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Is it possible to escape from yourself? That is the question Monika Nowak (1991) appears to be raising at Prospects. Nowak is a storyteller who does not require a lot of words. In her multi-disciplinary work she combines installations and performances and uses gestures and movements to make repressed tensions tangible. Her often tragicomical stories are obviously based on observations and experiences from real life. But as specific details have been left out, they evoke a wider range of universally recognizable emotions.
At Prospects Nowak is showing the video The Over and Under (2025). In this work, recognizable props evoke an alienating effect, sometimes simply because they are represented on a larger scale. The story consists of two parts, with a main character who seems to have gotten lost in a dune-like area and is handed a mysterious map to find their way back. The scene appears playful, but as the story progresses and the way out seems to have gotten closer, the fear arises that the main character is actually trapped in a loop. This sinking, claustrophobic feeling is further emphasized by the abandoned landscape, which gives the impression that this story is an continuous, endless dream one cannot wake up from. A vicious circle, symbolically redirecting itself into a hole dug by the main character where they encounter their own reflection. It serves as an inadvertent reminder of the inescapable cycle of entrapment.
Text: Esther Darley
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)