oozes out of it. Czernin plays with opposites: soft—hard, mobile—rigid, strict—apparently free, concrete—abstract. “Fragility can lead to insecurity, but it also means questioning the circumstances, it means movement, development, no matter in which direction.” (Adriana Czernin)

Having grown up under Bulgaria’s communist dictatorship, Czernin is looking to find forms of individual freedom in the framework of strict, seemingly unshakeable regulatory social systems. Unlike her relationship with political totalitarianism Czernin’s relation to the ornament remains ambivalent. This work reflects fascination and hopelessness, attraction and repulsion in an equal measure, which is also why Adriana Czernin refrains from violently smashing the ornamental system; her resistance is hidden, quiet and therefore all the more insightful.