Description: Love-Letters for loving, HD b/w digital video of scanned documents, silence, 2’ 58”, 2024.
The letters were written by the visitors as part of their participative act within the ambientation of “loving” at CYFEST 16: Archive of Feelings. A Journey, HayArt Centre, Yerevan, Armenia, 2024. This participative act constitutes an ongoing core-element of “loving”.
More than 130 letters were collected.
An environment with desk, chair, lamp, paper-sheets with printed letterhead (the title “loving” and references of the Cyfest festival) and pen was installed in front of the projection of the video “loving”. The visitors were invited to sit at the desk, write a love-letter and deposit it in the drawer.
The letters are written in many languages, such as Armenian, English, French, German, Indonesian or Russian, some are drawings or empty. They are dedicated to various subjects, such as a never forgotten love story, a newborn nephew, the first ABC learned at school by a little boy, the eternal love, a husband, a wife, a singer, love itself in our times, the exhibition and myself, an imaginary or ended love, mama and papa, life, love, justice, freedom, Armenia and Armenian people, peace and the end of the Russian war, special persons or situations. They also describe episodes, like the falling-in-love just by looking into each other’s eyes, which happened during the opening of CYFEST 16.
The handwriting is a significant element in my œuvre. The inspiration to invite the visitors of “loving” to write a love-letter originated from the exhibition at the Nuit Blanche Paris in 2018, where many people left heartfelt comments in the guest book. This indicated a widespread desire to engage in what was once an important habit in relationships but has largely diminished due to faster and more convenient forms of communication. Writing a “real” letter to the beloved one means putting one’s sentiment black and white, a signed confirmation of love. The sentiment becomes tangible and eternal, as we all desire.
Regina Huebner Regina Huebner was born in 1964 in Villach, Austria. She lives in Villach and Rome, Italy. She has two daughters.
She graduated at the Ortweinschule in Graz in Graphic-Design in 1985 and, in 1990, at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome in Sculpture. Recent awards and recognitions include CALLIOPE Join the Dots, outstanding Austrian women in art and science by Austrian Ministry for European and International Affairs, in 2024; The Prize of Culture to the City of Villach in 2022; The Decoration of Honour in Gold to her birth town, in 2021. Ambassador of the Independent Republic of Užupis in 2023 and “Person of the Year for Culture”, elected by the lecturers of Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung Carinthia, in 2021. Winner of the competition Monument to Paul Watzlawick, in 2020. Guest Researcher at IMèRA Institute for Advanced Study of Aix-Marseille University with Percepion of Self and Nonself in Life, in 2019.
She conceives long-term projects, that develop further, over time. Her artworks are interconnected across her whole artwork yet maintaining their independency. Estimation and deep friendships have led to collaborations with personalities from visual art, literature, music, and science, including dialogues and symposia. She involves special key figures, the so-called Protagonists, where the individual destiny is put on a larger scale. Their contributions are constituent of the artwork itself, like in Anonymus dedicated to Vally and in Dear Cell or in still ongoing projects like relationships and reflection and absorption.
She uses different means and media, from experimental photography, video, subjects and objects, environment, sound, to performance, text and programs, including theorization and concept.
Themes and items often have (auto)biographical connotations and treat questions on communication, perception, relation, time, under the perspective of feelings and subjectivity or from the opposite and the contrary. She conceives long-term projects, that develop further, over time. Her artworks are interconnected across her whole lifework of 40 years, yet maintaining their independency.
