IN THE WHEEL OF EMOTIONS
Awareness, Care and
Forms of Quiet Resilience
in Times of Crises
30.1.–26.04.2026
Volksgartenstraße
6a, Graz
Handmade Fragments of Stories and Wishes is an immersive, participatory environment conceived as a sanctuary within the exhibition space. Through textiles, soft architectures, and subtle sensory elements of carpets, cushions, fabrics, and hand-written notes the installation transforms the room into a welcoming ground for rest, conversation, and attentive presence. It invites visitors to slow down, gather, and inhabit a shared atmosphere of care: to sit with their fears or dreams, and either release them or set them in motion.
At the center of the space is a ritual offering of food to the land, drawing from multiple traditions and presented with a picnic form creating a connection to the collective’s ongoing community practices in Athens. This offering is not symbolic decoration but a living gesture — tended throughout the exhibition, and returned to the earth by the Rotor team at its close.
The installation was inaugurated with a participatory workshop on rituals. Together, participants created talismans through sewing, writing, drawing, and storytelling, exchanging knowledge and personal experience as the objects took shape. Traces of this and ongoing encounters were woven into the space, allowing the installation to continue evolving across the duration of the exhibition. Visitors were invited to return, rest, contribute, or simply spend time within the environment.
Curated by:
Judit Angel, Eliška Mazalanová, Margarethe Makovec, Anton Lederer
The IN THE WHEEL OF EMOTIONS Awareness, Care and Forms of Quiet Resilience in Times of Crises exhibition focused on emotions amid the tension between multiple contemporary crises and an increasingly polarized political climate. It responded to a situation in which systemic extraction, political manipulation, and enforced self-repression collide with the basic need for fulfillment, happiness, and hope.
The artworks on display reflected on the formation of emotional maturity through upbringing, education and social norms. They explored ways how anxiety can be addressed, empathy fostered, loss overcome and hostile forces resisted. Moreover, they articulate the urgency of collective healing, mutual care, and sustaining hope in uncertain times—while recognizing quiet resilience, small everyday gestures that surface in the cracks of the system.
Ausstellung: Im Rad der Emotionen, <rotor> article about the exhibition on the platform kuma.at!
