spectators were robbed of entertainment is both a document of activist protest and an everyday object that can be found in almost every kitchen. Based on the exhibition A good theory in theory, Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner uses elements of food culture to explore the ambivalences of the penal system.
A good theory in theory was conceived as an artistic survey of Brückner’s ongoing research, for which she exchanged letters with inmates from various prisons and asked them about dishes that the prisoners would like to cook first after their release. Brückner collaged the recipes she received with used kitchen towels. This annual edition was created as part of the exhibition and provides the context for the imprisonment of one of her correspondents.
In front of the spectators, a person stands up on a snooker table and throws orange powder into the air – as an embroidery on a kitchen towel, spectators were robbed of entertainment shows the protest action of two Just Stop Oil climate activists during the 2023 Snooker World Championship. Both were arrested, the second activist even before her protest took place. The joint plaintiff stated in court that spectators were robbed of their entertainment. What priority can be given to this in comparison to the activists who lose their self-determination in prison?
Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner lives and works in Berlin. Brückner collects her material from interviews with actors, archival documents or by requesting and using transparency laws, while she feels no loyalty to the choice of media. Her works are usually created in dialog with a counterpart, be it a state authority or individuals. For the artist, documents are multi-layered, as important contemporary testimonies that not only enable the development of factual information, but also reveal socio-political power structures and interpersonal relationships. In her work, she reflects on how laws and rules have a changeable character. What is socially considered the norm and what behaviour is criminalized has shifted over the last two centuries and is dependent on the social and cultural context, on criticism and influence.
She studied time-based media at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK) and at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research-based works have been awarded the Karl H. Ditze Prize and the Max Ernst Scholarship. Recent solo and group exhibitions include those at Kunstverein Dortmund (2024), Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin (2024), Kunstverein Gastgarten Hamburg (2024), City Surfer Prague (2023), Goldsmiths University London (2023), and EIGEN+ART Lab Berlin (2022). From 2023 to 2024, she was the recipient of the Hamburg Cultural Foundation’s scholarship for the promotion of young artists.
Belia Zanna Geetha Brückner
spectators were robbed of entertainment, 2024
Embroidery on kitchen towel
52 x 68 cm
Edition of 2
Euro 500,– (incl. VAT)