The exhibition “On the topography of hollow and filled spaces”, curated by Maria Angele, unfolds like a story: it moves from theory and awareness to the relationship between (a/hyper)imaginary people and the surrounding world (whether we are talking about other people or objects), to the relationship with the interior and family heritage. As they move from one work to another, visitors are encouraged to test their visualization skills and ask themselves questions about how they process the world.

“Imagine an apple.
How colorful is it? Can you turn it over? Does it have shadows? Does it even exist?

Visual imagination varies from person to person. Your answers may be very different from those of the person next to you. Depending on these, you may be aphantastic, hyperphantastic, or anything in between.

Aphantasia is the inability to voluntarily visualize mental images.

Hyperphantasia is the ability to generate extremely vivid and detailed mental images.

Aphantasia is generally described as affecting visual imagination, but it can also be multisensory; any one of the senses may be absent. “On the topography of hollow and filled spaces explores the extremes of visual imagination, through the lens of artists Bianca Milea and Ruxandra Tudoran, who articulate distinct but complementary approaches to visual imagination.” (excerpt from curatorial text)

The group exhibition “On the topography of hollow and filled spaces”, held between July 25 and August 4 at MATCA artspace in Cluj-Napoca, is part of the FORWARD curatorial residency program.