As the title suggests, the show focuses on the imagery conjured by the meanings associated with the German word. Taken literally, ‘hinterland’ refers to a stretch of coastline or area immediately surrounding a large expanse of water. However it has also come to embody a more poetic meaning.
The word is synonymous with remote wilderness, backwaters, unchartered territories and metaphorical wastelands - both physical and psychological. Hinterland taps into the uncanny, it evokes dark Nordic dramas. In areas where because nothing is supposed to happen, the subconscious mind can roam free and project into this strange, alien space and picture it as a genesis for all sorts of happenings. It is somewhere hidden, perhaps forbidden and at the boundary between planned space and wild nature.
Hinterland is both real and unreachable. It lies just beyond what we know and can define.
It can be the origin of new life, the flood plain that saves a village, the incubator of nature that had nowhere else to go. It is the hinterland.
About the curator
Jane Neal made her reputation as a leading expert on the contemporary art scene in Eastern Europe. Regarded as one of the most knowledgeable independent curators working in painting, Neal is also credited with bringing a whole generation of Romanian artists to world attention.
