CURA.

Rene Matić’s solo exhibition upon this rock continues the artists long-term interrogation of ‘Britishness’, exploring how the nation’s past manifests in its present. Presenting Matić’s work for the first time in Austria, the works investigate how family histories reverberate through different generations placing both subculture and spirituality in dialogue. While recognising the pitfalls of both, it positions subculture as religion, as saviour or guide, and vice versa. Matić notes: “it appears there is faith and soul both in the best and worst of things. There are parallels between finding the church and finding the pub. Or finding God and finding subculture. And in the end, I understand it as the search for something greater than yourself, something that won’t fail you when you are being failed.”

The new film work, Many Rivers (2022) takes the figure of Matić’s father, Paul, as a starting point to reflect on diaspora and the experience of growing up as a mixed-race person in Britain in the 1960s. This story is told from four perspectives: that of Paul; Matić’s mother Ali; their grandfather Julien; and their aunt Lulu. Through this film’s four-way dialogue the gaps in Paul’s story are partially filled.

Two vitrines, New Town, (2022) contain archival images related to Matić’s life.
The artist notes: “I am always looking for where I’ve come from. There are very few photos from my Dad’s side of the family, things got lost or left behind. And so, what I have is what I am offering and is that enough? Is it enough to construct an identity, or a life, or a country? This family archive reiterates an existence – a building of a church upon a rock… against all odds.”