Circ Mag

16/08/2026

Thanks to everyone who came to see our launch group show, which included selected contributions from the latest issue. Thank you VUNU for the collaboration and nico bernath for the space, trust, and guidance.

The exhibition To Kick Against the Pricks responds to the issue’s theme through its curatorial narrative, which explores human responses as instinctual, almost animalistic actions, as coping mechanisms.

Exhibiting artists:
Nina Frommelt
𝙏𝙪𝙙𝙤𝙧 𝘾𝙞𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙪
clarafiegl
mai

Curated by Paula Pokorna and nico bernath

Act or Adapt:
TO KICK AGAINST THE PRICKS

An ox either follows the direction imposed by its oxherd or kicks, applying pressure against the sharpened goad on its open wounds. The ox may submit, yet the impulse to resist remains, and one day, it may act upon it. The theme of circ’s Issue 04: Act or Adapt sits with this tension, not to resolve it, but to ask what happens in the space between instinct and submission, between the wound and the action of pushing back against it.

Adaptation may not be mere submission to power. Here, it carries a form of subjective argumentation, a driving frustration, an act directed quietly towards one’s own survival. Some actions announce themselves: crossing arms while refusing to speak, or walking away. Others do not. Internal refusals appear passive. It is these quieter movements, the ones that emerge because something has already acted upon the subject, that To Kick Against the Pricks examines. The works presented do not offer a unified theory of resistance but rather probe its paradoxes.

Continue reading on the next slide

Tudor Ciurescu’s L’Eterna Urgenza stages instinctive behaviour on a pedestal. Urgent but sacred on its marble grounds, as a way of asking what power looks like when it exceeds its own authority. Clara Fiegl’s Thirst Trap explores the logic of seduction as a question of control that can’t hold; the reaction it draws from others already functions as a form of submission. The body instinctually reacts and therefore complies. Ana Avram’s Maladaptive depicts the moment when the sole protective instinct turns against oneself, transforming part of oneself into a threat that one n

16/08/2026

Issue 04 preview scans

15/08/2026

Issue 04 preview scans ✨

05/08/2026

Postcards from anitabrilll

30/07/2026

A postcard from Rechonski

27/07/2026

New in Issue 04: Creative Opportunities.
Found on pages 106–107.

For the first time, we’re introducing a dedicated section featuring open calls, residencies, grants, awards, and competitions for artists and creatives.

Scan the QR codes for direct application links.

26/07/2026

Copies of Issue 04 are available to purchase online or in person throughout the show To Kick Against the Pricks (23–30 July) at nico bernath

Open:
Tue-Fri: 3PM-7PM
Sat: 12PM-4PM

23/07/2026

We’re excited to launch Circ Magazine ISSUE 04: Act or Adapt. Come grab your copy at nico bernath or order online (available tomorrow).

Opening hours | July 23–30
Tue–Fri 15–19
Sat 12–16
Grösslingová 25, Bratislava

23/07/2026

21/07/2026

To Kick Against the Pricks opens on July 23, 6–8 PM.

Swipe to meet the exhibiting artists.

On view: July 23–30
Tue–Fri 15–19
Sat 12–16
Grösslingová 25, Bratislava


(b. 1999, living and working in Cluj-Napoca, Romania) 

Through her artistic practice, she proposes the negotiation of reality in spatial contexts, through installations and sculptures situated at the border of materiality and meta-reality. She gravitates towards peculiar juxtapositions of familiar objects and elements, which represent the product of mediating internal scenographies, within the limits imposed by physicality. Ana strongly believes in intuitive creation and research, which are delivered from a subconscious cumulus – the creative process being a sincere attempt of bringing to the surface and clarifyeing.

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(b. 2000, Innsbruck, Austria; lives and works between Vienna and Amsterdam)

Glass remains her primary material: liquid and solid, fragile and weaponised, it embodies the paradox of collapse and containment that runs through her work. Drawing and painting act as connective tissue between her assemblages of made, found and readymade objects; sponges, packaging, perfume bottles, aquarium fittings, each treated as a quotation lifted from an over-commercialised world. Water recurs throughout as both barrier and release, a recurring metaphor for the artist’s ongoing negotiation between what can stand, what will collapse, and what she relinquishes.

Fiegl studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam (“The Large Glass” department) with an Erasmus exchange at the UMPRUM in Prague, and is currently continuing her studies in the Drawing class at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien. Her work has been shown across Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, including the Nationaal Glasmuseum (Leerdam) and the former P////akt space in Amsterdam.

ph Timmy Ainedter


(b. 2001, Liechtenstein, lives and works between Frankfurt and Berlin)

Working primarily with solid wood, Nina combines organic material with other elements to create hybrid sculptures. Their practice explores the human psyche, digital culture, and the contrad