KIND

STRANGERS

SÜSSWASSER, VIENNA 28.11-10.12.2025

You are sitting alone at a bar; you are in line at a supermarket. You are in a cinema, waiting for a movie to start. You are having dinner at a friend's house. Your eyes meet those of the person next to you. Do you ask a question, break the silence?

Meeting a stranger is often tentative, even cautious: an effort to understand what lies before us in a single encounter. It does not happen easily; it requires calm, curiosity, and a small leap of trust. Perhaps this is why we often need a drink, a holiday, or simply a friend beside us to start speaking to someone new.

Mihály Sibinger's "strangers" are objects, places, encountered and accumulated in day-to-day life. In his process, a sketch may be redrawn three, four, ten times. Subjects are reduced to essentials: shapes, weights, angular lines.

Meeting a stranger, too, comes down to details. What sets this person apart from all the others? Our lives are crowded and our attention span has never been so short. After a brief exchange, we might sift through first impressions, trying to piece together a clear image. Or: the details are blurred. We forget them entirely.

'Kind Strangers' shows us what happens when certain details persist. From a fleeting interaction, something quietly present, lasting and familiar begins to take shape.

Curation: Anna Miscenà

Photo credits: Facundo Ceretta, Hanna Király