The center is often regarded as an imaginary place of stability: rational, democratic, civilized. Yet time and again, this very center proves to be fragile. Totalitarian systems do not emerge exclusively from the margins of society; they arise through shifts within everyday life – where fear, simplification, and the desire for order begin to displace ambiguity.

One could say that totalitarianism thrives wherever people cease to tolerate ambiguity.

In the exhibition The Fragility of the Center (Die Brüchigkeit der Mitte), curated by Elisabeth Piskernik and in collaboration with Le Cube, Maria Hanl presents works that engage with her personal perception of social shifts and the emotional conditions that enable authoritarian systems.

Her artistic language remains quiet, delicate, and poetic. For perhaps resistance today lies not only in grand political gestures, but also in continuing to experience the world – and one another – as capable of being touched and moved.

Studio Maria Hanl
Posthorngasse 8/4
1030 Vienna