We begin 2026 in the company of a distinguished guest from the field of contemporary art. Rosa Menkman, a Dutch artist, curator, and internationally renowned pioneer and theorist of glitch art and resolution theory, will present her solo exhibition Image Remains at Filodrammatica Gallery from January 15 to February 5.
Drawing on Paul Klee’s iconic 1920 painting Angelus Novus and Walter Benjamin’s philosophical interpretation of the work as the “Angel of History,” Rosa Menkman’s exhibition explores what happens to images in today’s digital environment as they are continuously copied, processed, fragmented, and circulated across platforms and algorithms.
On Thursday, January 15, a conversation with the artist will take place in the large hall of Filodrammatica at 7 PM, followed by the exhibition opening at 8 PM.
Gallery opening hours:
Monday – Friday 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. | 5 – 8 p.m.
Saturday 5 – 8 p.m.
– closed on Sundays and public holidays
Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, public domain, source Wikimedia Commons
»Some images outlive their original meaning. They become myth. As they circulate through the realms of image processing, they may lose their provenance, shift in aesthetic, or speak for someone, or something else.
In his 1940 Theses on the Philosophy of History, Walter Benjamin introduces the Angel of History as a figure positioned against historicism, a linear account of events written by those in power. The Angel wants to stay, to awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. Facing a growing pile of wreckage and loss, she refuses a story of progress that smooths breakage into continuity, leaving what remains as collateral.
Propelled along the debris of a century of progress, the Angel is run through layers of obsolescence. With her signals daisy-chained via burnt-out dongles, she slips in and out of compatibility. Under the guise of the upgrade, trade-offs ossify as standards, compromising how, and to whom, her image can be read, stored, and posted.
Across platformed circulation and synthetic generation, her image becomes untethered. It fragments, forks, and recombines. She persists, not as a static render, but as myth. Bound to algorithms that belong to a time and place.
Image Remains asks what is left of the image when its resolution is made destitute and its appearances are governed.«
– Rosa Menkman, artist statement for the Rijeka exhibition
1. The Angel Returns, spatial installation
2. Horology & Refractions, videos
3. Destitute Vision, diagram
4. Benjamin’s Angel, booklet
☛ Galerija Filodrammatica, Korzo 28/1, Rijeka
ARTIST TALK:
Thursday, January 15, at 7 PM
EXHIBITION OPENING:
Thursday, January 15, at 8 PM
GALLERY OPENING HOURS:
Monday – Friday 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. | 5 – 8 p.m.
Saturday 5 – 8 p.m.
(closed on Sundays and public holidays; contact us to arrange another time of your visit)
ROSA MENKMAN
