Rivane Neuenschwander: dream.lab: Kinder Kunst Labor, St. Pölten, Austria

In Rivane Neuenschwander's major solo exhibition at the Kinder Kunst Labor for Contemporary Art, the Brazilian artist has created an immersive, spatial installation that explores dreams as its subject matter. Opening this weekend, the show features works developed in creative collaboration with the children of St. Pölten through the museum’s Children’s Advisory Groups and Art Ideas Workshop. Building on her last exhibition at Kinder Kunst Labor, Träume von Räumen (Species of Spaces and Other Pieces) in 2023, , the artist investigates on-site the significance of dreaming for humanity; the perception of time in dreams; the fleeting nature of dreams; and the difference between dreaming and daydreaming. Neuenschwander’s work take these investigations a step further to include the natural and political realm by asking: How do we dream about nature? What does it mean when dreaming is an oracle for Indigenous peoples? Can dreaming help us to expand our political and democratic imagination?

Neuenschwander’s work encourages children to engage in a close dialogue, using artistic processes and methods that provide a shared space for collaborative experiments, which in turn, inform new paths for her own artistic practice. The exhibition will feature comprehensive programing throughout its duration including talks, performances, guided tours, and open workshops to encourage children and young people to meet and exchange ideas with artists, art mediators, and scientists in a barrier-free space.

Central to the exhibition is the installation Chove Chuva (2002) which was also exhibited at the Benedikthaus last year. Thirty-one water-filled buckets suspended from the ceiling drip slowly into the vessels below, serving as retaining bodies of water. The materiality of the buckets harkens back to the history of the venue which dates back to the 16th century and was home to ironmongers from the 18th century onwards. Each day, the fallen water is used to refill the hanging metal buckets, creating a perpetual water cycle. The sound of dripping water elicits a dream-like state, while reminding visitors of water’s vital importance for the habitability of the Earth

Photo by Max Kropitz