We participate in nature and nature participates in us: in her art practice, Sophia Mainka has always been open to strange encounters with animals, plants and minerals. The work created during her stay at the Fondation Fiminco in Paris deals with the coexistence of different species within an urban space. Parrots fly across the city, a whale swims up the Seine and dogs walk on paved streets. Mainka responds ethologically, allowing the animal encounter to affect the way she acts.
“Notes on Roommates” is a series of video sculptures Mainka first presented at the residency, restaged at GiG Munich. To produce her fictitious gathering of animals, she builds a room for them: industrial material is bent into organic shapes and upholstered with fabrics featuring botanical patterns. Here we see her become dog, her painted fists becoming paws; we see her as the whale, in the murky river water, rising up to breathe.