wie eine Geranie rot / Red Like a Geranium

as part of „Vertical Horizon“ exhibition

Kyiv Biennial 2025

Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz

2025

curated by Serge Klymko and Sarah Jonas

 

Exhibition view of the work “wie eine Geranie rot” at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz. A canvas with impressions of geranium blossoms, three framed pictures on the wall, and a display case containing drone poems written by AI
Red Lke a Geranium, exhibition view, Lentos, 2025

 

In her installation wie eine Geranie rot (Red Like a Geranium), Elena Kristofor explores the radical ambivalence of a symbol oscillating between domestic security and technological annihilation. In the Austrian context, the geranium flower represents tradition and the idyllic retreat of the Biedermeier era. However, in the artist’s native Ukraine, this meaning is violently inverted: Russian kamikaze drones operate under the name Geran-2 (Geranium-2), systematically destroying civilian infrastructure.

The work translates this duality into a physical spatial installation, materializing the collision of cold technological warfare with fragile ecology. A central 10-meter-long canvas bears the traces of real geranium flowers violently smashed with a hammer: an organic, performative echo of the physical trauma inflicted upon the landscape. On the walls, historical aerial photographs from the artist’s archive are overlaid with analog curcuma prints of geraniums, while the glass frames are engraved with cartographic lines of the current military front. Through this layering, the mechanized „vertical gaze“ from above, originally a cartographic tool for orientation, is exposed as a weaponized instrument of target acquisition and control.

This material investigation is accompanied by AI-generated poetry written from the perspective of the drone, ironically programmed in the romanticized Biedermeier style. Through this grotesque juxtaposition, Kristofor highlights how modern algorithmic weapon systems use the language of safety while executing protocols of destruction, effectively overwriting the landscape into a wounded palimpsest.

 

Exhibition view of the “Vertical Horizon” exhibition at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025. Pictured is the work “wie eine Geranie rot” by Ukrainian visual artist Elena Kristofor.
Red Like a Geranium, 2025, exhibition view, Kyiv Biennale, Lentos Art Museum, Linz

 

Exhibition view of the “Vertical Horizon” exhibition at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025. Shown here is the work “wie eine Geranie rot” (red like a geranium), a detail by Ukrainian visual artist Elena Kristofor. A canvas featuring imprints of geranium blossoms.
Red Like a Geranium, Detail, 2025, Exhibition view, Kyiv Biennale, Lentos Art Museum Linz

 

Exhibition view of the “Vertical Horizon” exhibition at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025. Shown here is the work “wie eine Geranie rot” (red like a geranium), a detail by Ukrainian visual artist Elena Kristofor. A canvas featuring imprints of geranium blossoms.
Red Like a Geranium, Detail, 2025, Exhibition view, Kyiv Biennale, Lentos Art Museum Linz

 

Exhibition view of the “Vertical Horizon” exhibition at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025. Pictured is the work “wie eine Geranie rot” by Ukrainian visual artist Elena Kristofor.
Red Like a Geranium, 2025, exhibition view, Kyiv Biennale, Lentos Art Museum, Linz

 

Exhibition view of the “Vertical Horizon” exhibition at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025. Pictured is the work “wie eine Geranie rot” by Ukrainian visual artist Elena Kristofor.
Red Like a Geranium, 2025, exhibition view, Kyiv Biennale, Lentos Art Museum, Linz

 

Exhibition view of the “Vertical Horizon” exhibition at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025. On display is the work “wie eine Geranie rot” by Ukrainian visual artist Elena Kristofor. A canvas featuring imprints of geranium blossoms, and a display case containing drone poems composed by AI
Red Like a Geranium, 2025, exhibition view, Kyiv Biennale, Lentos Art Museum, Linz

 

Exhibition view of the “Vertical Horizon” exhibition at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025. On display is the work “wie eine Geranie rot” by Ukrainian visual artist Elena Kristofor. A display case featuring drone poems composed by AI, transcribed in pen and ink by Elena Kristofor.
Red Like a Geranium, 2025, exhibition view, Kyiv Biennale, Lentos Art Museum, Linz

 

Exhibition view of the “Vertical Horizon” exhibition at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025. On display is the work “wie eine Geranie rot” by Ukrainian visual artist Elena Kristofor. A display case featuring drone poems composed by AI, transcribed in pen and ink by Elena Kristofor.
Red Like a Geranium, Detail, 2025, Exhibition view, Kyiv Biennale, Lentos Art Museum Linz

 

Exhibition view of the “Vertical Horizon” exhibition at the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, as part of the Kyiv Biennale 2025. Pictured is the work “wie eine Geranie rot” by Ukrainian visual artist Elena Kristofor.
Red Like a Geranium, 2025, Exhibition view, Kyiv Biennale, Lentos Art Museum Linz