In the Words, In the Bones
—exhibition 5/23 - 7/21, 2019

Curated by Magdalena Moskalewicz
Mills Gallery at Boston Center for the Arts

Participating artists: Marina Leybishkis, Nyugen E. Smith, Zsuzsanna Varga-Szegedi

Stories of origin cannot exist without a language to tell them in, without a tongue to carry the words. In the Words, In the Bones is an exhibition about inherited identities as grounded in language and in the body. Three artists with roots in Central Asia (Uzbekistan), Eastern Europe (Hungary) and the Caribbean (Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago) uncover their family histories, examine the contentious heritage of the colonial era and postcommunist ruptures and absences. The stories they inherited are marked with political conflicts and personal loss, but their own gestures are constitutive in nature. Through the use of invented languages, recovered historical records and reconstructed cultural artifacts, the artists create new, empowering narratives of reclamation, revival and growth.