curated by Anya Harrison

Broken heart. Crèvecoeur. Two interconnected words that remain together forever. The image of a heart shattered into a thousand pieces, the body's compass, no longer capable (or willing?) of supplying life-sustaining blood, has always impressed me. The sensation of a nerve pathway, an exploding energy field deep within that takes physical form. Overwhelming, unbearable, intense, it is an endless pain, a phantom body part that relentlessly recalls its irretrievable absence. No wonder there are people who are shit-scared of love. For seventeen moons I have screamed. Come home, I call to you, On my knees before executioners for you. The poem Requiem, written by Russian poet Anna Akhmatova in 1940 but not published until 1987 due to controversies surrounding the themes addressed in it, is a lamentation about love, loss and suffering. By weaving together Akhmatova's micro and macro levels, politics and current events, as well as stories of experiences she has had (in other words: forced disappearance and exile, for example of her husband and son, but also millions of others, strangers connected by the same tragedy), she unleashes a maelstrom of emotions in which sorrow, disbelief, grief and determination alternate. Upon rereading this cycle of poems, it could also be a testament to love and its doppelgänger. Because love itself is a double-edged sword, if not downright Janus-faced, and is inseparably linked to loss, fear and pain. It is a risk that demands nerves of steel. To love means to surrender to the premise of death. How far are you willing to go? The multimedia works of Penny Goring fit into this context: they are permeated by a constellation of feelings and affects that stem from

curated by Anya Harrison takes place on 17 October 2026 at Galerie nächst St. Stephan.

17 October 2026

Galerie nächst St. Stephan · Grünangergasse 1, 1010 Wien

This event is in the Innere Stadt (Wien) neighbourhood (1st district) – known as imperial, grand, bustling.

Nearest public transport stop: Riemergasse (3A), ~100 m.

Sights nearby: Stephansdom, Griechenkirche zur Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, Ankeruhr.

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