For his book Salt in the Wound (2019) Jurriaan Benschop traveled through Europe to meet with artists of diverse backgrounds and talk about their artistic roots. How does the work of the artists relate to the cultural landscape they grew up in?

In his presentation the author will discuss the work of some of the artists featured in the book, among them Miroslaw Balka, whose work, apart from offering precision and beauty, also puts salt in the wound of our collective European history.

“My interest in writers and artists who have lived in constrained circumstances, such as Hertha Müller, Sejla Kameric, Paula Rego and Monika Sosnowska, is not without motive. I see a measure of urgency in these people, a clarity in how they think about art and life. Their words are like a compass that can also give direction in other circumstances.”

Jurriaan Benschop is a Dutch writer and curator, who has been living in Berlin since 2006. He has published books, contributed to exhibition catalogs and wrote for art magazines such as Artforum. Among recent exhibitions he curated are Taking Rootat KIT Düsseldorf (2019-20) and Re: Imagining Europeat Box Freiraum in Berlin (2017).

Salt in the Wound. Encountering Contemporary Artists across Europe is published by Garret Publications, Helsinki 2019.