TARWUK Transforms White Cube Into a Theatrical Mise

Gallery Network TARWUK Transforms White Cube Into a Theatrical Mise-en-Scène White Cube Mason's Yard hosts the artist duo's most ambitious presentation yet. White Cube Mason's Yard hosts the artist duo's most ambitious presentation yet. Artnet Gallery Network ShareShare This Article In the 19th century, German composer Richard Wagner coined the term gesamtkunstwerk, translating to “total work of art,” referencing a type of artistic creation that integrates multiple forms of creative expression to create an immersive, holistic experience. The term has been used as a foundational starting point in the eponymous solo exhibition of TARWUK at White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, on view through August 15, 2026. TARWUK is an artist duo comprised of Bruno Pogačnik Tremow and Ivana Vukšić, both born in 1981 and hailing from Croatia. Presently based between Croatia and New York, the two artists eschew individual identities in favor of this one pseudonymous entity to carry out their practice, which they have described as being a “condition.” Taking inspiration from avant-garde collectives of the 1960s and 1970s in the former Yugoslavia, TARWUK’s practice is unbound by medium or ideology, and instead leverages a diverse range of styles and genres to interrogate the mutability of collaboration, shared unconscious, memory, and the contemporary act of artmaking. Marking TARWUK’s third solo with the gallery, the show premieres a major, site-specific installation complemented by a new body of paintings and works on paper. The installation creates the show’s mise-en-scène, an immersive environment comprised of fragments of stage architecture, costume, television sets featuring video works, and a suite of three chairs that function as types of metaphoric performers. The creation of the show also marks the first time the duo has separated mediums within a single exhibition. While the installation is situated on the gallery’s ground floor, the paintings are shown elsewhere, in the downstairs gallery. Highly textured and with motifs ranging from landscapes and architecture to animals and figurative forms, they evoke dreams or ancient mythology, defying easy reading. Juxtaposed with the installation above, these compositions allude but never submit to a sense of narrative or artist-specific worldbuilding. The separation of mediums within an otherwise cohesive exhibition setting animates the theme of gesamtkunstwerk, and offers a multilayered and all-encompassing exploration of what it means to see and perceive. The greatest achievement, however, of the experience and underpinning themes of the show, are their applicability. While specific to TARWUK’s “condition,” they ultimately offer a conceptual structure that can be used when considering and reflecting on art itself. TARWUK is on view at White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, through August 15, 2026.