Dreamers on view at Vienna Contemporary 2024

Group presentation with MLZ ART DEP:

Matteo Attruia

Leonor Fini

Anaïs Horn

Anna Jermolaewa

Carol Rama

12-15 September 2024

Messe Wien Halle D

Anaïs Horn developed the project "Dreamers" during her residency at Castro Projects in Rome in 2024. Drawing inspiration from Marianne Wex's exploration of male and female body language within patriarchal structures (as presented in Wex's 1979 work Let’s Take Back Our Space: Female and Male Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures) and Glenys Davies' research on gender and body language in Roman art (2018), Horn photographed statues of male emperors in Rome using analog filters. She then employed artificial intelligence to transform the images of these emperors into women. 

She printed this series of images as postcards, that she performatively sold to tourists in Rome and integrated into the regular offerings of tourist shops and newsstands. By distributing the postcards in an accessible manner, Horn aimed to enact a subversive act—creating an alternative reality that rewrites history and provokes change for the future.

To mark the occasion of the Vienna Contemporary 2024, she printed some of the motifs as a limited edition on hand-treated marble slabs, humorously playing with history, as well as with ideas around difference and repetition, originality, replication and transformation. This project reflects Horn’s approach to integrating AI into her artistic practice, which frequently centers around historic female figures and the telling of (her)story / ies.

Dreamers postcards are available at Castro Projects, Roma, Macro Museum, Roma, Almost Corner Bookshop, Roma, Forma Arts, London, Printed Matter, NYC and online at printedmatter.org

Anaïs Horn, Carrara Dreamers 1–3, 2024, UV print on hand-finished marble piece, ca. 32 × 26 × 1,6 cm.

Castro CRIT #36: Anaïs Horn, Ohii Katya at Fondazione Giuliani, Roma

Tuesday 30 April at 18:30

Fondazione Giuliani 

Via Gustavo Bianchi 1, Roma

A CRIT is a meeting in which artists present their work, "offering it" to a collective criticism. 

During CASTRO’s CRITS each artist will have a session of about 45 minutes. 

The artists presenting during CRIT #36 are Anaïs Horn and Ohii Katya (currently fellows at CASTRO Studio Program). 

The CRIT will be facilitated by Francesca Pionati.

"The Windows" at Miart 2024

Happy to announce my participation in Miart 2024 with MLZ ART DEP presenting a new body of work from “The Windows” series. “Self-Portrait as Josephine” and other new works in booth 55, main sector, April 12-14. 

For Anaïs Horn's latest work complex, "The Windows," premiering at Miart 2024, she once again delves into a recurring motif: the window. Symbolizing the liminal space between the private and public domains, windows become conduits of imagination, transparent thresholds bridging worlds.

Drawing from drone footage, she captures glimpses on herself through the windows of her former New York 20th-floor apartment. These stills transferred onto transparent acrylic glass and juxtaposed with hand-painted silk curtains on aluminium curtain rods and aluminum (window) frames. Adorned with gemstone balls and tassels, reminiscent of traditional protective charms, they serve as guardians against external malevolence.

Within the exhibition space, she constructs an immersive environment, integrating her own furniture designs, including a printed antique carpet, painted poufs, and lamps (all 2024). These pieces, accompanied by drawings from her "The Windows" series (2022), transform the booth into a domestic sanctuary. Through the interplay of windows, she distorts perspectives, evoking notions of voyeurism and surveillance. 

The juxtaposition of unconventional viewpoints and delicate textiles conveys a sense of solitude and vulnerability, echoing the urban melancholy of Edward Hopper's cityscapes. Yet, Horn’s work is dedicated to Josephine Hopper, an overlooked artist and wife of Edward. "Self Portrait as Josephine" (2022–2024) draws on elements from famous portraits of Josephine, aiming to evoke uncanny moments of déjà vu through their distortion.

Self Portrait as Josephine IV, 2022–2024, video still, UV printed on acrylic glass, painted silk curtains, artist’s aluminium frame and curtain rod, Green Moonstone, 192 x 186 cm (detail).