The ‘New Normal’: Art in Pandemic Times

Two artists, Jolanta Nowaczyk, from Poland and Ekaterina Muromsteva, from Rusia, who both reside now in Zagreb and participate in the international programme for artists, WHW Akademija, have found a way to raise the issue of artwork during the pandemic, but also to share their own artwork.

Shortly after Croatia introduced the lockdown, Muromsteva opened a "Balcony Gallery" in her rented flat, with exhibitions changing every week.

"It was my reaction to the temporality lost in quarantine and feelings of lack of capability to show my artwork in public spaces," Muromsteva told BIRN.

The first exhibition, "How To Become Invisible," displayed her new series of large-scale watercolours, questioning unrepresented cultural workers, as "the cultural field is one of the most vulnerable and fragile, with a lot of unpaid labour and exploitation just for an abstract idea of being close to art".

The following exhibitions were "Portraits of Dogs Walking With Their Owners and Other People" and "Quarantine Outfit", portraits of Muromsteva's friends after Skype meetings, and an exhibition entitled "For The Birds" - "made especially for my regular winged audience".

Another exhibition presented an installation of drawings on toilet paper. It was entitled, "When You Run Out Of Drawing Paper, You Have The Toilet One".

"My plan is to continue running the Balcony Gallery after the quarantine ends and invite other artists to participate in future projects," the Russian artist said.

Nowaczyk also contributed to her balcony gallery, after sewing a flag with the inscription "New Normal" that now hangs there. As she told BIRN, the flag is sewn out of fabric collected from the streets of Zagreb.

"Using found materials emphasizes the precarious...