KRISTINA MÜNTZING & JULIA STEPP 

Transformed or altered by time, a place or an object still has traces of its former users. Everything has a history, a fusion of what has been, what is and what is to come. Kristina Müntzing (1973) and Julia Stepp (1983) present works by reusing objects and altering them in order to create a hybrid based on their personal experiences.
Kristina Müntzing finds inspiration from her travels to Buenos Aires, Istanbul, London, Copenhagen, Berlin and Tallinn, etc. Her artwork often deals with issues such as belonging to a culture, creating a home, ethnicity and loss of orientation.

At ANNAELLEGALLERY, Müntzing presents a series of works entitled Palimpcity. The title is taken from the concept of Palimpsest, an element that has been used since the 1700s to describe the visual repetitions that one finds in a city. All works in the exhibition are based on images and objects that are significant to Müntzing, creating a hybrid city that is an amalgamation of cities and experiences she had.

By cutting images into pieces and later braiding them back together again, Müntzing creates art that symbolizes both deconstruction and reconstruction. The final image can be seen as a recycled object or an altered copy of a past reality. In this way, the experience becomes abstracted and fragmented like the reality truly is.

Julia Stepp is receiving her Master's degree from Malmö Art Academy in spring of 2013. At ANNAELLEGALLERY, she presents Sekretess, a series of small drawings, and two large works entitled Suspension of Disbelief.

Suspension of Disbelief depicts two larger figures emerging through feathers drawn by pencil. The title is taken from Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria, describing an act of consciously leaving out doubts about something in order to make it possible to be poetically convincing. Stepp is interested in spirituality as a phenomenon and uses the time-consuming and detailed drawing processes as a variation of a mantra. Through her diligent and conscientious drawing process, the figures slowly emerge and in the end appear to levitate on the paper's surface.

In her smaller drawings, Stepp depicts everyday objects that we tend to hide - things that we are somehow attached to but cannot be exposed for various reasons and therefore stored in drawers and attics. She observes and reveals their isolated secrets, recontexualizing the items and granting them new status.