Burned House Horizon at Mimosa House

Burned House Horizon: Queer futurism, ancestral healing through speculative fiction, animist rituals, and collective myth-making.

Glad I caught this show on its last day. It was a mystical experience more than an exhibition. It looks at the Neolithic civilisation known as Cucuteni-Trypillia to process trauma in the present time. This civilisation inhabited the lands of present-day Ukraine, Romania and Moldova, but its history remained largely uncovered until the fall of the Soviet Union. The Cucuteni-Trypillia lived in circular settlements and were excellent potters, who created painted vessels, astronomical calendars, anthropomorphic figurines and pottery miniatures that were connected to the veneration of land and fertility, solar-lunar cycles and goddess-centred spirituality. Mysteriously, they were also cyclically burning down their houses, leaving behind only clay sculptures.

With these ancestors as guides, the show invites artists and the audience to see themselves as ‘future ancestors’ who will leave gestures and traces behind, for future generations. You enter in a speculative future time -or even past back to old civilisation and keep you grounded perhaps- in which they will find the archaeology of a queer, transnational community.

I loved the earthy melody, aesthetic and smell. The skin alike paintings hanging from the ceiling, the different sculptures created during the workshops, and how entering in a tent a personal ritual was taking place, leaving something behind for the future (I left flower petals and a drawing on the wall). The whole experience was homey, with low ceilings, dark, and with a welcoming Romanian herbal tea included. And mostly, what I liked the most was how a mystical, femme and queer geopolitics took place in the room.

I took some goodies with me, postcards and a hand drawing tarot card set. I don’t know how to read the tarot but it was great to keep us connected to art, power, myth, and friends.

Curated by Queer Femme and Fortune Tailed Beast.