Futuring The Past

Lennart Grau, Paul Günther Köstner, Anna Nezhnaya, Carolyn Prescott, Laura Suryani Thedja

01.03.2025  -  04.05.2025

Myths have shaped humanity’s understanding of the world since time immemorial. Across cultures, they have defined identity, morality, and symbolism, offering allegorical guidance and pre-scientific explanations for unknown phenomena. Born from oral traditions and sacred texts, these narratives have been perpetually reimagined through hymns, sculptures, or paintings, throughout the generations.
Myths are not merely remnants of the past; they are dynamic narratives that have continuously evolved alongside humanity. As societies transformed, myths were reshaped to reflect shifting truths, and their symbolism was adapted to resonate with new realities. However, an era of unprecedented change, turbulence,  and rapid progress begs the question: can myths still evolve and maintain their relevance and enduring allure in our contemporary life?

In Futuring The Past, Lennart Grau, Paul Günther Köstner, Anna Nezhnaya, Carolyn Prescott, and Laura Suryani Thedja, present works that attempt to answer that question. By challenging preconceptions, they examine inherited narratives, unraveling their complexities to expose latent connections and repressed histories. Their artistic inquiries illuminate the enduring resonance of these ancient tales, revealing the universal desires, conflicts, and emotions that continue to shape human experience. In doing so, they bridge past and present, transforming time-honored myths into dynamic, ever-evolving dialogues that speak to contemporary sensibilities while honoring the timeless essence of storytelling.

Lennart Grau, (born 1981, Krefeld ) is a Berlin-based painter whose focal point is the contradiction of playfully seductive motifs, predominantly influenced by Rococo aesthetics, with a disarming use of colour and an Impressionist understanding of lighting and spatiality. Intrigued by the decadence evidenced in the tawdry representations of angels, still lifes and epic scenarios, Grau uses them as a starting point for his subversion of shallow glamour.

Utilising Rococo’s ornamental imagery along with glossy contrasts and effects such as tromp l’oeil, Grau moulds them into abstracted blots of colour, resulting in a visual experience that is simultaneously seductive and shifty. This feeling of uncannyness is visible in his painting “Grid Imperium” from 2023. At first glance, the ornate lines and contrasting shades may recall a fresco of cherubs dancing and flourishing in the heavens; however, upon closer inspection, the shapes reveal their abject anonymity, evidencing the disconnect between the representative image and the real.

Paul Günther Köstner (born 1991, Bayreuth) is a Berlin-based artist best known for his abstract paintings, which draw inspiration from the rapidly digitalized and urbanized visual landscape. In his recent body of work, Köstner delves into Medieval and early Renaissance religious art, particularly pieces found in Berlin's Gemäldegalerie and other esteemed museums in the city. 

This engagement with historical artworks seeks not to replicate specific motifs or paintings, but rather to explore whether these works' profound, universal experiences can be reconstituted in a contemporary context, devoid of any remaining elements of iconography and iconology. In his exploration, Köstner observes that the original religious connotations and spiritual functions of these images gradually recede, giving way to a purely aesthetic experience. This process raises critical questions about the capacity of abstract art to evoke a similar depth of emotion and contemplation, even when stripped of its traditional narrative frameworks.

Anna Nezhnaya, (born 1987, Moscow), is a Russian artist based in Berlin and explores the presence of sacred spaces in contemporary life and the evolution of Western spiritual traditions in recent decades. Working with the mediums of drawing, painting, and neon sculptures, she brings new life to age-old narratives.
The series presented here focuses on her neon sculptures, presenting mythical imagery as striking, illuminated signage. The effect is twofold: the neon medium transports the imagery into a modern visual context, their radiant glow invigorating these ancient tales. At the same time, Nezhnaya’s careful selection and interpretation of mythical figures highlight their continued relevance while asserting her unique artistic vision.

“Falling Angel” and “Lilith Pierced” both depict Lilith, the supposed first wife of Adam, who was exiled from paradise for defying his authority. Nezhnaya reimagines Lilith not as a fallen outcast but as a figure of feminist defiance against patriarchal dominance. In “Lilith Pierced,” the piercings serve a dual symbolism: they evoke a martyrdom reminiscent of St. Sebastian while simultaneously representing a reclamation of the female body in an act of sexual autonomy. The amputated torso, an allusion to the Venus de Milo, elevates Lilith to an intersectional icon, intertwining Christian, Hellenistic, and Hebrew mythological traditions.

Carolyn Prescott is an American artist and writer living and working in Berlin. Her approach to the medium of painting is sensual rather than representational. Echoing maxims such as “brush as touch,” or “light as sight”, she sees an imaginative field of play between perception and conception, between image and language. Among a varied portfolio of works, ranging from the political series “Overthrow” to the phenomenological musings on co-inhabitance of “Plurality”, the series of works presented here are her interpretations of Brother Grimm’s series of fairy tales.

Her meditations on these fairy tales shift the focus from their traditionally happy endings to the hardships and cruelty the protagonists endure along the way. Rather than depicting the heroine’s triumphant escape from the wizard’s grasp, Fitcher’s Vogel (2024) captures the harrowing moment she discovers her sisters slaughtered in his lair. This stark portrayal transforms the tale into a sobering reflection on loss, emphasizing a universal struggle that must be endured before any hope of a redemptive conclusion.

Laura Suryani Thedja, (born 1993,  Berlin), is a German-Indonesian artist based in Berlin. Originally starting out with classical oil painting, she has integrated traditional Indonesian batik techniques into her practice. By combining painting and batik, she creates a unique visual language that reinterprets both mediums through her bi-cultural perspective. Her work explores themes of European and Indonesian mythology and identity. Often incorporating sculptural elements and vibrant imagery, Thedja’s textiles investigate cultural intersections, visual markers of heritage, and lingering colonial legacies.

Her 2023 piece, Babi Ngepet, exemplifies this approach. Mounted on a bamboo rod, the artwork features a figure in a bathing suit with a boar’s head, concurrently referencing the eponymous demon – who, in exchange for riches, will possess whoever summoned it – and toying with imagery of beach tourism. The work’s subversive nature becomes evident in its base batik layer, which blends traditional Parang motifs with illustrations from the German fairytale Hänsel and Gretel and the logo of the Dutch East India Company. By juxtaposing these elements, Babi Ngepet draws parallels between both cultures’ critiques of consumerism while highlighting discrepancies, as the lasting consequences of Western greed continue to reverberate in formerly colonized regions.