17–23 November / www.viennaartweek.at
© Stadt Wien/PID Photo: Hubert Dimko
© Sabine Hauswirth
In 2014, VIENNA ART WEEK is looking back at ten years of what could safely be described as a huge success: ten years of devoted service to visual arts in Vienna have seen the art festival burgeon from an art lover’s gathering to a sensational, week-long art extravaganza with over 35,000 visitors. Not only does Vienna enjoy a reputation as a music capital and world-class theater city, it is coming into its own as the site of a thriving, pulsating art scene. Today, Vienna is a city where art happens, a place where artists feel at home. VIENNA ART WEEK has successfully brought this to the world’s attention. Our congratulations to DOROTHEUM as initiator of VIENNA ART WEEK, to the members of Art Cluster Vienna as its organizers, as well as VIENNA ART WEEK’s over 100 program partners for this fantastic contribution to Vienna’s profile as a vibrant bright spot on the international art map.
Michael Häupl Mayor and Governor of Vienna
Andreas Mailath-Pokorny Executive City Councillor for Culture and Sciences, City of Vienna
© Johannes Zinner
Anyone looking to access the world of powerful, high-quality contemporary art will be hard-pressed to avoid Vienna. It follows, then, that no one hoping for a concentrated glimpse at diverse artworks should miss VIENNA ART WEEK. Visitors numbered 35,000 in the last year alone, offering impressive proof that the initiative – which was started ten years ago by the Vienna-based DOROTHEUM and implemented by Art Cluster Vienna – has a firm finger on the pulse of our times. But art isn’t the only thing to enjoy about VIENNA ART WEEK; with some 100 partners and 180 events, it has become one of the European art scene’s most vital social events and networking spots. 600 Austrian and international media reports in 2013 and close to 100,000 visitors to the VIENNA ART WEEK website suggest a significance that reaches far beyond the Vienna city limits. Sponsors from the commercial and tourist industries have also recognized its appeal, making VIENNA ART WEEK a successful bridge between the worlds of art and business. And last but not least, the city’s growing reputation as a vibrant art hub – also thanks to VIENNA ART WEEK – has bolstered Vienna’s image as the “most livable city” in the world. After all: a city that supports art, or one in which art and culture can develop freely, presupposes a climate of openness, tolerance and vibrancy – an atmosphere that benefits visitors and locals alike. VIENNA ART WEEK has long become for art lovers what the Wiener Festwochen is to performing arts audiences: a must-see. With all this in mind, I am excited to see what the VIENNA ART WEEK 2014 program has in store.
Josef Ostermayer Austrian Federal Minister of Arts and Culture
Edited by Art Cluster Vienna, Spiegelgasse 16, 1010 Vienna Idea and concept Martin Böhm, President of Art Cluster Vienna; Robert Punkenhofer, Art & Idea Project management and editing Anja Hasenlechner, Christina Hein, Barbara Wünsch / hasenlechner—artconsult Press relations Susanne Haider / art:phalanx, kunst- und kommunikationsagentur Translations and copyediting scriptophil. die textagentur Graphic design Josef Perndl, Aleksandra Gustin / Perndl+Co Printed by Druckerei Gerin For further information, please get in touch with hasenlechner—artconsult: T +43 1 402 25 24, F +43 1 402 54 86, E info@viennaartweek.at, www.viennaartweek.at © Art Cluster Vienna, 2014
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Preface
Robert Punkenhofer Artistic Director of Art Cluster Vienna Martin Böhm President of VIENNA ART WEEK
© Klaus Pichler
Running Minds In just a decade, the consistent focus on exciting, cutting edge art discourse has transformed VIENNA ART WEEK from a high-profile network of art experts into an internationally recognized arts festival. The cultural city of Vienna has become a European hotspot for contemporary art and the site of excellent art and exhibition projects with international appeal. Looking back on ten successful years of VIENNA ART WEEK, “Running Minds” – as the festival’s 2014 edition is titled – offers yet another compelling, condensed look at Vienna’s thriving art scene. An initiative of DOROTHEUM, the guiding vision for VIENNA ART WEEK has always been to give international context to a city with world-class museums, exhibition halls and galleries – a place where one is likely to encounter both innovative, cross-media contemporary art and unique historical art treasures. 79 program partners will be participating in this year’s VIENNA ART WEEK (along with Art Cluster Vienna, which includes all the major museums and art institutions in the city, renowned galleries and alternative spaces), again offering international highlights with an equally diverse and complex program.
Thanks to the outstanding commitment of all those involved, the seven days of VIENNA ART WEEK will be filled with exhibitions, performances, discussions, tours and studio visits, offering visitors a comprehensive update on the city’s goings-on. The motto “Running Minds” also sheds light on ideas that have preoccupied us from the beginning: how do artistic thinking and production processes, which aim to create new orders and unknown realities, affect the current human condition? How do the hidden obsessions behind them alter our perception of the world? As an immediate opportunity to get to the bottom of these questions, VIENNA ART WEEK’s Studio Day gives visitors a chance to meet some 70 artists in their studios, which is also the site of their creative activity. Last year also saw the introduction of the hugely successful program highlight Curators’ Picks, which promotes exchange with international curators. We sincerely thank our program partners and sponsors and hope that the spark of passion for contemporary art that we feel in our anniversary year is one that will spread to our visitors as well!
Art Cluster Vienna
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Eva Blimlinger Albertina Klaus Albrecht Schröder Architekturzentrum Wien Dietmar Steiner Association of Austrian Galleries of Modern Art Gabriele Senn Austrian Film Museum Alexander Horwath Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation Peter Bogner Belvedere, 21er Haus and The Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy Agnes Husslein-Arco departure – Das Kreativzentrum der Wirtschaftsagentur Wien Gerhard Hirczi DOROTHEUM Martin Böhm Essl Museum Karlheinz Essl Jewish Museum Vienna Danielle Spera KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien Martina Taig Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier & Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz Nicolaus Schafhausen KUNST HAUS WIEN Bettina Leidl Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien Sabine Haag Künstlerhaus Peter Zawrel Leopold Museum Franz Smola and Peter Weinhäupl MAK Wien Christoph Thun-Hohenstein mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien Karola Kraus MUSA Berthold Ecker quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien Christian Strasser Secession Herwig Kempinger Sigmund Freud Museum Monika Pessler Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Francesca von Habsburg University of Applied Arts Vienna Gerald Bast Wien Museum Wolfgang Kos
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2024: Klimt and Schiele have been dead for more than 100 years; the taboobreaking Actionists lie more than half a century in the past. It might be possible to update the image of Vienna’s cultural past and find new points of reference. Or even better: less retro, more present and future. The fact that Vienna has once again become an “arrival city” with a high level of immigration makes me optimistic, since this has the potential to raise the energy level of art production in Vienna. More controversy, less routine! Vienna’s museums and exhibition halls, which have long been one of the city’s strengths, will have to reinvent themselves as well.
© Osaka
© Lukas Beck
© APA / Barbara Gindl
Martina Taig, Dietmar Steiner, KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Architekturzentrum Wien Raum My vision for Vienna as Vienna sets international a cultural destination in standards in terms of the 2024 would be that it quality and quantity of of- finally takes into account ferings and interdisciplinary all the other arts beyond exchange across all artistic the visual arts. Vienna is fields. Everyone has the fixated on painting – a opportunity to access and tradition that reaches back engage with these presen to the Baroque – while tations, exhibitions and film, photography, design activities – through free and architecture carve out admission to the museums, a niche existence. Though for example – and the these disciplines enjoy a content is conveyed in a high level of museological way that is appropriate to and content-based supthe target group. The com- port from the respective munity is conscious of the museums, centers and value and importance of institutions, they are art and culture, and this underrepresented in the is reflected in the basic cultural discourse. Vienna social security offered art- has suspended the 20th ists to ensure good workcentury and until now has ing conditions and ample shown little willingness to opportunities. arrive in the multimedia 21st century. Welcome to Vienna – visit us in the underground!
Culturally Vienna is known for its imperial heritage, so visitors are often surprised by the city’s cutting-edge potential. Both the visual To answer the question about Vienna’s importance contrast between old and as an art location in 2024, new and the connection you first have to look at the between imperial ambience and contemporary art are past. Vienna’s galleries have established an inter- ubiquitous in the Museums-Quartier: the site is national profile over the home to both renowned last decade. A number of globally prominent artists, museums and contemporary cultural initiatives. Our many of whom are now represented in all the ma- goal, therefore, should be to support and promote not jor museums and collections, had their first shows only classical Vienna but innovative trends as well, in Viennese galleries. The and to position Vienna as a quality of cultural mediamodern city of culture. tion you see here is a key factor when it comes to creating opportunities and guaranteeing Vienna’s importance as an interesting art hub in 2024. Gabriele Senn, Association of Austrian Galleries of Modern Art
Franz Smola, Leopold Museum 2024. Vienna is greener and more urban than ever. The pedestrian priority zone was expanded to include the entire Ring. People stroll unobstructed between the MuseumsQuartier and the inner city. The gallery scene is booming; museum budgets have been given yet another boost. The Leopold Museum presents “Challenge: Schiele vs. Kokoschka” – the ultimate autumn exhibition. Opening celebrations for this year’s eagerly-awaited VIENNA ART WEEK are being held at the brandnew Palace Center, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU's revolutionary equivalent to a new Hofburg.
© Dan Dennehy, Walker Art Center
Wolfgang Kos, Wien Museum
2024 will see the tenth annual “Cup of Karlsplatz.” Sabine Haag, Kunsthistorisches Museum What started as the Vienna art scene’s badminton tour Wien nament at the KünstlerAs a unique international haus is now, one decade art destination, Vienna later, the most important will continue to expand its art event in the world. The position over the next ten final game between the fayears. Our museums are vored MOMA team and the home to world-class art “wonder team” of local galcollections and serve as lerists from Schleifmühl a place of inspiration and gasse is streamed live contemplation, enriching throughout the world. the cultural and intellectu- Foundations shift their al landscape at the highest funds to Vienna en masse level. Vienna has always after the first set, since the held exciting opportunities superior team of Viennese for dialogue between the make the decision all but old and new, facilitating obvious: goodbye New lively cultural development. York, hello Vienna.
© Leopold Museum
Vienna could be a linchpin of the future art world – it has that potential. It would be important for the museums to foreground Austrian art and make it even more visible. To do this, there would have to be more solo presentations of young Austrian artists in particular. Vienna’s art institutions should be in a position to allow current Austrian art to shine in an international context.
Christian Strasser, MuseumsQuartier Wien
© David Payr
Every school teaches “creative skills” – thinking in unfamiliar contexts, questioning the familiar, non-verbal communica- tion – all vital abilities for a “society of innovation.” The study of art is a key priority and important focus. In addition to prestigious cultural institutions and galleries, there are cultural centers all over Vienna. These are frequented by all walks of life and ethnic groups: tourists and asylum seekers, art collectors and the unemployed, scientists and bank employees find themselves side by side, experiencing both traditional and new art forms that articulate the existential longings, fears and hopes of our time.
Peter Zawrel, Künstlerhaus
© WIEN MUSEUM
Gerald Bast, University of Applied Arts Vienna
© Christine Wurnig
Karlheinz Essl, Essl Museum
© KÖR GmbH
© Osaka
© Essl Museum 2009 Frank Garzarolli
“This year marks the tenth anniversary of VIENNA ART WEEK.
Alexander Horwath, Austrian Film Museum The year 2024 will see every space in this city being used to provide art institutions and art venues (large and small) with the space they need to show the best of what their specific discipline has to offer. With no overlapping content, these institutions will not have to compete with one another. After a thorough self-reflection and exploration of their history, these cultural venues will stand both alone and in tandem with one another, will be inviting and exciting, critical, alert, confident and independent.
My vision: there’s still no way of getting around the art city Vienna in 2024. Nicolaus Schafhausen, With its unique combinaKunsthalle Wien tion of innovation and tradition, Vienna establishes 2024 Vienna is an open, international art hub which itself in its “twenties” in has maintained something the top league of European art centers and draws both extraordinary over cities national and international like Berlin, London or artists and cultural producBrussels: Vienna is a crossroads between history ers – be it for several weeks and the contemporary, the or months, for a few years, intellectual and the experi- or forever. Vienna Business Agency supports artists, mental, melancholy and persistence. 2024 Vienna curators and galleries giving them advice, space or has dropped its austerity, financial assistance, and discovered its passion for the world and developed an in doing so contributes to even greater open-minded- Vienna’s success story as a creative and cultural hub ness and curiosity. 2024 in 2024. Happy Birthday, will be exciting! VIENNA ART WEEK!
© FHeribert Corn
© Leopold Museum
© Lukas Beck © Florian Rainer
© Florian Rainer
Agnes Husslein-Arco, Belvedere and 21er Haus My vision is that the Quartier Belvedere around the 21er Haus establishes itself as an artistic center and a lively part of town, and that it secures Vienna’s international standing with its high-quality cultural offerings and contemporary art in particular. In general I hope that in ten years time, Vienna’s top-class art schools, galleries, exhibition halls and museums will become a point of attraction and gathering place for international artists – similar to what we have seen in Berlin – and that these new voices will enrich the local art scene. True to the Belvedere’s motto: Austrian art in an international context and international art in the Austrian context.
Herwig Kempinger, Secession If developments over the last ten years are any indication, then in 2024 the “art hub Vienna” will be little more than a wistful memory.
Monika Pessler, Sigmund Freud Museum
© Florian Rainer
I envision measures that would lend greater visi Peter Weinhäupl, bility to the practice and Leopold Museum theory of contemporary art production as a whole. The In 2024, the “Libelle” – interdisciplinary effectivethe Leopold Museum’s ness of art in this scerooftop extension – will have long become a fixture nario is as important to the on the Vienna cityscape, a discussion as its diversity, favorite spot for locals and which should be harnessed a highlight for tourists. The and used to benefit the work of artist Egon Schiele current socio-cultural discourse –- more from an will enjoy even greater renown than it does today, enlarged radius of activity for art and less from an comparable to that of Pi“art location” that consists casso, Cézanne or Renoir. But art’s unpredictability is in a static conglomerate of one of the most interesting unrelated highlights. things about it; it’s about the chance to discover something new, or experience something you never dreamed possible. I’ll let 2024 be a surprise. © Claudia Rohrauer
Gerhard Hirczi, departure, the creative unit of the Vienna Business Agency
Vienna is a city of art Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, producers and culturally MAK receptive audiences, and it will continue to be a Vienna has to become a global trendsetter in the hotbed of new modernism! future. A great deal of Vienna saw the last modheadway was already made ernist movement in 1900, in the past; with a growing, and it was one of its most interdependent network important interdisciplinary of creative production in creative labs. The cards the areas of architecture, are reshuffled in the digital photography and design, age. As a central European Vienna can confidently art metropolis with the meet future challenges. great legacy of the Wiener KUNST HAUS WIEN as Moderne and an urge to a bridge-builder between experiment artistically, contemporary art and the Vienna appears to be the topics of Friedensreich ideal platform for develop- Hundertwasser, the general ing significant interdiscipli- public and art experts, nary impulses in the digital will play an important role modern age. in this respect. In 2024, the image of Vienna as an open, innovative, creative presence in the contemporary art scene will become even more pronounced. © Florian Rainer
© Steffen Jagenburg
Vienna is visionary in art, architecture and design! Wiener Moderne is often moored to Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka. Now the time has come to high- light and acknowledge the 20th-century avantgarde – Arnold Schönberg, Josef Matthias Hauer, Frederick Kiesler – and create a bridge to the new millennium. The Frederick Kiesler Foundation is planning a “Kiesler Space” to provide permanent public access to his visionary work, including his “Endless House.”
Congratulations to VIENNA ART WEEK on its ten-year anniversary! The annual event has been crucial to establishing Vienna as an internationally renowned center for contemporary art. The rigorous interdisciplinary program, which also serves as art’s public face, can create a broad awareness of innovative artistic thinking and activity that will carry over into the future. As a bridge between East and West, Vienna is the perfect location for this!
© Natascha Unkart
Peter Bogner, Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation
Bettina Leidl, KUNST HAUS WIEN
Karola Kraus, mumok
© Peter Rigaud
© Sabine Hauswirth
What is your vision for Vienna as an art hub in the year 2024?”
Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Albertina
My hope is that ten years from now – and not least thanks to VIENNA ART WEEK – there will be a row Eva Blimlinger, of world-class art collecAcademy of Fine Arts tors in Vienna so that, Vienna even more than today, our In 2024, the 20th annual outstanding galleries can count on a clientele that VIENNA ART WEEK will it mostly finds abroad at open with a party on the moment. My vision for Rathausplatz, on Ringstrasse – all over town. All 2024 is that the standing of Vienna’s gallery scene of Vienna will be kunst, will be on par with that of the whole of the city an the Austrian national muart cluster. Exhibitions, performances, discussions, seums and the outstanding talks, open studios, guided artists who live and work tours and who knows what here. Vienna will once and for all be on a level with else will be everywhere you look. Artists, curators, New York, London, Berlin journalists, and visitors will and Paris! come here from all over and will delight in the fact that Vienna has become the international center of the art world.
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Art Hub Vienna
The Art of Location One title – one term – two readings by Isolde Charim
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The title of this article can be read in two ways: that a location needs art and, vice versa, art needs a location. Only when taken together do both readings outline what a location for art is. Isolde Charim shares her thoughts on the occasion of VIENNA ART WEEK’s tenth anniversary.
When art becomes a commodity, it generates an added value – a twofold value, so to speak. Besides the commercial, profit- driven value created by the art market, the artwork (a specific commodity) also assumes an atmospheric value. Developing a location for art and creating an art market requires not only buyers, sellers and mediators, but also a specific milieu, an art world charged with artistic significance. In short: it requires a certain atmosphere. Consorting in this universe are not only artists and art entrepreneurs, but art consumers and tourists; in other words, an audience in the narrower and broader sense of the word.
© Florian Rainer
Isolde Charim, born in Vienna, has lectured extensively at the Vienna University’s Department of Philosophy, works as a freelance journalist and columnist of the “taz” daily newspaper (2006 recipient of the Prize of the City of Vienna for Journalism) as well as a scholarly curator for the series “ Diaspora: Erkundungen eines Lebensmodells” (Diaspora: Explorations of a Life Model) and “Democracy Reloaded” at the Bruno Kreisky Forum. Recent publications include “Lebensmodell Diaspora: Über moderne Nomaden” (Life Model Diaspora: On Modern Nomads), published by transcript Verlag.
Speaking of an atmosphere conducive to production, circulation and artistic commerce, one could say Vienna is the ideal place. Doesn’t it boast a rich array of cultural offerings in all the relevant artistic fields, from music to theater to painting, from the imperial representation to its – long since canonized – questioning in Classical Modernism? In reality, this range of cultural activities is only useful for drumming up tourism, hosting a group in search of intact facades and a more present past – a vampiric cultural consumption that feeds on supposedly loaded symbols. While this boosts the number of overnight stays, it does nothing to contribute to a vibrant art a tmosphere or promote cutting-edge conditions of exchange. A modern art world milieu needs something else. This is where the word “Berlin” usually drops into the conversation. Not only has Berlin enjoyed a “European art mecca” status for over 20 years, it also raised the bar for other cities, becoming the ideal against which cultural policy and every location-oriented discussion measure itself. But what does Berlin have that Vienna doesn’t? The Berlin phenomenon is usually explained with a reference to the city’s low rents. Apart from the fact that these have been rising steadily for some time now, they were an important condition for the Berlin boom, but not a sufficient reason in themselves. What distinguished Berlin, especially in the years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, was the largely defunct spaces once inhabited by a state power. Places of a formerly intact, repressive order that could suddenly be appropriated and recoded. They were the ideal terrain for breaks and recharges of all kinds – free spaces, so to speak. An entire city as scope for development. False, full symbols could not be produced here, only cracked, non-loaded ones. The e conomic free spaces of cheap rental properties combined with the city’s symbolic free spaces opened a world that lured and drew the art caravan.
This art caravan consists of two contradictory and yet mutually conditional trains: that of artists and bohemians in their precarious existences – and that of deep-pocketed, bohemian consumers who are not looking for the loaded trappings of an intact past, but are on a pilgrimage to the fragile, crumbling symbols promising distance and an opening. The caravan train is a paradoxical one. It needs its own atmosphere that it can immerse itself in, and which it co-produces at the same time. All too soon, we are tempted to equate this milieu with urbanity or rather the standard notions of pulsing life and a buzzing city: diversity, colorfulness and any number of cultural presentations and events. In fact, this kind of atmosphere – one in which we are tempted to become contemporary flâneurs – only develops if art and culture are not decoration, and when the atmosphere is not depleted by the culinary pictures of museums, shops, pubs and the like, all ready and waiting for a hedonism with class. Paradoxically, these caravan concepts of urbanity, intensity and vibrancy again only work when carried by opposition – by something that does not serve culinary interests, does not support hedonism and, by this very fact, promotes it. This paradoxical something is called art. Following the first reading of the title – that the location needs art – we arrive at the second reading, the one in which art needs a location. It is yet another paradox that makes art the counterweight, the opposing force of a globalized art milieu: the paradox of an art that references its own conditions, requirements and limitations – at its very specific location – while simultaneously overstepping them. Contrary to the notion of a globalized art, this has everything to do with a concrete (and in this sense, “local”) environment to which it reacts. VIENNA ART WEEK’s tenth anniversary is an occasion to venture a look at the years to come, a forecast that might be something like: the next decade should belong to an art that turns to the specificity of its location, and of course to the concrete forms that globalization takes here. In Vienna, this means an art that undermines the still omnipresent loaded symbols; an art that opposes the falseness of these loaded signs, an art that counters the virtuality of intact facades with spectral appropriation. Spectral appropriation means exposing the absences that haunt the loaded symbol. Vienna has a lot to offer on this terrain. This spectral appropriation is (still) needed for the Nazi past, but also for the Alpine images and culture (still a glowing core of the Austrian identity). Spectral appropriation is also required for the cultural past and its national narratives, narratives that drift deserted through a world whose subjects can no longer occupy these discourses. In short, it calls for local art to act as a Trümmerfrau of the National. An art that carves out the same symbolic “free zones” that Berliners faced as the result of historical events. In other words, an art with a location, to encourage the location of art, paradox as this may sound. A lot remains to be done! 7
Art Hub Vienna
Art Location V ienna, Quo Vadis? Four artists – four answers by Christian Höller
The departure from Vienna of the Generali Foundation and the closure of BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary, the threatened dismantling of the Essl Collection, and the reduced Austrian presence at major international exhibitions: what does all of this mean for artists based here? What direction is the Viennese art scene moving in? And does the focus of the larger institutions benefit the artists working here? Four Austrian top-class artists answer these major questions in differentiated, and distinctly critical, ways.
Elke Silvia Krystufek “As I spend a lot of time abroad I haven’t followed developments in Vienna all that closely. Certainly a decisive change was that Peter Noever, who was most important for me and organized my only museum exhibition so far apart from the Essl Collection, was sacked. But in any case things for artists under the age of 50 are difficult here – it’s often seen as preferable to bring in a few “exotics” from elsewhere. One of the biggest problems is that today the museums are buying even less and instead spend most of their budget on advertising and events. Consequently they won’t be in a position to document Austrian history, simply because they haven’t collected these works. The move of the Generali Foundation and the closure of BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary mean the loss of two very politically oriented institutions whose programs, interestingly, were opposed to the approach of the companies that backed them. 8
Eva Schlegel, Elke Silvia Krystufek, Dorit Margreiter and Heimo Zobernig (f.l.t.r.) © Florian Rainer
I don’t believe that the approach of the Generali Foundation can be continued in Salzburg, as in this regard Vienna functioned very differently as a hub. The direction followed by the two big institutions – mumok and the 21er Haus – doesn’t necessarily benefit artists working here. The 21er Haus is meant to focus on Austrian artists but has become such an event machine that it’s no longer interesting to show work there. But in any case the people in the museums have no interest in, for example, finding out about what I have been doing during the last ten years. As far as international activities are concerned I was represented last year in three or four larger exhibitions. But this changes
all the time and depends a lot on your connections with the galleries. On the whole, large exhibitions no longer seem to have the same relevance they once had. I have noticed that in terms of content a lot has moved to alternative spaces in the different countries. Artists have begun to take things into their own hands – which, of course, means that everything moves away from the economy.” Heimo Zobernig “It seems to me that for young artists things in Vienna have developed extremely positively. Since I started teaching at the Academy I have seen a lot of initiatives set up by young artists. In comparison with other cities Vienna is more manageable and you don’t get lost in the enormous quantity, like in Berlin. Generally speaking the institutions have improved considerably. To make a comparison: when I started to show my work in the 1980s you took the first steps through galleries; the museums were far more reserved toward us – which in my opinion was not altogether a bad thing, as the galleries at the time formed a kind of differentiating filter. One major deficit that remains a problem is that there are few committed collectors here. Although there are now more collectors as a whole, their approach to new art is very reserved. This means that the galleries have to venture abroad to a greater degree, but they have immense difficulty in presenting young, unknown artists at international art fairs. As far as the institutions are concerned, naturally many wishes of the artists living here remain unfulfilled; so this is a narrow path, but there are curators in all larger institutions who follow closely what is going on and act as advocates of the younger generation. Nor should we forget that in Germany, for instance, the art world is distributed over several different cities whereas in Austria it is strongly concentrated in Vienna. With regard to international participation the picture has changed radically since the 1970s. Back then every appearance abroad was proudly proclaimed in Vienna. That’s no longer the case today. Nobody any longer does self-promotion with posters, as was done back then. Many Austrian artists are represented internationally in famous institutions, but I should say that I am just as delighted to be shown in an alternative space in Paris, if that enables me to come together with exciting artists or meet promising young colleagues.”
Christian Höller, born in 1966, lives in Vienna. He is editor and co-publisher of the magazine “springerin – Hefte für Gegenwartskunst” (www.springerin.at), a freelance author and translator. Numerous publications.
Dorit Margreiter “On the one hand, in the last ten years, many new artist-run spaces have opened to create new opportunities. On the other hand it has become almost impossible for the young generation to approach the larger institutions, even in the form of group exhibitions. This gap seems to me to have grown wider in comparison to the situation 20 years ago. Back then I had the feeling that a lot of what I was attempting to do was possible somehow or other. Although in contrast to Germany Vienna is still a good place to find funding, for instance. And people who come from elsewhere are amazed at the wide range of institutions and the density of exhibitions here, so I think in this regard we are very spoilt. Currently there are many good galleries in Vienna that manage to cover a major part of the scene.
A major shortcoming is that art by women is still hardly present on the market at all. Recently, when I was making the display for an exhibition based on the state collection of photographs, I was struck once again by the large number of good female artists who hardly ever appear on the market. In this respect for a long time institutions such as the Generali Foundation or BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary compensated for what is lacking in Vienna: exhibitions at art society level. This deficit has now become far more obvious. As far as participation in international exhibitions is concerned I don’t actually find that there is a major slump. Certainly, there was that one documenta in 1997 where suddenly ten Austrian artists were exhibited, but that has never been the case again since. But it must also be said that if you do have an exhibition abroad this is generally not registered in Austria. In general what goes on in the institutions, including those in Vienna, is strongly dependent on the persons involved. Everything can change very suddenly, which makes it difficult to predict how things will develop in the future.” Eva Schlegel “It seems that in the last ten years a kind of exhaustion has developed. In the mid-1980s there was a major boom as regards the opening of new galleries and the erection of new museum buildings. In recent years, things have become financially more difficult, due partly to the shortage of collectors. And of the many alternative spaces in existence around 2000 only few have survived to the present-day. But on the other hand in the last two years more galleries have opened. At the moment, however, you don’t really have the impression that entirely new themes are emerging, but more that established artists are shown. There can be no doubt that the departure of the Generali Foundation together with the closure of BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary has left behind two large gaps. The latter showed good international positions, which was important both for local artists and for collectors. In the case of the Generali Foundation it is a shame that their soundly-based conceptual program has now been dropped; especially in times like these it is important that fundamental work should be carried out and art kept alive, even with limited means. And MAK, which for a time injected the scene with considerable life, is no longer an option for contemporary art. The breakingup of the Essl Collection also represents a major blow to the art market. In fact there is a great deal that seems regrettable; all we can do is put our trust in the young ones, and hope that something will follow. With her program it’s probably Agnes Husslein who offers the best response to the needs of artists based here, while the photography situation – for instance thanks to Peter Coeln’s Westlicht/Ostlicht – is growing stronger. But we need more than this. Above all, there are hardly any spaces that can react quickly to new developments. A scene has to make itself interesting on its own terms. In the mid and late 1980s in Vienna this was much more evident than today. Providing structural support for the scene and making it more interesting in the way envisaged by the federal curator model in the 1990s – this is something that we need again today.” 9
Art Hub Vienna
An Imaginary Citizen of Vienna Reflections of a New York art theorist haven’t yet been able to put my finger on one reason. Perhaps it’s the intellectual curiosity of the Viennese: there is always a willingness to engage in stimulating debates – with some fine food, a glass of wine and the occasional cigarette, needless to say. I don’t smoke, but Vienna is one of the few places in the world where smoking still seems … almost charming.
by Joshua Decter
© Florian Rainer
“If it were not for the Viennese institutions, artists, curators and gallerists, my activities as a writer and curator wouldn’t have had the same presence in the broader European context over the past 20 years,” remarked Joshua Decter during the presentation of his book “Art Is a Problem” at Kunsthalle Wien in May 2014. But his longstanding love for Vienna is also based on finger sandwiches, the café culture and Egon Friedell’s brilliance, the author and theorist admits. Joshua Decter is a New York-based writer, curator, art historian, theorist, and editor. He has contributed to periodicals across the globe, e.g. to “Artforum,” “Afterall,” “Texte zur Kunst,” “Flash Art,” and “The Exhibitionist,” and has curated exhibitions at the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Apex Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Kunsthalle Wien, and The Santa Monica Museum of Art. He was Director of the Master of Public Art Studies Program at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts in L.A. 10
In the summer of 1993 I arrived in Vienna to meet with artists and do a talk. The heat was searing. With suitcase in hand, and sweating profusely, I made my way – as if on a pilgrimage – to Trzesniewski at Dorotheergasse 1, the lunch place famous for their delectable finger sandwiches. But the main reason for going to Dorotheergasse was the Galerie Metropol, where Mark Dion exhibited. That was the day I became hooked on Vienna. And so, I’ve been in a long-term, albeit platonic, relationship with Vienna since the early 1990s. There have been ups and downs, estrangements and reconciliations, understandings and misunderstandings, yet my connection with this city endures. I’ve asked myself for years why this should be, and
Vienna is a complex, cosmopolitan place, a hub of progressive art and thinking, as evidenced by certain galleries and academic platforms. It is a liberal bulwark against the conservative and reactionary part of Austria’s society, which links in certain respects to New York’s traditional liberal character, even though NYC is becoming more neoliberal than liberal these days. And there still is a healthy café culture, which is essential for intellectual life and which we only have a simulation of in New York. I know, I am waxing nostalgic for a kind of “older,” more European urban experience which faded from New York years ago. I often dream about sitting for hours in Café Prückel and dreaming up new dreams. Of course, this is an imaginary projection, since I do not actually live in Vienna, and I would undoubtedly experience the city differently if I did. But every city is a projection of its citizen’s desires, just as it is a projection of the desires of the visitor. I acknowledge that life in Vienna (as everywhere) is sometimes unfair and unequal, yet the social protection system in Austria appears to be rather robust, particularly when compared to the dysfunctional social welfare system in the United States. Perhaps this is an unfair comparison because of the two countries’ vastly different populations, demographics, economics, and geographies, yet it makes one think. Recently, I encountered a former resident of Vienna: Egon Friedell. I didn’t literally encounter him in a physical sense, because he died in 1938. Rather, I encountered his idiosyncratic brilliance in the third volume of his “A Cultural History of the Modern Age: The Crisis of the European Soul” (1930). His reflections on philosophy, art, science and just about everything else transport me to a Vienna at the crossroads of history. Here is one of Friedell’s most salient observations about art: “José Ortega, Professor of Metaphysics at Madrid University, and the leader of Spanish youths, says in his very clever book ‘El Tema de nuestro tiempo’: ‘Never does art display its magic power more admirably than in self-mockery. For by the very gesture with which it crosses itself out it remains art, and, thanks to its marvelous dialectic, its denial becomes its authentication and its triumph.’ That is finely put. All the same, it cannot be denied that decay sets in for art when it begins to see through itself.” Indeed, this is finely put. By a Viennese intellectual whose ideas are alive in me now, and who has instilled, within me, the fantasy of becoming a Viennese intellectual.
Art Cluster
21er Haus PANEL DISCUSSION
EXHIBITION
“How to work with local art production in a globalized context”*
“Krüger&Pardeller: Staging Production”
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 6:00 p.m. Blickle Kino at the 21er Haus In English
Photo: Sabine Klimpt © Belvedere, Vienna
21er Haus Museum of Contemporary Art Schweizergarten Arsenalstrasse 1 1030 Vienna T +43 1 795 57 770 F +43 1 795 57 136 E public@21erhaus.at www.21erhaus.at Opening hours: Wed., Thu. 11:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. Fri.–Sun. 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
GUIDED TOUR
Peter Weibel and curator Alfred Weidinger give a tour of the exhibition “Peter W eibel. Retrospective 1964 – 2014. This exhibition could change your perception”* Wednesday, 19 November 2014 4:30 p.m. 21er Haus In German
Odessa-born artist, curator and m edia theorist Peter Weibel – Director of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe since 1999 – is among the best-known rebels of the Austrian art scene in the 1960s and 70s. With the plurality of his methods and the coherence of his questions, Weibel and his body of work propose a new, singularly radical concept of work and the idea of the artist. Not only is he an important influence on many young artists working today, it seems clear that his ideas will continue to influence artists in the 21st century.
With the 21er Haus program objectives in mind, the discussion tackles the question of curatorial and institutional strategies for encouraging interaction between local and international art practices. Panelists: Dóra Hegyi, curator, project manager tranzit.hu, Budapest; Gregor Muir, director Institute for Contemporary Art, London; Shaheen Merali, curator, author, London; Chris Sharp, curator, author, Mexico City; Peter Weibel, artist, curator, theorist, ZKM Karlsruhe; Luisa Ziaja, curator 21er Haus, co-director ecm, Vienna Moderation: Robert Punkenhofer, A rtistic Director VIENNA ART WEEK In cooperation with ecm – educating/curating/managing. Master class for exhibition theory and practice at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: www.belvedere.at/de/events
OPENING
Exhibition “Krüger&Pardeller: Staging Production” Wednesday, 19 November 2014 7:30 p.m. Wotruba im 21er Haus
“Peter Weibel. Retrospective 1964 – 2014. This exhibition could change your perception”
Starting from a contemporary artistic production, the lore surrounding the historical conditions of artistic practice will be questioned using the example of Fritz Wotruba. The language of time, the art of others, the studio wall: Krüger&Pardeller shed light on the enigmatic, the banal, the incidental. The material used to weave a historical narrative about Wotruba also reveals the intangible substrate of their own production.
17 October 2014–11 January 2015 21er Haus
* Limited number of participants. Registration is required: www.belvedere.at/de/events
* Limited number of participants. Registration is required: www.belvedere.at/de/events
EXHIBITION
20 November 2014–26 April 2015 Wotruba im 21er Haus
OPENING
Installation “kunstbuchpanorama” Thursday, 20 November 2014 7:00 p.m. Foyer of the 21er Haus Bernhard Cella’s installation examines the economic and sculptural basic conditions that would allow artists’ books to be used as material for threedimensional art production. (See also page 93) EXHIBITION
“Sigmund Freud and the Play of the Burden of Representation” An installation by Joseph Kosuth 19 September 2014–11 January 2015 21er Haus The installation “Zero & Not” was realized by American conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth in 1989, on the 50th anniversary of Sigmund Freud’s death. It marked the beginning of the Sigmund Freud Museum Contemporary Art Collection, which Kosuth had a significant hand in building. The collection now features the work of outstanding international artists. 25 years later – on the 75th anniversary of Freud’s death – the 21er Haus is developing an exhibition in collaboration with Joseph Kosuth. Based on “Zero & Not,” the exhibition presents a series of other Freud-related artworks by the artist in addition to other works from the Sigmund Freud Museum Contemporary Art Collection and a selection from the collection at Belvedere.
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Art Cluster
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Art and Photography department, tour 2013 Photo: Claudia Rohrauer
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Schillerplatz 3 1010 Vienna T +43 1 588 16 0 F +43 1 588 16 1399 E info@akbild.ac.at www.akbild.ac.at
Exhibition
Opening hours xhibit: Tue.–Sun. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
OPENING
“Parallel Traces. Budapest–Vienna 1914–2014” Exhibition “Parallel Traces/Párhuzamos nyomok. Budapest–Vienna 1914–2014” Thursday, 20 November 2014 7:00 p.m. xhibit, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna The project “Parallel Traces/Párhuzamos nyomok. Budapest–Vienna 1914–2014” is a collaboration between the department of Art and Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Doctoral Programme of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. Initiated by the Austrian Cultural Forum in Budapest, it is part of a series of events examining the social and political changes in the years before the outbreak of the First World War. Works created in the course of the project are being shown in two exhibitions in Budapest and Vienna, and a symposium in Budapest will address the topic as well.
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The artists took a situationist approach to the subject matter: students from both groups explored the respective urban realities of Budapest and Vienna and created artwork based on their experiences. The project also led to collaborations between individual students from both universities. Places and architectural structures associated with the First World War form a focus of works exploring life during the conflict and its impact on both cities – the historical background behind the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. From this perspective, the encounter between young Hungarian and Austrian artists is also a reflection on the relationship between two countries that could not have developed more differently in the 20th century. Concept: Martin Guttmann, Michael Höpfner, Réka Nemere, Valéria Sass Works by: students of the Art and Photography branch at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Doctoral Programme of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest
EXHIBITION
“Parallel Traces/Párhuzamos nyomok. Budapest–Vienna 1914–2014” 21 November 2014–11 January 2015 xhibit, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Art Cluster
Albertina
Joan Miró, The Gold of the Azure, 1967 Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona © Successió Miró 2014/Bildrecht Wien, 2014 Albertina Albertinaplatz 1 1010 Vienna T +43 1 534 83 0 F +43 1 534 83 430 E info@albertina.at www.albertina.at
Exhibition
“Joan Miró. From Earth to Sky”
Opening hours: Thu.–Tue. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Wed. 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
CONVERSATION
EXHIBITION
Joan Punyet Miró in conversation with Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Director of the Albertina
“Joan Miró: From Earth to Sky”
Friday, 21 November 2014 6:00 p.m. Hall of the Muses, Albertina In English
Joan Miró, Painting (Birds and Insects), 1938 Oil on canvas Albertina, Vienna - The Batliner Collection Photo: © Fotostudio Heinz Preute, Vaduz © Successió Miró 2014/Bildrecht Wien, 2014
The Albertina is welcoming Joan Punyet Miró, grandson of the Catalan artist, to a discussion on the occasion of the exhibition “Joan Miró: From Earth to Sky.” Director Klaus Albrecht Schröder will speak to him about the exhibition and life’s work of Joan Miró, whose imaginative paintings make him one of the most popular artists of the 20th century.
12 September 2014–11 January 2015 The Albertina dedicates a solo exhibition to the Catalan artist with around 100 paintings, drawings and objects highlighting the poetic quality of his oeuvre. Miró’s works are characterized by a sense of lightness and spontaneity, and are yet meticulously planned. Miró shows a carefree, almost childish fascination for all things. His distinct pictorial language is as magical as it is universal. Moons, stars and comets, eyes and insects, birds and women populate his paintings and are among the most recognizable motifs in his art. The works of Joan Miró shed light on his poetic vision and sense of the primordial, the true essence of objects and the universe.
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Art Cluster
Architekturzentrum Wien
Architekturzentrum Wien Museumsplatz 1, MQ 1070 Vienna T +43 1 522 31 15 F +43 1 522 31 17 E office@azw.at www.azw.at Opening hours: daily 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.
EXHIBITION
“a_show. Austrian Architecture in the 20th and 21st Centuries” Permanent exhibition New Hall, Architekturzentrum Wien The exhibition “a_show” at the Architekturzentrum Wien is a permanent showcase for the cultural identity of the nation, presenting 150 years of domestic architecture history. An exhibition area of 300 square meters provides an in-depth presentation of around 170 architects and 420 buildings in the nine federal states. Ten episodes – “Prolog,” “Red Vienna,” “Landscape,” “Power,” “Reconstruction,” “International,” “Utopia,” “System,” “Collage” and “Present” – focus the viewer’s attention on the most relevant phenomena and currents. The chronological succession of individual phases in the development of architecture is covered and highlighted under specific headings. Parallel to these themes, a chronological “Time Rack” provides the respective data on periods of historical relevance to architecture and the cultural context from 1850 to the present day. As a specific feature in the development of Austrian architecture, a “Brief History of Housing” puts the focus on a subject of everyday relevance along the time line. Plans, sketches, texts, photographs, models and film footage bring the 20th century to life as they lead the viewer into the present.
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© Angel Borrego Cubero
SCREENING | CONVERSATION
STUDIO VISITS
“The Competition”*
Visits to selected architecture studios*
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 7:00 p.m. Podium, Architekturzentrum Wien
Friday, 21 November 2014 1:45 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
In English
In German
“The Competition” (2013), the first documentary film by architect and director Angel Borrego Cubero (Office for Strategic Spaces/OSS, Madrid), celebrates its Austrian premiere at the Az W. The film follows five internationally renowned architects as they participate in a 2008 competition to build the first National Museum of Art in the microstate Andorra in the Pyrenees. The masters – Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid, Dominique Perrault, Norman Foster – and their staff toil, strategize, struggle, and aim to win. Very detailed, almost painfully exact and raw, the film follows the course of the competition, providing fascinating studies on the personality, character, strategy and rhetoric of star architects, as well as the working conditions in their offices. Borrego Cubero’s documentary sheds light on the tension-filled process that characterizes architectural competitions, and in a compelling way seems to question the sense of it all. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with director Angel Borrego Cubero.
As a tie-in to the current Vienna skyscraper debate, this year’s studio visits bring visitors to architectural firms that have built (or are currently building) high structures in Vienna. Participants will give a presentation on their current work and share exclusive insight into their work processes.
* Tickets in the Az W Shop
1:45 p.m. Meeting place: Az W shop, MQ, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna 2:00 p.m. Departure of the shuttle 2:15 p.m.–3:00 p.m. querkraft architekten 3:30 p.m.–4:15 p.m. henke und schreieck architects 4:45 p.m.–5:30 p.m. pool Architektur 6:00 p.m. Return to the Az W
Moderation: Anneke Essl, Az W * Maximum of 25 participants. Reservation is required: E office@azw.at, T +43 1 522 31 15
Art Cluster
Belvedere
Upper Belvedere Prinz-Eugen-Strasse 27 1030 Vienna Opening hours: daily 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Lower Belvedere, Orangery Rennweg 6 1030 Vienna Opening hours: daily 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Wed. 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. Prunkstall Rennweg 6 1030 Vienna Opening hours: daily 10:00 a.m.–12:00 noon T +43 1 795 57 134 F +43 1 795 57 136 E public@belvedere.at www.belvedere.at
GUIDED TOUR
Public restoration – progress and status quo: exclusive guided tour with conservator Stefanie Jahn* Monday, 17 November 2014 10:30 a.m. Upper Belvedere In German
Ever since spring 2013, the greatest show restoration in the history of the Belvedere has been in progress on eight prominent wooden panel paintings by Rueland Frueauf the Elder. Thus visitors have had the opportunity to experience in situ how a masterpiece is analyzed, conserved, restored and scientifically researched. The guided tour shows the progress of the restoration work and defines what the sense of responsibility borne by museums means for the preservation of Austrian cultural values. * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: www.belvedere.at/de/events
EXHIBITION
“Masterpieces in Focus: Josef Dobrowsky” 17 September 2014–18 January 2015 Upper Belvedere The second exhibition in the series “Masterpieces in Focus” 2014 is devoted to the oeuvre of the painter Josef Dobrowsky, who is counted among the leading Austrian painters of the interwar period and regarded as one of the pioneers of modern painting in Austria. Highly esteemed by experts, his works have generally remained unknown to a wide public. By the time he died, Dobrowsky had produced an extensive oeuvre, for which he received several awards – most recently the Grand Austrian State Prize.
© Belvedere, Vienna
GUIDED TOUR
GUIDED TOUR
Curator Stephan Koja gives a guided tour of the exhibition “Looking at Monet – Austrian Artists and the Work of Claude Monet”*
Curator Harald Krejci gives a guided tour of the exhibition “Hagenbund – A European Network of Modernism (1900 to 1938)”*
Tuesday, 18 November 2014 4:00 p.m. Lower Belvedere / Orangery
Tuesday, 18 November 2014 5:00 p.m. Lower Belvedere
In German
In German
The exhibition is dedicated to Claude Monet, one of the main exponents of Impressionism, and the profound effects his painting had on Austrian art. The show unites works by the exceptional French painter that could be seen or served as models in Vienna around 1900, and shows them alongside paintings and photographs by Austrian artists of that era.
The Vienna artists’ association Hagenbund had a significant formative influence on the art scene between 1900 and 1938, not only on the home front, but throughout Central Europe. Conflating different style trends, the Hagenbund advanced to become a pivotal association for modern art, which soon transcended Secessionism and came to represent tendencies between Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit.
* Limited number of participants. Registration is required: www.belvedere.at/de/events
* Limited number of participants. Registration is required: www.belvedere.at/de/events
EXHIBITION
“Looking at Monet – Austrian Artists and the Work of Claude Monet” 24 October 2014–8 February 2015 Lower Belvedere / Orangery
EXHIBITION
“Hagenbund – A European Network of Modernism (1900 to 1938)” 11 October 2014–1 February 2015 Lower Belvedere
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Art Cluster
departure, the creative unit of the Vienna Business Agency
The results of her research, which she will present for the first time in November in Vienna, are visualized by graphic artists and illustrators – among them Simon Häussle – and will be shown on the occasion of her lecture. This will be followed by a panel discussion on the evolution of Viennese fashion styles for men. The people taking part in the discussion will be announced. Moderator: Brigitte Felderer, cultural scientist and curator.
GUIDED TOUR
“VIENNA ART WEEK 2014 – departure tour”* Saturday, 22 November 2014 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
© das weisse haus
departure, the creative unit of the Vienna Business Agency Hörlgasse 12 1090 Vienna T +43 1 4000 87 100 F +43 1 4000 87 109 E departure@@wirtschaftsagentur.at www.departure.at www.wirtschaftsagentur.at
In English
www.petarpetrov.com
SUPERSENSE opened a shop in June 2014 on Praterstrasse in the Second District in a Venetian Doge’s Palace, which the founder Florian Kaps describes as a “delicatessen shop of the senses.” Focusing on the analog world, he presents production processes and lovingly chosen products that appeal to all the senses. www.supersense.com
LECTURE | PANEL DISCUSSION
“departure Studio 2014”: Anne Elizabeth Moore – “A History of Viennese Men’s Fashion and Its Evolution” Friday, 21 November 2014 4:00 p.m. das weisse haus Kriehubergasse 24–26, 1050 Vienna In English
The American author, journalist and art theorist Anne Elizabeth Moore is a participant in the “departure studio 2014: Interdisciplinary Vienna,” a scholarship program for young international curators and theorists, organized in cooperation with studio das weisse haus and departure. Her investigations focus on the history of Viennese men’s fashion: Moore examines the effects of globalization and other economic phenomena in the world of fashion. 16
Petar Petrov studied fashion design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna with Viktor & Rolf, Raf Simons and others and founded his own label PETAR PETROV while still a student. Since 2003 he has been successfully presenting his men’s collection in Paris; in 2008 he also started creating ladies’ fashions. Petar Petrov now has an international community of fans.
During the VIENNA ART WEEK four studios and shops will showcase their work. A fascinating tour of Vienna’s Second District aims to captivate the visitors’ interest by showing them more about the approaches of creative people, the language of design, and production processes. Visitors’ guide through the studios and shops is Elisabeth NoeverGinthör of departure, the creative unit of the Vienna Business Agency. KERSCHBAUMERS good leather goods is the label on Stefanie Kerschbaumer’s designs of hand-made shoes and accessories. In her workshop she handles high-quality, purely vegetable-tanned leather and so combines brand-new t raditional craftsmanship with modern, timeless cuts. www.kerschbaumers.at
With his label Wubet, Arnold Haas is constantly presenting new ideas with which to enhance his high-end ethno styles. Select, hand-woven fabrics from Ethiopia are cut in surprising shapes and turned into unusual accessories, such as handbags, scarves and bed counterpanes. www.wubet.com * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: E departure@wirtschaftsagentur.at. The meeting point will be announced after the registration.
Art Cluster
Dorotheum
© Raimo Rudi Rumpler
DOROTHEUM Dorotheergasse 17 1010 Vienna T +43 1 515 60 550 F +43 1 515 60 467 www.dorotheum.com Opening hours: Mon.–Fri. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Sat. 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
PANEL DISCUSSION
PANEL DISCUSSION
GUIDED TOURS
Young art collectors: strategies, concepts, outlook
Visions for Vienna as an art location. Perspectives and chances
Previews of the auctions “Modern Art” and “Contemporary Art”
Friday, 21 November 2014 6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
17–21 November 2014 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. on all days Saturday, 22 November 2014 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Sunday, 23 November 2014 2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Friday, 21 November 2014 4:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m. In German
Art collectors are the known-unknowns of the art world. Vast sections of the art and gallery scene count on their support and commitment. But what about the future of art collecting? Will young collectors in the digital age develop alternative concepts? Are they as present in the up-and-coming project spaces as they are in the galleries? What strategies have they gleaned from the established collections and those that have been growing for years? As part of its series “The Art of Collecting,” “artmagazine.cc” will give insight into the young collectors’ scene in Vienna and discuss the future of contemporary art collecting. Panelists: Angela Akbari, LENIKUS COLLECTION, Vienna; Benjamin Kaufmann, art collector; Thomas Lugmayr, head of Contemporary Art Advisors, Vienna; Franz Wojda, Sammlung Wojda, St. Veit an der Glan, Carinthia Moderation: Werner Rodlauer, editor of “artmagazine.cc”
In German
Vienna has a formidable concentration of grandiose museums, exhibition halls and galleries, renowned art universities, and a vibrant art scene. The encounter of old and new, historical heritage and innovation is bearing fruit. Also, the last ten years have brought enormous changes regarding the staff, institutions and contents. The city has become the home of a contemporary art scene that has no need to fear international comparison. The panelists will debate the most striking developments in Vienna as an art location over the last ten years. What has worked particularly well, what is still missing, and which trends can we expect to see in Vienna’s future art scene?
All items of modern and contemporary art that are to be auctioned at DOROTHEUM in its fourth week of auction (24–28 November 2014) will be put on display during the VIENNA ART WEEK. Experts on all genres will be standing by for information and guided tours.
Panelists: Sabine Haag, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien; Agnes Husslein, Belvedere; Karola Kraus, mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien; Nicolaus Schafhausen, Kunsthalle Wien; Gabriele Senn, Association of Austrian Galleries of Modern Art; Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, MAK Vienna Moderation: Robert Punkenhofer, A rtistic Director of VIENNA ART WEEK
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Art Cluster
Essl Museum – Contemporary Art
Barry Flanagan, Harebell on Portland stone piers, 1983 © Essl Collection Private Foundation Photo: Peter Kuffner, Essl Museum Essl Museum – Contemporary Art An der Donau-Au 1 3400 Klosterneuburg / Vienna T +43 2243 370 50 150 F +43 2243 370 50 22 E info@essl.museum www.essl.museum Opening hours: Tue.–Sun. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Wed. 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
CONVERSATION
Curators’ Talk: “The Future of Painting”* Friday, 21 November 2014 3:00 p.m. In German
Is there a future for painting? What young positions of painting are waiting to be discovered in Austria? How is the medium of painting changing? How are young artists expanding this classical medium? These are the questions addressed by the Essl Museum in the exhibition “The Future of Painting” as part of the exhibition series “Emerging Artists.” 23 positions were selected out of 756 applications by Austrian artists. Against the background of the ex hibi tion, discussions with artists and 18
c urators will revolve around the future of painting in Austria. Panelists: Eva-Maria Bechter, Galerie Bechter Kastowsky, Vienna; Daniel Domig, artist, Vienna; Elsy Lahner, curator Albertina, Vienna; Larissa Leverenz, artist, Vienna; Günther Oberhollenzer, curator, Essl Museum Moderation: Erwin Uhrmann, Essl Museum
GUIDED TOUR
Curator Günther Oberhollenzer gives a guided tour of the exhibition “The Future of Painting”* Friday, 21 November 2014 4:30 p.m. In German
* Free transfer to the Essl Museum. The shuttle bus departs at 2:00 p.m. in Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna; return trip: 6:00 p.m. at the Essl Museum. Registration is required both for the Curators’ Talk and the shuttle bus: E anmeldung@essl.museum or T +43 2243 370 50 150. On 21 November 2014, admission to the Essl Museum is free for all visitors of the VIENNA ART WEEK!
Art Cluster
Austrian Film Museum
Gregory Markopoulos during the editing of The Illiac Passion (1967) in his apartment at 40 West 11th Street, New York City © Temenos Verein 2003. Photo: Jerome Hiler Austrian Film Museum Augustinerstrasse 1 1010 Vienna (in the Albertina building) T +43 1 533 70 54 F +43 1 533 70 54 25 E office@filmmuseum.at Opening hours: Office: Mon.–Thu. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Fri. 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Retrospectives
Library: Mon. and Thu. 12:00 noon–6:00 p.m.
10 November–3 December 2014
Evening box office: One hour before the first screening
Gregory J. Markopoulos – Thomas Heise RETROSPECTIVE
Thomas Heise
RETROSPEcTIVE
Gregory J. Markopoulos 19 November–24 November 2014 The Austrian Film Museum is presenting works of two great filmmakers who committed themselves in their respective field to a radically idiosyncratic code of practice. Alongside Maya Deren and Kenneth Anger, Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928–1992), born in Toledo, Ohio, is one of the founders and exceptional figures of a tradition later called Visionary Film: new American cinema, which after 1945 inherited the legacy of the European avant-garde. In Markopoulos’s case, his career took him from the New York underground scene to the Old World, where he led a nomadic life wandering between Italy, Belgium, Greece, Austria and Switzerland after 1967. He forged ahead relentlessly with his “handmade” film work, taking as his yardsticks the architecture of antiquity, the visual art of Mannerism and the achievements of Modernism in literature and music. Film for him was only conceivable as a kind of poetry that is consummated twice – both times demanding the greatest possible intensity and participation of all the
senses: when making and editing the films, which often takes years, and in the fragile and unrepeatable moment of projection, in other words when the “poem” is “recited” by the film apparatus. The Austrian Film Museum owns the largest collection of his works in the world and is organizing the retrospective in order to give a rare, in-depth view into Markopoulos’s cinematic art. It ranges from his early, trance-like stories (e.g. “Swain,” 1950), the iridescent portraits (e.g. “Galaxie,” 1966), to the films revolving around places and buildings (e.g. “Gammelion,” 1968).
CONVERSATION
“Starry Night: Markopoulos and the Temenos” Friday, 21 November 2014 8:30 p.m. In English
The filmmaker Robert Beavers, Markopoulos’s long-time colleague, talks about his companion’s life project, the Eniaios cycles (1947–1992) and presents excerpts from them.
SCREENING
Thomas Heise, born in 1955 in East Berlin, has been unerringly following his own path in the field of documentary film for over 30 years. In his films about social outsiders whose fates are closely linked to the political disruptions of our age, Heise draws a gloomily bizarre picture of Germany. The idiosyncratic and resistive elements in his works are derived not only from their subjects: they are borne on a frequently elliptic and profoundly poetic narrative mode in which reality is condensed quite differently from conventional documentary cinema. Thomas Heise was appointed successor to Harun Farocki as professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2013. He will be present at many screenings during the retrospective.
“Kinder. Wie die Zeit vergeht” Saturday, 22 November 2014 8:30 p.m.
CONVERSATION
What is the present? A conversation with Thomas Heise Saturday, 22 November 2014 After the screening In German
After the screening of “Kinder. Wie die Zeit vergeht” (2007), Constantin Wulff talks to Thomas Heise about his work and documentary films today. All events are public and can be attended at the usual admission fee of the film museum. Advance booking starts on 10 October 2014.
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Art Cluster
Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation
Frederick Kiesler, New York, 1958/59 © Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienna
Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation Mariahilfer Strasse 1b 1060 Vienna T +43 1 513 07 75 F +43 1 513 07 755 E office@kiesler.org www.kiesler.org Opening hours: Mon.–Fri. 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Sat. 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
EXHIBITION
“At the Studio and in the Workshop. Frederick Kiesler as Master of Self-Representation” 7 November–6 December 2014 The estate of the Austro-American architect, set designer and designer Frederick Kiesler (1890–1965) contains more than 5,000 photographs. Portrait photographs are particularly important in this collection. Whether at the drawing board, foundry or workshop, Frederick Kiesler was a master of (self-) representation. The exhibition shows Kiesler at work: with assistants or craftsmen, alone and concentrating on a design, or in an exuberant atmosphere in his studio, jokingly conducting his employees. Kiesler turned his studio into a stage. The work process was recorded for the public, with seemingly random snapshots complementing elaborate stagings. On the one hand, these images tell us about Kiesler’s own perception of himself as an artist, while also explaining the process in which many projects developed.
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That is particularly true of the work he did on the “Endless House” models in the winter of 1958/59. The many documentation photographs and their artistic merit appear to give the process of creation, the modeling with wire netting and cement, the same significance as the completed objects have.
LECTURE
The exhibition displays vintage prints by famous photographers, including Adelaide de Menil, Arnold Newman, Hans Namuth and Irving Penn, who recorded the artist while he worked.
Céline Condorelli, born 1974, works in the area where architecture and art meet. She develops critical models for the ex hibition business and examines scenes of discourse as well as alternative forms of community. She is the author and publisher of “Support Structures,” which appeared in 2009. Céline Condorelli lives and works in London.
Céline Condorelli, “To supply with the moveable parts of necessity and delight” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 7:00 p.m. In English
Art Cluster
KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien
Speto, 3 Brothers © Iris Ranzinger
KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum GmbH Museumsplatz 1 / stairway 15 1070 Vienna T +43 1 521 89 1257 F +43 1 521 89 1217 E office@koer.or.at www.koer.or.at
GUIDED TOUR
Expedition “Auf nach Aspern”: art and urban development along the U2 subway line* Guides: Erich Bernard and Franziska Leeb Saturday, 22 November 2014 2:00 p.m. (duration: 2.5 to 3 hours) Meeting place: subway station Karls platz, round square in Opernpassage (in front of Anker store), 1010 Vienna In German
Ernst Caramelle, Untitled (2013), subway station Karlsplatz, Art Passage, 1040 Wien Peter Kogler, subway station Karlsplatz (2012), U1/U2 mezzanine, 1040 Vienna Ken Lum, “Pi” (2006), subway station Karlsplatz, Karlsplatz Westpassage/ Friedrichstrasse, 1040 Vienna Ingeborg Strobl, “a garden (for example)” (2008), Novaragasse 8, U2 subway station Taborstrasse, 1020 Vienna Honet, “Totem Modern” (2013), U2 subway station Krieau, exit Trabrennstrasse, 1020 Vienna
Speto, “3 Brothers” (2014), U2 subway station Krieau, exit Trabrennstrasse, 1020 Vienna Pedro Cabrita Reis, “two drawings in the sky, two paintings underneath” (2013), U2 subway stations Donaustadtbrücke and Donaumarina, 1020 and 1220 Vienna Stephan Huber, “Aspern Affairs” (2013), U2 subway station Aspern-Nord, Ostbahnbegleitstrasse, 1220 Vienna * By public transport (and with a valid ticket!). Limited number of participants. Registration is required (by Friday, 21 November 2014, 1:00 p.m.): E office@koer.or.at or T +43 1 521 89 1257. Program changes will be announced on www.koer.or.at
“Auf nach Aspern” by Franziska Leeb
The continuous expansion of the city towards the east will culminate in the coming years in the creation of the Aspern lakeside city. The U2 subway line, which for decades ran along a short curved route of just three-and-a-half k ilometers under the Lastenstrasse, a main supply road for the city in the Gründerzeit period, is turning into an important urban transport axis as the city changes. It connects the new residential areas around the prater, in
S tadlau and in Aspern to the town center, but it also provides impulses for the new and old parts of the city. Though their architecture is in the Viennese tradition of a standardized design concept for all station buildings on the line, every new building (architecture: Paul Katzberger, Gerhard Mossburger) reacts to specific local conditions. The artistic interventions along the entire route borrow from the topographic, historic or atmospheric features of the districts they are in. The expedition on the U2 subway line goes from artwork to artwork and will familiarize the participants with the history of urban development along this increasingly important axis.
Erich Bernard, born in 1965, architect, author of numerous works about the cultural and architectural history of Vienna; studied architecture at the GrazUniversity of Technology and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Founding partner of BWM Architekten und Partner, 2013 visiting professor at the NDU – New Design University St. Pölten. Franziska Leeb, born in 1968, works as a freelance architecture publicist, journalist, architectural broker and presenter in Vienna. Architecture critic for the “Spectrum” section of the daily newspaper “Die Presse,” freelance collaborator for “architektur. aktuell.” 21
Art Cluster
KUNST HAUS WIEN
“The Crowning of Chic,” Jada, hat by Philipp Treacy, Vogue Germany, 1998 © Estate Lillian Bassman KUNST HAUS WIEN Untere Weissgerberstrasse 13 1030 Vienna T +43 1 712 04 91 F +43 1 712 04 96 info@kunsthauswien.com www.kunsthauswien.com Opening hours: daily 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.
Exhibition
“Lillian Bassman & Paul Himmel” Exhibition
“Lillian Bassman & Paul Himmel. Two Lives for Photography” 16 October 2014–8 February 2015 KUNST HAUS WIEN is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the American artist couple Lillian Bassman (1917–2012) and Paul Himmel (1914–2009). Lillian Bassman’s fashion photography, torn between experimental aesthetics and gripping staging, impresses viewers with its elegance and sense of style. In her work for “Harper’s Bazaar” and “Vogue,” a stream of new photographic procedures allowed her to develop a unique style that appears almost painterly. Paul Himmel’s work also appears timeless with its almost radical joy in experimentation. He t ransformed from a popular fashion photographer to a freelance artists and 22
sounded out the limits of the genre in terms of both motifs and technology. Together, the couple created a body of work full of productive paradoxes and creative tensions that even now has lost none of its modernity. GUIDED TOUR
“Lillian Bassman’s Fashion Photography” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 6:00 p.m. In English
Richard Avedon once said about Lillian Bassman: “Everything she does has a positively magic power. She is the only one in the history of photography who managed to visualize that breathtaking moment between the apparition and disappearance of things.”
Why did Lillian Bassman, who actually wanted to become a painter, turn to (fashion) photography? What makes her fashion photography so distinctive, unique and timeless? How did she influence the development of the genre? How did she develop her special lab techniques? How was the artist rediscovered by art directors and finally by galleries and museums? Curator Brigitte Woischnik and Lillian Bassman’s long-term companion Frans Ankoné, creative director of MOAM collective, stylist, curator and “Vogue” columnist, give a tour of the exhibition.
Art Cluster
Kunsthalle Wien
Remco Torenbosch, “European contextualising in analytical sociology and ethnographical representation on history and the present” Prix-de-Rome 2013 Photos: Daniel Nicolas
Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz Treitlstrasse 2 1040 Vienna T +43 1 521 89 33 F +43 1 521 89 1217 E office@kunsthallewien.at www.kunsthallewien.at Opening hours: Fri.–Wed. 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Thu. 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
Exhibition
“Blue Times” PANEL DISCUSSION
“Searching for Blue in the European Union Flag” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 6:00 p.m. Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier In English
On the occasion of the group exhibition “Blue Times,” curated by Amira Gad and Nicolaus Schafhausen, Kunsthalle Wien presents the panel discussion “Searching for Blue in the European Union Flag.” The title is eponymous with an essay by Charles Esche in Remco Torenbosch’s publication “European Contextualising in Analytical Sociology and Ethnographical Representation on History and Present” (2014) that forms the core of this event. This publication is the result of extensive research into the history of the European flag, opening up an intriguing discussion on the changing socio-economics of European Union nations, the disappearance of once booming textile industries and the strong national identities of a union in flux.
The research work for the book included compiling a collection of fabric monochromes woven by weavers from all 28 member states of the EU in the basic color of the European flag. These collated monochromes create a map of the socio-economic shift within EU member communities, an embodiment of Europe’s disappearing textile industries. The color blue in these monochromes can be viewed as a physical representation of the EU’s modernist t radition, its purity laws, its longing for transcendence and the optimistic belief in the utopian potential. Participants: Amira Gad, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Remco Torenbosch
Exhibition
“Blue Times” 1 October 2014–11 January 2015 Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier Any history of color is, above all, a social history. How can we tell our story through the filter of the color blue? First known for its preciousness and the scarcity of the lapis lazuli pigment, the history of the color blue is one that has undergone various changes in meanings over time: from blue jeans and blue- collar workers to the color of the European Union and United Nations, to becoming a symbol of freedom and the color of melancholy in expressions like “feeling blue.” The exhibition “Blue Times” showcases more than 30 international artists whose works revolve around the significance of the color blue. Curators: Amira Gad, Nicolaus Schafhausen
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Art Cluster
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
Diego Velázquez, The Rokeby Venus, 1647–1651 © The National Gallery, London Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien Maria-Theresien-Platz 1010 Vienna T +43 1 525 24 4025 F +43 1 525 24 4098 E info@khm.at www.khm.at Opening hours: Tue.–Sun. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Thu. 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. Imperial Carriage Museum Schönbrunn Palace 1130 Vienna Opening hours: May–October daily 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. November–April daily 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
GUIDED TOUR
Guided tour through the special exhibition “Coaching the Congress Along. Rent-aCarriages, Pleasure Cruises and Luxury Outfits at the Congress of Vienna 1814/15” with Monica Kurzel-Runt scheiner, Director of the Imperial Carriage M useum*
The Carriage Museum is the only museum in Vienna to possess a rich treasury of resplendent three-dimensional objects from the time of the Vienna Congress. With its coaches, sleighs, horse carriages and uniforms, the exhibition presents an opulent tableau that revives the splendor of the Vienna Congress after 200 years.
Tuesday, 18 November 2014 3:00 p.m.
* Limited number of participants. Registration is required: E viennaartweek@khm.at
Meeting place: Imperial Carriage Museum Vienna, Schönbrunn
GUIDED TOUR
In German
Sylvia Ferino, Director of the Picture Gallery, gives a tour of the special exhibition “Velázquez”*
In 1814/15 Vienna was the center of the world for eight months: monarchs and political decision-makers had gathered together here in order to reconstitute Europe after the fall of Napoleon. It is well known that “the Congress danced,” but what was even more important to contemporaries was that it “drove” as well: hundreds of ceremonial carriages had to be built as quickly as possible in order to provide the dignitaries with 24
suitable transportation and entertainment, offered for example by merry sleigh rides and barouche trips.
Thursday, 20 November 2014 6:00 p.m. Meeting place: entrance hall of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien In German
In fall 2014, for the first time in the German-speaking area, the Painting
Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum is showcasing works by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez (1599–1660). Besides the enchanting portraits of the infantes and infantas in its own collection, which are among the museum’s highlights, there are many loans from leading international museums, including several major works by the painter such as the “Rokeby Venus,” “Vulcan’s Forge” and “Adoration of the Magi.” Partners and main lenders are the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, the National Gallery in London, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: E viennaartweek@khm.at
Art Cluster
Künstlerhaus Künstlerhaus Karlsplatz 5 1010 Vienna T +43 1 587 96 63 F +43 1 587 87 36 E office@k-haus.at www.k-haus.at Opening hours: Tue., Wed., Fri.–Sun. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Thu. 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
EXHIBITION | DISCUSSION PLATFORM
GUIDED TOUR
GUIDED TOUR
“at least 25 moments per second”
Curator-guided tour through the exhibition “at least 25 moments per second”
Curator-guided tour through the exhibition “Experiment Analog”
Thursday, 20 November 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, 20 November 2014 7:00 p.m.
In German and English
In German
EXHIBITION
LECTURE
“Experiment Analog. Fotografische Handschriften im Zeitalter des Digitalen”
Lecture by Kurt Zein on the old technique of photogravure
31 October–30 November 2014 The exhibition title takes up the name of the video PAL standard, 25 fps (frames per second), and converts it to “moments per second.” That means that the factor of time is considered twice – once in the word “moment,” which expresses an emotional or physical impulse, a movement in time, and in the measurable unit of a second. The exhibition project emerged from the discursive exchange at Miss Baltazar’s Laboratory (www.mzbaltazarslaboratory.org) that has been going on since 2011. The exchange becomes visible in the exhibition space in a form of presentation where the video installations of the three artists involved are played in sequence and concurrently in three different projections. Because of the spatial and temporal dilation and the opening up of new reconfigurations, a “frame” can become a “moment.” The result is more than a simple addition of three separate works: a moment of transmission, of transfer from one video or video section to another in the moment when the video installations mesh. The works expand by creating a space – the physical space of the exhibition, but also an acoustic space – and opening a space where emotions can be transmitted.
31 October–14 December 2014 Some photo and media artists have developed an aversion over the past few years against the smoothness and mass production of digitally created images. Photoshop, too, has fallen into disrepute, because it creates a surface smoothness that lacks the auratic character of analog photography. Artists also bemoan the lack of craftsmanship in digital images, the lack of an individual handwriting and a personal spirit of invention – all the characteristics that make a photograph into a unique object. Fundamentally, it comes down to scope for judgment vs. machine perfection.
Thursday, 20 November 2014 8:00 p.m. In German
Participating artists: Beatrix Bakondy, Inge Dick, Barbara Höller, Marc Hulliger, Tina Lechner, Karin Mack, Sabine Maier, Michael Mastrototaro, Cornelia Mittendorfer, Agnes Prammer, Marielis Seyler, Robert Zahornicky Curators: Karin Mack, Maria Christine Holter
In a collective and procedural mode of working, the artists question how these micro-aesthetic moments can be realized in the work of an artist. Participants: Ilse Chlan, (video)artist, Austria; Pavlína Fichta Cˇierna, (video)artist, Slovakia; Katharina Jesberger, art theorist, curator of the exhibition, Germany; Claudia Mongini, art theorist, curator of the exhibition, Italy; Hui Ye, (sound/performance/video)artist, China; Karin Harrasser, University of Linz, lecturer
© Pete Gmachl 25
Art Cluster
Leopold Museum
Alberto Giacometti, © Franz Hubmann, 1957
Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man, 1947 © Alberto Giacometti Estate/ADAGP, Paris/Bildrecht Wien, 2014 Leopold Museum Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna T +43 1 525 70 0 F +43 1 525 70 1500 E office@leopoldmuseum.org www.leopoldmuseum.org Opening hours: Wed.–Mon. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Thu. 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
DIRECTOR’S TALK | GUIDED TOUR
EXHIBITION
Museological director Franz Smola and artist Erwin Wurm give a tour of the exhibition “Alberto Giacometti”*
“Alberto Giacometti. Modernist Pioneer”
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 4:00 p.m. In German
Franz Smola and the “master of sculpture in the broad sense” Erwin Wurm give a tour of the exhibition “Alberto Giacometti.” Be part of a dialog between Erwin Wurm, renowned contemporary artist, and Franz Smola, curator of the Giacometti exhibition, about the famous sculptor’s oeuvre. * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: E artweek@leopoldmuseum.org
17 October 2014–26 January 2015 With “Alberto Giacometti. Modernist Pioneer,” an exhibition realized in cooperation with the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Alberto Giacometti Foundation, Zürich, the Leopold Museum is spotlighting an artist personality who for many is deemed to be the most important sculptor of the 20th century. The works of Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) are among the most expensive in the world. Only recently in 2010 at Sotheby’s in London “L’homme qui marche 1” hit the highest price ever paid for a sculpture, 74 million euros. Giacometti, born in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, settled in Paris in the early 1920s, at first joining the circle
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of surrealists surrounding André Breton. Giacometti’s surrealist works will be juxtaposed in the exhibition to contemporary works by artist friends and acquaintances, including René Magritte, Max Ernst and Joan Miró. After breaking with the Surrealists in 1935, Giacometti moved into his trademark mode of expression of his mature phase, when he placed the objective representation of the human figure once more at the core of his work, but went his own way, for instance by introducing striking changes in relative dimensions and proportions. Many of these works have an intensely auratic effect on the space around them, honored in the e xhibition through specific modes of installation and setting. Simultaneously, Giacometti’s sculptures, paintings and drawings are placed in confrontation with works by the major masters of international Modernism, among them Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock and Cy Twombly. In cooperation with the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Alberto Giacometti Foundation, Zürich
GUIDED TOUR
Highlights of the Leopold Collection – a guided tour with the museological director Franz Smola* Thursday, 20 November 2014 4:00 p.m. In German * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: E artweek@leopoldmuseum.org
Art Cluster
MAK
Michael Riedel Photo: Jason Schmidt
MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art Stubenring 5 1010 Vienna T +43 1 711 36 231 F +43 1 711 36 291 E office@MAK.at www.MAK.at Opening hours: Tue. 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. Wed.–Sun. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Free admission on Tuesdays 6:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.
GUIDED TOUR
“MAK DESIGN LAB: Art & Design” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 6:30 p.m. MAK DESIGN LAB In German
Expert-guided tour through the MAK DESIGN LAB with Bärbel Vischer, curator MAK Contemporary Art Collection, and Thomas Geisler, curator MAK Design Collection
PERFORMANCE
EXHIBITION TALK
“MAK NITE Lab: Michael Riedel”
“APPLIED ARTS. NOW – Valentin Ruhry”
Tuesday, 18 November 2014 8:00 p.m. MAK Columned Main Hall
Thursday, 20 November 2014 5:00 p.m. MAK Gallery
The artist Michael Riedel, born in 1972 and resident in Frankfurt am Main, intervenes into the art system with his conceptual overpaintings. His replications of works, exhibitions, concerts, readings and club nights develop their own matrix, resulting from the confrontation with art production, performance and communication as aesthetic form. Keeping to the motto “Record – Label – Play,” he analyzes the language of cultural events, art institutions and publications and reactivates the idea of the Factory (Andy Warhol) by appropriating media and “icons” of contemporary art, such as Gilbert & George, Christopher Wool, Jim Isermann and Joseph Kosuth and, in certain cases, also with other artists of a like mind. Riedel’s first interventions took place in the context of the legendary art space located opposite the portico, “Oscar-von-Miller-Strasse 16.” Initiated in the year 2000, it was simultaneously studio, exhibition space and party location. In a current project Riedel is sending a selection of the art-space program until 2011 on tour, accompanied by the recent publication “Oskar. Michael Riedel” (2014).
In German
Curator Marlies Wirth in a conversation with the artist Valentin Ruhry A cooperation of the MAK and the University of Applied Arts Vienna
GUIDED TOUR
“MAK DESIGN SALON #03 – Robert Stadler. Back in 5 min” Sunday, 23 November 2014 11:00 a.m. MAK Branch Geymüllerschlössel, Pötzleinsdorfer Strasse 102, 1180 Vienna In German
Thomas Geisler, expert and curator of the MAK Design Collection, gives a tour of the exhibition.
Curators: Bärbel Vischer, curator MAK Contemporary Art Collection; Marlies Wirth, curator MAK NITE Lab
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Art Cluster
mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien
mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien MuseumsQuartier, Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna T +43 1 525 00 0 F +43 1 525 13 00 E info@mumok.at www.mumok.at Opening hours: Mon. 2:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Tue., Wed., Fri.–Sun. 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Thu. 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
CONCERT
Phantom Ghost* Tuesday, 18 November 2014 7:00 p.m. Sound and music are crucial components of Cosima von Bonin’s works. On the top level of her exhibition “HIPPIES USE SIDE DOOR. THE YEAR 2014 HAS LOST THE PLOT” in the mumok we find sound bells suspended from the ceiling, raining down the sounds of the Berlin DJ Moritz von Oswald on visitors. Among Cosima von Bonin’s long-time collaborators are the German band Tocotronic and the duo Phantom Ghost. As part of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK program, Phantom Ghost are appearing next to the works of Cosima von Bonin. The duo consists of the pianist Thies Mynther and the singer Dirk von Lowtzow. They base their style on technically precise, experimental quotations of a broad range of music genres and invent new forms of expression for operetta, disco sound and more. Their lyrics combine joie-de-vivre with contemplative elements. Artificial and over the top, but always with tongue in cheek and humor, Phantom Ghost deal with the social and political issues of our time. Themes such as performance stress and burn-out syndrome crop up not only in their music, but are also to be found in Cosima von Bonin’s installations. Against this backdrop, museum visitors will hear the music differently and see art differently. * Free admission with a valid exhibition ticket
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Cosima von Bonin, HERMIT CRAB IN FAKE ROYÈRE, 2010 Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne, Photo: Markus Tretter
EXHIBITION
CONVERSATION
“COSIMA VON BONIN. HIPPIES USE SIDE DOOR. THE YEAR 2014 HAS LOST THE PLOT”
“Pins and Needles” – a conversation with the artist Jenni Tischer as part of the exhibition “Pin”*
4 October 2014–18 January 2015
Thursday, 20 November 2014 7:00 p.m.
Titled “HIPPIES USE SIDE DOOR. THE YEAR 2014 HAS LOST THE PLOT,” the mumok is presenting the hitherto most comprehensive Cosima von Bonin exhibition in Austria. Born in Mombasa, Kenya, she can now show over a hundred works in the exhibition, giving visitors a large-scale overview of her work. They range from her artistic beginnings in the early 1990s to the more recent, quasi stage-set installations, and finally to works she is newly developing for Vienna. On four of the seven exhibition levels the show, curated by mumok Director Karola Kraus, traces how Cosima von Bonin’s works overlap more and more into the surrounding space. It is typical of the complex network of relationships she has woven between the charged polarities of the visual arts and music that she includes fellow artists and friends in the exhibition project.
In German
In Jenni Tischer’s exhibition “Pin” at mumok the form language of minimalist sculpture comes up against the history and practice of textile work. “Fabric pedestals” unroll along the walls and floor, open cubes show “Viennese netting,” and sculptural elements and surfaces allude to weaving frames and pin cushions. As part of the exhibition, curator Manuela Ammer and Jenni Tischer talk about the relation of “pins” (needles) and “PINs” (personal identification numbers), about textiles as a medium, and about what kind of narrative her exhibition writes. * Free admission with a valid exhibition ticket
EXHIBITION
“Jenni Tischer. Pin” 18 October 2014–1 February 2015
Art Cluster
quartier21/ MuseumsQuartier Wien
quartier21/ MuseumsQuartier Wien Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna T +43 1 523 58 81 F +43 1 523 58 86 E q21tours@mqw.at www.quartier21.at facebook.com/quartier21 www.twitter.com/quartier21 pinterest.com/quartier21/ Admission is free
GUIDANCE SYSTEM
“Running Mindmap” 17–23 November 2014 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. on all days MQ, Electric Avenue
Faustpfand © Sven Kalden
An alternative guidance system leads down the Electric Avenue of the quartier21 during the VIENNA ART WEEK 2014: the “Running Mindmap” created by the institutions based in the Electric Avenue contains quotes, hints and cross references providing insight into their worlds of work and thought. The dialog unwinding through these direct quotes and insider perspectives expands into the virtual space via QR codes and hashtags; in this way the networking of q21 users becomes visible both on site and online. Concept & realisation: eSeL & Say Say Say, Inc. / quartier21/MQ
ELEVATOR PITCHES
“Pecha Kucha Night: Artistic Technology” Monday, 17 November 2014 8:20 p.m. (doors open at 7:30 p.m.) MQ, Ovalhalle In German and English
In brief “Elevator Pitches” – presentations the length of an elevator trip – positions at the interface of art and technology are presented that concern “Artistic Research,” “Open Hardware,” and art and research in the 21st century. An event by Pecha Kucha Night Vienna in cooperation with quartier21/MQ, Artistic Bokeh, and the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Artistic Technology Research). www.artistictechnology.at
GUIDED TOUR
Curator-guided tour through the exhibition “PCFS: Post-Colonial Flagship Store” with Sven Kalden and Georg Klein Friday, 21 November 2014 3:00 p.m. MQ, freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL In German
The exhibition “PCFS: Post-Colonial Flagship Store,” conceived by Sven Kalden and Georg Klein in cooperation with Bernhard Draz and Joachim Seinfeld, deals with structures and methods of a new, covert colonialism in the world. Artistic works from eight countries crop up in a product-world camouflage, creating a concentrated space in which we become aware of past and present phenomena of colonialism and which involves the visitors in an irritating interplay of art and reality in a direct and occasionally confrontational way. OPENING
“Jesus Christ Super Sale II” Saturday, 22 November 2014 7:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. MQ, PERFEKT BOX, Electric Avenue
society in a shopping frenzy. The exhibition and project space PERFEKT BOX in the Electric Avenue of the Museums Quartier in Vienna becomes the ultimate bargain paradise for art lovers, just for a month. Let’s hope for heavenly balance sheets! GAME NIGHT
“Art & Games feat. Jörg Piringer” Sunday, 23 November 2014 5:00 p.m. MQ, Electric Avenue As part of the common game night organized by Broken Rules, eSeL REZEPTION and ZamSpielen, selected parlour and computer games on a video screen in the Electric Avenue of quartier21 stimulate a personal exploration of digital art and its protagonists. Besides other “communication offerings with game rules,” media artist and musician Jörg Piringer invites viewers to interact with his sound poetry apps on smartphones and tablets at the eSeL REZEPTION. “Untitled,” another insta l lation by Piringer, transforms the visitors’ sounds and speech into live, abstract visual text compositions.
The Viennese collective PERFEKT WORLD and selected artists turn their attention during the VIENNA ART WEEK to the gift and consumer mania of a 29
Art Cluster
Secession
Secession Friedrichstrasse 12 1010 Vienna T +43 1 587 53 07 F +43 1 587 53 07 34 www.secession.at Opening hours: Tue.–Sun. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
OPENING
Exhibitions Chto Delat? / Renata Lucas / Peter Bartoš Thursday, 20 November 2014 7:00 p.m.
Exhibition view
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION TALK
GUIDED TOUR
Chto Delat?
Chto Delat? in a conversation with Gerald Raunig, philosopher and art theorist
Artist Renata Lucas gives a tour through the exhibition
21 November 2014–25 January 2015 Main Hall Chto Delat? (What’s to be done?) sees itself as a self-organized platform for culture workers that combines political theory, art and activism: “Firstly, we’re interested in the translatability and updating of leftist theories and artistic methods under post-socialist conditions. Secondly, we have often worked on updating the potential of the Soviet past that was suppressed in the course of Soviet history.” Since 2008 some of the members of the collective have been developing a new form of songspiel. “We use the term for a special form of political musical in which we confront the audience with certain figures in a specific historical situation; a chorus comments their attitude and behavior in the form of songs.” For their exhibition in the Secession, Chto Delat? have conceived a video installation at the core of which is the social conditionality of imprisonment. 30
Chto Delat?, Russian Woods, BWA Wroclav, 2013
Friday, 21 November 2014 6:00 p.m. In English
Saturday, 22 November 2014 11:00 a.m. In English
EXHIBITION
An event by the Friends of the Secession
Peter Bartoš
EXHIBITION
21 November 2014–25 January 2015 Graphic Cabinet
Renata Lucas 21 November 2014–25 January 2015 Gallery In her works, the Brazilian artist Renata Lucas investigates how the buildings surrounding us affect our actions and social relationships. Starting out from her personal approach to the selected location she develops subtly conceived interventions in order to deconstruct socially defined spaces and structures and present new options of usage. In doing so, she puts the concepts of private and public property to discussion.
Peter Bartosˇ alongside Julius Koller is one of the early representatives of concept and action art in Slovakia. Apart from his work with various materials, nature is an important source of inspiration for Bartosˇ. In many of his conceptual works he links questions of ecological planning and landscape design with issues of freedom and privacy in the context of (national and political) boundaries. The exhibition covers Bartosˇ’s work from the 1960s to the present day.
Art Cluster
Sigmund Freud Museum
© Brandt Junceau, Hängende, 2011 Courtesy: Galerie Greta Meert and Brandt Junceau Photo: Philippe Degobert
Sigmund Freud Museum Berggasse 19 1090 Vienna T +43 1 319 15 96 F +43 1 317 02 79 E office@freud-museum.at www.freud-museum.at Opening hours: daily 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
CONVERSATION
AUSSTELLUNG
“Memory versus Utopia”
“Brandt Junceau_Vandal”
Tuesday, 18 November 2014 7:00 p.m.
17 October 2014–1 February 2015
In English
The “archaeological metaphor” as it came to be used in Freud’s theories on cultural science and psychoanalysis takes shape in the work of the New York artist Brandt Junceau. The artist has conceived an intervention in the house on Berggase 19 in Vienna, the historic rooms where the “inventor” of psychoanalysis worked and lived. Using figurative and also abstract signs, which shift the archaeological artefact into the center of attention, Junceau’s massive intervention transforms the existing structure of the Sigmund Freud Museum.
Viktor Mazin, psychoanalyst, art theorist and director of the Sigmund Freud Dream Museum in St. Petersburg, talks to Monika Pessler, director of the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna, about the effects of remembering the creation of zeitgeist and utopia in art and museology.
The relationship of past and present, which the “artist as history researcher” investigates and represents in his works, shows strong concordance with the practice of psychoanalysis and its intentions: both artist and psychoanalyst implement – and often necessarily invade – the ideas, visions and dreams of others, in the endeavor to expose what is past and buried, and thus gain knowledge about the present state of being; they can then also incorporate this “material” into their own ideas and actions, and so disrupt and counteract traditional mindsets.
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Art Cluster
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
Carsten Höller, Elevator Bed, 2010 Photo: Attilio Maranzano © Carsten Höller / Bildrecht Wien 2014 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary–Augarten Scherzergasse 1A 1020 Vienna T +43 1 513 98 56 24 E augarten@tba21.org www.tba21.org Opening hours: Wed., Thu. 12:00 noon–5:00 p.m. Fri.–Sun. 12:00 noon–7:00 p.m.
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With “LIFE,” Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21–Augarten) is presenting an exhibition of selected works by the Belgian-German artist Carsten Höller. The exhibits – some from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, others commissioned for the exhibition – form a conceptional, physically tangible space that invites visitors to interact, conjures up moods and emotions, and generates “oriented” action.
“Half Clock,” which uses over- and under-representation of chronological units to create a feeling that alternates between fast-forward and extremely slowed-down time. Vocally trained bullfinches pipe above the spectators’ heads. The film installation “Fara Fara” shows casting sessions and rehearsals for a musical clash between two stars of the Congolese music scene. Doubling and splitting are likewise the motifs of “Vienna Twins”: here, identical twins perform a totally linear and simultaneously bewildering, sung entertainment about likeness and its opposite. Two “Giant Multiple Mushrooms” implant a surreal element into Augarten park.
A floating tank simulating a gravity-free state, a dream-inducing toothpaste, and an extendable “Elevator Bed” tickle the visitors’ suspicions that here everyday logic has gone on strike. The exhibition is accompanied and structured by the
In cooperation with Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom anyone interested – single or in twos – can book the “Elevator Bed” for one night during the exhibition run. The guests are invited to move freely around the museum facilities: to float in
EXHIBITION
“Carsten Höller. LIFE” 11 July–23 November 2014
the “High Psycho Tank” filled with salt water, try out the dream-inducing toothpaste, listen to the singing bullfinches and set off on a nocturnal stroll through the Augarten. “Elevator Bed” booking: Sofitel Vienna Stephans dom, Volker Klier, Reservations Manager, T +43 1 906 16 61 02, E guestservices.vienna@sofitel.com.
Art Cluster
University of Applied Arts Vienna
© Philipp Pesserl, Plastic Point, 2014 University of Applied Arts Vienna Oskar-Kokoschka-Platz 2 1010 Vienna T +43 1 711 33 2160 E pr@uni-ak.ac.at www.dieangewandte.at
Exhibition
“Pretty Raw” GUIDED TOUR
EXHIBITION
Tour through the exhibition “Pretty Raw” with Gabriele Rothemann*
“Pretty Raw”
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 5:30 p.m. For the exhibition venue and opening hours, go to www.dieangewandte.at In German * Registration is required: E pr@uni-ak.ac.at
5–23 November 2014 Opening: Tuesday, 4 November 2014 7:00 p.m. For the exhibition venue and opening hours, go to www.dieangewandte.at Students from the photography class at the University of Applied Arts Vienna headed by Gabriele Rothemann exhibit their works along with students from the photography class at the San Francisco Art Institute, which is headed by Linda Connor.
“Pretty Raw” stands for the total view that gradually focuses on the individual part. Objects stand wooden and raw so that they can be defined and become recognizable. Wilderness happens. Internal images and political concerns oscillate. Landscape is the starting material, the backdrop and the protagonist for various artistic concepts from Europe and the United States. Opening between two poles – the rawness of the original and tenderness of sensibility – is a potential space for creative processes.
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Art Cluster
Wien Museum
Little I-Am-Me. Susi Weigl’s illustration of Mira Lobe’s book © Verlag Jungbrunnen, 1972 Wien Museum Karlsplatz 1040 Vienna T +43 1 505 87 47 0 F +43 1 505 87 47 7201 E service@wienmuseum.at www.wienmuseum.at Opening hours: Tue.–Sun. and public holidays 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Exhibition
“I AM ME. Mira Lobe and Susi Weigel“ EXHIBITION
“I AM ME. Mira Lobe and Susi Weigel“ 6 November 2014–1 March 2015 For the 100th birthday of Mira Lobe (1913–1995) and Susi Weigel (1914–1990), the Wien Museum is devoting an exhibition to the successful duo for children’s literature. Mira Lobe is internationally renowned as one of the leading authors of children’s books in the 20th century; her books have been translated into 30 languages. Together with Susi Wiegel and other illustrators including Angelika Kaufmann, Winfried Opgenoorth and Christina Oppermann-Dimow she published around 100 titles in around 50 years, among them classics such as the “Little I-Am-Me,” “The Grandma in the Apple Tree,” and “The Geggis.” For several generations of Austrians, Lobe books have a permanent place in their personal history. With poetic imagination, verbal wit and striking images, Mira Lobe and Susi Weigel set new trends in literature for children and young people. Without wagging a didactic finger, their stories convey values such as tolerance, solidarity with the outcast, a sense of justice and the will to change. The exhibition is designed to please both children and grown-ups and “translates” the theme’s creative potential with playful elements and surprising scenarios. Read to
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y ourself or others, listen to a story or “plunge” into it, trace associative memories: well-known and unpublished works by Mira Lobe and Susi Weigel can be (re-) discovered here. A fascinating addition is the material from the authors’ left papers, among them many illustrations and the original figures of “I-Am-Me” and “Bimbulli” handcrafted by Susi Weigel. Over and above this, the exhibition gives us an intimate view into Lobe’s and Weigel’s work method, into the reciprocal and intensive exchange characterized by great mutual respect, yet also by the constant struggle for quality. A not unimportant feature of the exhibition is its focus against the background of the authors’ biographies in the contemporary historical context, from the 1950s to the late 20th century. PANEL DISCUSSION
“Ah, wie süß!” Children’s book illustration in a g lobalized visual world Tuesday, 18 November 2014 6:30 p.m. In German
A considerable part of the canon of Austrian illustrated books is by Mira Lobe and her illustrators. Her partnership with Susi Weigel is unparalleled: in the books by the duo the boundaries between text and illustration become blurred. What demands are made today on the genre of children’s book illustra-
tion? And how can illustrated children’s books survive against competition from the world of digital images? Panelists: Hildegard Gärtner, Jungbrunnen Verlag; Renate Habinger, illustrator; Pierre Thomé, illustrator, head of the illustration department at the Lucerne University Moderation: Lisa Noggler-Gürtler, curator GUIDED TOURS
Curator Lisa Noggler-Gürtler gives a tour of the exhibition “I AM ME. Mira Lobe and Susi Weigel”* Tuesday, 18 November 2014 5:00 p.m. Friday, 21 November 2014 4:00 p.m. In German * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: E service@wienmuseum.at or T +43 1 505 87 47 85173
Art Cluster
Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy
© Belvedere, Vienna
Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy Himmelpfortgasse 8 1010 Vienna T +43 1 795 57 134 F +43 1 795 57 136 E public@belvedere.at www.belvedere.at Opening hours: daily 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Exhibition
“Martin van Meytens the Younger” GUIDED TOUR
Curator Georg Lechner gives a tour of the exhibition “Martin van Meytens the Younger”* Thursday, 20 November 2014 2:30 p.m. In German
In presenting Martin van Meytens the Younger (1695–1770) in autumn 2014, the Belvedere highlights one of the most important European painters of the Baroque age. Meytens, who documented influential personalities of his time in a highly impressive manner, numbers among the portraitists most preferred by the Austrian imperial family under Maria Theresa. Of Dutch origin and born in Sweden, the artist sojourned in France, England, and Italy to study the art of these countries. Under the impact of various European models he developed his own specific style, which he later successfully passed on to his numerous pupils. Originally trained as a miniaturist, Meytens brought
onumental painting to perfection over m the years, but – except for a few forays into figure painting – always remained true to portraiture.
EXHIBITION
“Martin van Meytens the Younger” 19 October 2014–8 February 2015
The exhibition at the Winter Palace introduces Martin van Meytens the Younger on the basis of his most significant works, the focus being on portraits of two or more sitters. A further focal point of the show will be the depiction of prominent personalities of contemporary spiritual, artistic, and political life (such as Franz Christoph von Scheyb, Pietro Metastasio, and Daniele Antonio Bertoli). Moreover, the exhibition will look into the careers of the artist’s most important students, including Joseph Hickel. This new generation of artists represents the transition from the stately Baroque portrait they had adopted from Meytens to a much more sober style that was committed to Josephinism and the Enlightenment. * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: www.belvedere.at/de/events 35
Guided Tours
Guided Gallery Tours 2014
Who says you have to go to New York to find an impressive gallery scene? Look to Vienna! The proof will emerge during the Guided Gallery Tours, and there’s no danger of wearing out shoes on long marches through the streets. Apart from a few exceptions, Vienna’s galleries are concentrated on Schleifmühlgasse, Eschenbachgasse and in the inner city. Let some highly reputed experts and art connoisseurs introduce you to Vienna’s diverse and international program: Anne Faucheret, Georgia Holz, Petra Noll and Hemma Schmutz will be guiding you through Vienna’s galleries.
Guided tour with Hemma Schmutz, freelance curator
Guided tour with Petra Noll, freelance curator
Thursday, 20 November 2014 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, 22 November 2014 12:00 noon
Galerie Martin Janda Krobath Galerie Meyer Kainer Galerie Mezzanin Galerie Steinek Meeting place: Galerie Martin Janda, Eschenbachgasse 11, 1010 Vienna
Galerie Raum mit Licht ZS art Galerie Krinzinger Projekte Aa collections Galerie Hubert Winter 3:00 p.m. break Kro Art Galerie Galerie Knoll Meeting place: Galerie Raum mit Licht, Kaiserstrasse 32, 1070 Vienna
Guided tour with Anne Faucheret, curator Kunsthalle Wien Friday, 21 November 2014 5:00 p.m. Charim Events Gabriele Senn Galerie Christine König Galerie Galerie Andreas Huber unttld contemporary Galerie Michaela Stock Meeting place: Charim Events, Schleifmühlgasse 1A, 1040 Vienna
Guided tour with Georgia Holz, freelance curator Saturday, 22 November 2014 11:00 a.m. Charim Galerie Galerie Ernst Hilger Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder Galerie Emanuel Layr Galerie Krinzinger Projektraum Viktor Bucher Meeting place: Charim Galerie, Dorotheergasse 12/1, 1010 Vienna
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Curator-guided tour Saturday, 22 November 2014 2:00 p.m. Galerie Heike Curtze und Petra Seiser Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Galerie Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Vienna Meeting place: Galerie Heike Curtze und Petra Seiser, Seilerstätte 15/16, 1010 Vienna
Program
THE GALLERIES Association of Austrian Galleries of Modern Art • Gallery Openings on Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Aa collections Exhibition: Anne-Sophie Wass 21–29 November 2014 Opening: Thursday, 20 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Burggasse 68 / 2-a, 1070 Vienna M +43 699 175 36 814 E aacollectionsgallery@gmail.com www.aacollections.net
Artmark Galerie Exhibition: Joachim Bandau, watercolors in black, objects; Michael Krawagna, paintings 9 October–23 November 2014 Singerstrasse 17, entrance on Grünangergasse, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 98 80, F +43 1 512 98 804 E Vienna@artmark.at www.artmark.at
Galerie Heike Curtze und Petra Seiser Exhibition: Erich Gruber, “Schwerkraftkammer” 19 November 2014–12 January 2015 • Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Seilerstätte 15/16, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 93 75, F +43 1 513 49 43 E office@heikecurtze.com www.heikecurtze.com
Galerie Wolfgang Exner Exhibition: Maria Moser, new works, oil/canvas 25 October–24 November 2014 Rauhensteingasse 12, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 99 17, F +43 1 512 52 65 E office@galerie-exner.at www.galerie-exner.at
Charim Galerie
Galerie Johannes Faber
Exhibition: Tamuna Sirbiladze
Exhibition: Hannes Kilian, “Photographs 1936–1970”
Dorotheergasse 12/1, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 09 15, F +43 1 512 09 15 50 E charim@charimgalerie.at www.charimgalerie.at
Charim Events Exhibition: Alfons Pressnitz 14 November–23 December 2014 Schleifmühlgasse 1A, 1040 Vienna E charim@charimgalerie.at www.charimgalerie.at
Galerie bei der Albertina Program upon request on the corner of Lobkowitzplatz 1 / Gluckgasse, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 513 14 16, F +43 1 513 76 74 E zetter@galerie-albertina.at www.galerie-albertina.at
12 September–6 December 2014 Brahmsplatz 7, 1040 Vienna T +43 1 505 75 18 E office@jmcfaber.at www.jmcfaber.at
Lukas Feichtner Galerie Exhibition: Robert F. Hammerstiel; Stephan Reusse (in the basement) Seilerstätte 19, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 09 10, F +43 1 513 05 47 E office@feichtnergallery.com www.feichtnergallery.com
Galerie Frey Exhibition: Harald Gangl, “2013–2014” Mid-November 2014–10 January 2015 Gluckgasse 3, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 513 82 83, F +43 1 513 82 834 E art@galerie-frey.com www.galerie-frey.com
Galerie GALERIE Exhibition: “Schauplatz Körper” as part of “Eyes On – Month of Photography Vienna” Himmelpfortgasse 22, 1010 Vienna M +43 650 99 08 722 E office@galeriegalerie.com www.galeriegalerie.com
Galerie Ernst Hilger Exhibition: Joan Miró, graphics, sculpture, works on paper 11 November–12 December 2014 Dorotheergasse 5, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 53 15, F +43 1 513 91 26 E ernst.hilger@hilger.at www.hilger.at
Galerie Hilger NEXT Exhibition: Oliver Dorfer, “wasteland / niemandsland” 7 November–6 December 2014 Event: presentation of the Oliver Dorfer catalog Saturday, 22 November 2014 4:00 p.m. Absberggasse 27/2, 1100 Vienna T +43 1 512 53 15, F +43 1 513 91 26 E ernst.hilger@hilger.at www.hilger.at
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Program
Hilger BROTKunsthalle
Knoll Galerie Vienna
Galerie Kro Art
Exhibition: Massimo Vitali
Exhibition: András J. Nagy, photographs
Exhibition: “Let’s Go – The Big Vacation Boom,” Miriam Laussegger, Elfriede Mejchar, Hermann Capor, Pia Mayer, Peter Wehinger, Silvia Camporesi
11 November–6 December 2014 Absberggasse 27/1, 1100 Vienna T +43 1 512 53 15, F +43 1 513 91 26 E brot@brotkunsthalle.com www.brotkunsthalle.com
Galerie Ulrike Hrobsky Exhibition: Götz Diergarten, “METROpolis,” photography 29 October–29 November 2014 Grünangergasse 6, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 513 76 76, F +43 1 513 76 09 E galerie@hrobsky.at www.hrobsky.at
Showroom Ulrike Hrobsky Exhibition: marshall!yeti, “1914. Es wird immer erst schlimmer, bevor es besser werden kann” 30 October–29 November 2014 Grundsteingasse 40, 1160 Vienna T +43 676 518 3201 E galerie@hrobsky.at www.hrobsky.at
Galerie Andreas Huber Exhibition: Michael Part 14 November 2014–10 January 2015 Schleifmühlgasse 6–8 / 2nd floor, 1040 Vienna T +43 1 586 02 37, F +43 1 586 02 37 12 E art@galerieandreashuber.at www.galerieandreashuber.at
Galerie Hummel Exhibition: Man Ray, “tour / detour” Guest curator: Roland Fischer-Briand, cooperation by Barbara Toifl 19 September–20 December 2014 Bäckerstrasse 14, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 12 96, F +43 1 512 12 964 E office@galeriehummel.com www.galeriehummel.com
Galerie Martin Janda Exhibition: Jakob Kolding 19 November 2014–10 January 2015 • Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Eschenbachgasse 11, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 585 73 71, F +43 1 585 73 72 E galerie@martinjanda.at www.martinjanda.at
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20 November 2014–10 January 2015 Opening: Wednesday, 19 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Gumpendorfer Strasse 18, 1060 Vienna T +43 1 587 50 52, F +43 1 587 59 66 E office@knollgalerie.at www.knollgalerie.at
Christine König Galerie Exhibition: Per Dybvig 14 November–23 December 2014 Schleifmühlgasse 1A, 1040 Vienna T +43 1 585 74 74, F +43 1 585 74 74 24 E office@christinekoeniggalerie.at www.christinekoeniggalerie.com
Konzett Gallery Exhibition: “Art and Photography,” as part of “Eyes On – Month of Photography Vienna” 7 November–6 December 2014 Spiegelgasse 21, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 513 01 03, F +43 1 513 01 04 E gallery@artkonzett.com www.artkonzett.com
Galerie Krinzinger Exhibition: Thomas Zipp • Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Seilerstätte 16, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 513 30 06, F +43 1 513 30 06 33 E galeriekrinzinger@chello.at www.galerie-krinzinger.at
Krinzinger Projekte Exhibition: curated by_vienna 2014: “The century of the bed,” Curators Collectors Collaborations #3, curated by Olga Sviblova 2 October–December 2014 Schottenfeldgasse 45, 1070 Vienna T +43 1 512 81 42 E krinzingerprojekte@gmx.at www.galerie-krinzinger.at/projekte
23 November 2014–10 January 2015 Opening: Saturday, 22 November 2014, 5:00 p.m. Getreidemarkt 15, 1060 Vienna T +43 1 585 71 43, F +43 01 587 20 98 E office@kroart.at www.kroart.at
Krobath Exhibition: Gerold Miller 19 November 2014–10 January 2015 • Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Eschenbachgasse 9, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 585 74 70, F +43 1 585 74 72 E office@galeriekrobath.at www.galeriekrobath.at
Galerie Emanuel Layr Exhibition: Julien Bismuth Opening: Thursday, 20 November 2014 An der Hülben 2, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 524 54 90, F +43 1 523 84 22 E gallery@emanuellayr.com www.emanuellayr.com
Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Vienna Exhibition: Markus Hofer, “Das endlose Zimmer” 30 September–22 November 2014 Exhibition: Inci Eviner, “Recent Works” 20 November 2014–11 January 2015 Event: guided tour with Markus Hofer Friday, 21 November 2014, 5:00 p.m. Weihburggasse 26, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 904 20 04 E office@galerie-mam.com www.galerie-mam.com
Galerie Meyer Kainer Exhibition: Verena Dengler 19 November 2014–January 2015 • Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Eschenbachgasse 9, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 585 72 77, F +43 1 585 72 77 88 E info@meyerkainer.com www.meyerkainer.com
Galerie Mezzanin Exhibition: Mandla Reuter
Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder
19 November 2014–11 January 2015 • Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m.
Exhibition: Manfred Pernice
Getreidemarkt 14 / Eschenbachgasse, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 526 43 56, F +43 1 526 91 87 E office@galeriemezzanin.com www.galeriemezzanin.com
Grünangergasse 1, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 12 66, F +43 1 513 43 07 E galerie@schwarzwaelder.at www.schwarzwaelder.at
Galerie Raum mit Licht Program upon request Kaiserstraße 32, 1070 Vienna T +43 1 524 04 94 E galerie@raum-mit-licht.at www.raum-mit-licht.at
Gabriele Senn Galerie Exhibition: Michael Riedel 14 November–23 December 2014 Event: Bärbel Vischer, curator at the MAK, in a conversation with Michael Riedel Thursday, 13 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Schleifmühlgasse 1A, 1040 Vienna T +43 1 585 25 80, F +43 1 585 26 06 E office@galeriesenn.at www.galeriesenn.at
Galerie Slavik Exhibition: “Winter Journey,” Ralph Bakker, Michael Becker, Alexandra Brachtendorfer, Anna Heindl, Bruno Martinazzi, Ulla & Martin Kaufmann, Gerti Machacek, Daniela Osterrieder et al. Opening: Wednesday, 19 November 2014, 6:00 p.m. Himmelpfortgasse 17, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 513 48 12 E galerie.slavik@vienna.at www.galerie-slavik.com
• Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m.
Galerie Michaela Stock & next door Exhibition: Katharina Struber, “COMMON PRACTICE” Next Door: Patrick Baumüller, “HARDIFIX” 13 November 2014–10 January 2015 Schleifmühlgasse 18, 1040 Vienna T +43 1 920 77 78 E info@galerie-stock.net www.galerie-stock.net
Galerie Suppan Contemporary Program upon request Habsburgergasse 5, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 535 53 54, F +43 1 535 53 54 35 E info@suppancontemporary.com www.suppancontemporary.com
Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Exhibition: Hermann Nitsch, 70th Painting Action 21 November 2014–February 2015 Event: Painting Action with Hermann Nitsch Wednesday, 19 November 2014 5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Opening: Thursday, 20 November 2014 5:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Seilerstätte 7, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 08 40, F +43 1 512 08 40 13 E galerie@galeriethoman.com www.galeriethoman.com
unttld contemporary Exhibition: Caroline Heider, “Day for Night” Kaiserstraße 32, 1070 Vienna Schleifmühlgasse 5, 1040 Vienna M +43 676 7650 866 E office@unttld-contemporary.com www.unttld-contemporary.com
Galerie V&V Exhibition: Ingrid Smolle, “Formen in den Formen,” photographs and ornamental objects 10 October–22 November 2014 Event: Campaign for applied art, “Ringkleider mit Aussicht. Frau trifft auf Herr Kleid. dieHolasek/ derEnenhofer” Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 5:00 p.m. Event: artist talk / closing event Saturday, 22 November 2014, 3:00 p.m. Bauernmarkt 19, 1010 Vienna T +43 1 535 63 34 E vundv@aon.at www.galerievundv.at
White8 Gallery Program upon request Zedlitzgasse 1, 1010 Vienna M +43 664 202 67 54 E dagmar@white8.at www.white8.at
Galerie Hubert Winter Exhibition: Francesca Woodman 14 November–20 December 2014 Breite Gasse 17, 1070 Vienna T +43 1 524 09 76, F +43 1 524 09 769 E office@galeriewinter.at www.galeriewinter.at
ZS art Galerie
Exhibition: Gudrun Kampl
Projektraum Viktor Bucher
Exhibition: “Concrete,” John Carter, Roland Goeschl, Sigurd Rompza, Leo Zogmayer et al.
19 November 2014–14 January 2015 • Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 5:00 p.m.
Exhibition: Rudi Molacek
5 November 2014–14 January 2015
21 October–27 November 2014
Westbahnstrasse 27–29, 1070 Vienna T +43 1 895 93 95 0, F +43 1 895 93 95 20 E galerie@zsart.at www.zsart.at
Galerie Steinek
Eschenbachgasse 4, 1010 Vienna T / F +43 1 512 87 59 E galerie@steinek.at www.steinek.at
Praterstrasse 13/1/2, 1020 Vienna T +43 1 212 69 30, F +43 1 212 69 30 E projektraum@sil.at www.projektraum.at
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Program
Open Studio Day Saturday, 22 November 2014
Open Studio Day as part of VIENNA ART WEEK is being held for the third time in 2014. Around 70 artists – selected by Mario Codognato, chief curator of the 21er Haus, independent curator Franz Thalmair, and Daniela Zyman, chief curator of TBA21 – will keep their studios open for visitors on Saturday, 22 November 2014, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Open Studio Day offers a unique opportunity to take a look behind the scenes of artistic production, to speak with Vienna-based artists and experience the studio atmosphere first-hand. The program is rounded off by events in a number of studios – from a jam session to film screenings, artist talks and a drawing lottery. For more information visit www.viennaartweek.at/open-studio
© Florian Rainer 40
PANEL DISCUSSION
OPEN TALKS
“Curators’ Vision. Five international curators in dialog”
Artists in conversation with the curators of Open Studio Day
Thursday, 20 November 2014 6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Schillerplatz 3, 1010 Vienna
Saturday, 22 November 2014 starting at 1:00 p.m.
In English
Open Talk with curator Franz Thalmair
For the second time, VIENNA ART WEEK 2014 and Academy of Fine Arts Vienna present “Curators’ Vision,” a panel discussion that puts international curators in dialog with Vienna-based artists. The discussion centers around a close look at the art world, but also personal visions, the search for the as-yetunseen and possibilities for implementation. The VIENNA ART WEEK 2014 motto “Running Minds” refers to the intensive exchange of ideas and production processes that make creative work possible. In what way do curatorial ideas about the content and context of an exhibition influence artistic production? Is the curator more than just an intermediary between the viewer and the artist’s creative processes?
2:00 p.m.: Sofie Thorsen Vorgartenstrasse 158–170/11/R1, 1020 Vienna Open Talk with curator Mario Codognato
4:00 p.m.: Lena Lapschina Guglgasse 15/4th floor, 1110 Vienna Open Talk with curator Daniela Zyman
6:00 p.m.: John Gerrard Production Space Loquaiplatz 3/1, 1060 Vienna
Panelists: David Elliott, freelance curator and author, UK; Marina Fokidis, curator, author and Director of Kunsthalle Athena, Athens; Amirali Ghasemi, freelance curator, artist, graphic designer, Tehran; Kati Kivinen, curator, Kiasma contemporary art museum, Helsinki; Tobi Maier, freelance curator and art critic, New York Moderation: Robert Punkenhofer, Artistic Director VIENNA ART WEEK
David Elliott, British author and curator of modern and contemporary art with a focus on Asia and the Soviet and Russian avant-garde. Artistic director of the 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art in 2014, held under the motto “A Time for Dreams;” co-curator of “PANDAMONIUM: Media Art from Shanghai” for MOMENTUM, Berlin; assistant curator of the Hors Pistes Tokyo film festival. He has realized numerous international exhibitions in venues including Oxford, Stockholm, Tokyo, Istanbul and Kiev.
© Florian Rainer
Marina Fokidis, Greek curator and author. Founder and artistic director of Kunsthalle Athena in Athens, which has hosted various shows, workshops, performances and panel discussions since 2010, including “This Is Not My Beautiful House,” “This Must Be The Place,” “Political Speeches,” and “A Wonderful Life.” Fokidis has realized various exhibitions at home and abroad, e. g. as curator of the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2011), and as curator of the “Borderline” show by Nevin Aladağ at the Art Space Pythagorion, Samos.
Amirali Ghasemi, curator, media artist and graphic designer from Tehran. He studied graphic design at the Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch. Founder of Parkingallery, an independent project space for young Iranian artists in Tehran; co-curator of “The Urban Jealousy,” 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran 2008/09, and guest curator of CCBrugge 2010 and other events; curator of several independent projects like the current “IRAN&Co.”
Kati Kivinen, art historian and independent curator based in Helsinki. Studied art history at the University of Helsinki. Curator at the Kiasma contemporary art museum in Helsinki since 2003. Board member of the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT) from 2011 to 2014; co-curator of Kiasma exhibitions of artist and filmmaker Mika Taanila and the futurologist and designer of electronic musical instruments Erkki Kurenniemi; co-curated a solo exhibition of the internationally renowned artist Alfredo Jaar in 2014.
Tobi Maier, critic and curator, is currently based in São Paulo. He studied Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art in London, which is where he co-founded the curatorial collective “dosensos” with Anna Colin (2002–2005). Curator at the Frankfurt Art Association and curatorial adviser to Manifesta 7. Curator at Ludlow 38, the New York Goethe Institute’s exhibition space for contemporary art (2008 to 2011); his exhibitions there include “Július Koller & Jiří Kovanda,” “Chance Encounters,” and “Lara Almarcegui. Guide to the Wastelands of the Flushing River” (for the European Kunsthalle Köln). Associated curator of the 30th São Paulo Biennial in 2012. 41
Interview
Art Hub Vienna The relevance of the past, recent developments, and the ennui required for art production by Christa Benzer
VIENNA ART WEEK has acquired the services of Mario Codognato, Franz Thalmair, and Daniela Zyman as curators of this year’s Open Studio Day. In their statements on Vienna as an art venue, they mention missed opportunities and the vacuum that major institutions like the Generali Foundation or BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary have left. Although the consequences of their closure or move cannot yet be determined, all three curators agree that with its artists, galleries, museums, collectors, and many self-organized art spaces the city has developed into an important European venue for contemporary art.
“An Enormous Appeal” Mario Codognato, chief curator 21er Haus
How do you see the developments that have taken place in Vienna in recent years? Mario Codognato: Since I only moved to Vienna a short while ago it is a bit difficult to answer this question. But it seems to me that over the last few years the cultural offer within the context of contemporary art has improved and become bigger and more international. How does Vienna compare internationally at present? Mario Codognato: Like all cities with a glorious past as well as a great present and future, Vienna can play multiple roles. I think this role will continue to represent a big chance for the city: history is crucial for the interpretation of the present and Vienna can combine both the past and the future. In relation to its size, Vienna has a vibrant contemporary art scene with many institutions, artists, galleries and collectors of international standing. In my view, Vienna is a European art hub with an enormous appeal.
Daniela Zyman, Mario Codognato and Franz Thalmair © Florian Rainer 42
Where is there still room for improvement? Mario Codognato: I believe that a closer collaboration between the several institutions devoted to contemporary art or with a contemporary art program would drastically improve the perception and visibility of Vienna abroad. At present, all projects and events – of which there are many and at the highest level – are still perceived in a very fragmentary way by the international public. Openings and initiatives are seldom coordinated and that makes it difficult to offer a coherent program to the public beyond Vienna.
Mario Codognato, born in Venice, studied art history in England, wrote articles for professional journals and exhibition catalogs, and organized presentations, exhibitions of contemporary art and solo exhibitions (mostly within Italy and the UK) including work by Rachel Whiteread, Thomas Struth, Franz West, Jeff Koons, Anselm Kiefer and Damien Hirst. He was most recently chief curator at MADRE – Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples. Franz Thalmair writes for international art magazines and has regularly edited publications and exhibition catalogs since 2008. The focus of his curatorial work includes exhibitions on conceptual topics including, among others, those at the Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, the Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz, and the Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna. In Spring 2014, he realized the exhibition “This Page Intentionally Left Blank” at the Akbank Art Center in Istanbul. Daniela Zyman has been chief curator of ThyssenBornemisza Art Contempory in Vienna since 2003. Between 1995 and 2001, she was curator at the MAK and co-founder and director of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House in Los Angeles. From 2000 to 2003, she headed the Künstlerhaus in Vienna, followed by A9 forum transeuropa, an exhibition space in the MuseumsQuartier. She studied in Vienna and New York, writes for magazines and catalogs, and lectured at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
“Boring in the Best Sense of the Word”
“Pluralistic, Heterogeneous, More Conformist”
Franz Thalmair, freelance curator
Daniela Zyman, head curator, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
What do you think of the developments that have taken place in Vienna in the last few years? Franz Thalmair: Vienna has become more mobile. Above all, the work of independent culture producers and the many temporary art spaces also make it necessary for institutions to question their status today. This scene is no longer “alter native” but expresses itself in parallel to existing programs. It is regrettable, on the other hand, that gaps have appeared among medium-sized exhibition venues. The closure of BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary and the move of the Generali Foundation to Salzburg were simply accepted with a shrug. The protests should have been much louder! How does Vienna measure up internationally? Franz Thalmair: Vienna has a lot to offer artists and can compete with cities of comparable size like Zurich, Munich, or Barcelona: focused training establishments, diverse institutions, a lively scene. But the city is boring in the best sense of the word. Artists can work here intensively without pressure or coercion and indulging in the ennui that I believe to be necessary for artistic processes. As long as they can still see beyond the narrow confines … What improvements could be made? Franz Thalmair: To avoid the dilemma of being “world-famous in Vienna,” young artists should aim for greater visibility in other countries – not just as individuals or simply using the obsolete formula “lives and works in …” but thematically. In this way the protagonists of the local scene could enhance their profile abroad and also present Vienna as a city focusing on specific artistic areas and discussion.
What do you think of the developments that have taken place in Vienna in the last few years? Daniela Zyman: Vienna has changed enormously as a contemporary art venue in the last years, and even more so over the decades. Every decade has its special features, attractions, and challenges. The 1990s were the most striking period – the fall of the Iron Curtain, gold-rush mood, the institutions that awoke from their ice-cold hibernation: Generali Foundation, Secession, MAK, museum in progress, University of Applied Arts, festival exhibitions, Depot. Edgy, exciting, controversial. Many people came from outside to have a look. Then the missed opportunities perhaps. What would a biennale focusing on eastern or southern Europe or with a global perspective have done? Difficult to say in retrospect, but the possibilities were there. How does Vienna measure up internationally? Daniela Zyman: In the last few years Vienna has become pluralistic, heterogeneous, but also more conformist – in line, perhaps, with “the international style of museum culture.” It started in the noughties: fairs, biennales, event culture. Large events bring mass movement, and with it enhanced importance, visibility, and also visitors. What improvements could be made? Daniela Zyman: It is impossible at the moment to estimate the impact of the loss of the likes of the Generali Foundation or BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary – when leading institutions are abandoned or change direction, when they lose their power to assert themselves.
Christa Benzer is member of the “springerin” art magazine’s editorial staff and works as a freelance author for the daily news paper “Der Standard.” She lives in Vienna. 43
Program
Open Studio Day Saturday, 22 November 2014 1:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Artists open their studios to the public
Siegrun Appelt Westbahnstrasse 27–29/1/8a 1070 Vienna Asgar/Gabriel Gumpendorfer Strasse 15/2 1060 Vienna Miriam Bajtala Westbahnstrasse 27–29/1/attic/7 1070 Vienna Gilbert Bretterbauer Bandgasse 34/29d (in the courtyard), 1070 Vienna Adriana Czernin Schleifmühlgasse 11/20, 1040 Vienna Elisabeth Czihak Währinger Strasse 188–190/15/2 (street shop), 1180 Vienna Svenja Deininger Westbahnstrasse 27–29/1 1070 Vienna Ricarda Denzer Obere Donaustrasse 99/1/63 1020 Vienna Carola Dertnig Lustkandlgasse 26–28/1/30 1090 Vienna Karine Fauchard Rechte Bahngasse 10 1030 Vienna Stefan Flunger Nordbahnstrasse 30/20–21 1020 Vienna Nikolaus Gansterer Meiereistrasse 3/Südtrakt/19 1020 Vienna John Gerrard Loquaiplatz 3/1, 1060 Vienna Karl Iro Goldblat Franzensgasse 6, 1050 Vienna Sofia Goscinski Grosse Amtshausgasse 27 1050 Vienna Andreas Harrer Diehlgasse 50/1 1050 Vienna Jochen Höller Glockengasse 9 1020 Vienna Edgar Honetschläger Richard-Strauss-Strasse 12 1230 Vienna 44
Ulrike Johannsen Loeschenkohlgasse 12/3, 1150 Vienna Barbara Kapusta Löwengasse 40 (courtyard / metal door 15 / attic), 1030 Vienna Michael Kargl Wattgasse 56–60/4th floor 1170 Vienna Johann Karner Blindengasse 38 (left of the entrance), 1080 Vienna Leopold Kessler Koppstrasse 55 (Ecke Hyrtlgasse) 1160 Vienna Michael Kienzer Münzwardeingasse 2a, 1060 Vienna Jakob Lena Knebl Linke Viennazeile 142/24 1060 Vienna Birgit Knoechl Dürergasse 3/14, 1060 Vienna Kollektiv/Rauschen Jadengasse 4, 1150 Vienna Zenita Komad Stuckgasse 11, 1070 Vienna Moussa Kone Stuckgasse 11, 1070 Vienna Annja Krautgasser Karmarschgasse 53/2/54 (door code 254, 11th floor) 1100 Vienna Elke Silvia Krystufek One Gallery Gredlerstrasse 4, 1020 Vienna Nika Kupyrova Grosse Pfarrgasse 21/8, 1020 Vienna Lena Lapschina Guglgasse 15/4th floor, 1110 Vienna Miriam Laussegger Glockengasse 8A, 1020 Vienna Sonia Leimer Vorgartenstrasse 158–170/11/R1 1020 Vienna Roberta Lima Westbahnstrasse 27–29/2/attic/5 1070 Vienna Constantin Luser Sonnenfelsgasse 3 , 1010 Vienna Luiza Margan Sechshauser Strasse 55–57 1150 Vienna
Christian Mayer Meiereistrasse 3/13, 1020 Vienna Ralo Mayer Ausstellungsstrasse 49/7 (entrance on Schrotzbergstrasse 9/7) 1020 Vienna Ferdinand Melichar Herklotzgasse 14 , 1150 Vienna Michail Michailov Habichergasse 30/35, 1160 Vienna Gregor Neuerer Bechardgasse 22/12, 1030 Vienna Flora Neuwirth Tichtelgasse 13–14, 1120 Vienna Katherina Olschbaur Rechte Bahngasse 10, 1030 Vienna Florian Pfaffenberger “Bar du Bois,” Bauernmarkt 9 1010 Vienna Roman Pfeffer Grosse Mohrengasse 25/6 1020 Vienna Jörg Piringer Arnethgasse 98/14 , 1160 Vienna Johannes Porsch Obere Donaustrasse 59/2/18 1020 Vienna Lisa Rastl Schönbrunner Strasse 152/8 1120 Vienna Markus Redl Simmeringer Hauptstrasse 295 1110 Vienna Arnold Reinthaler Loeschenkohlgasse 12, 1150 Vienna Christiane Reiter Luftbadgasse 6a, 1060 Vienna Franz Riedl Glockengasse 9, 1020 Vienna Valentin Ruhry Märzstrasse 7, 1150 Vienna Alexander Ruthner Address at viennaartweek.at Samstag in der Stadt Schwendermarkt (gray metal door under stairway to Äussere Mariahilfer Strasse, opposite Café Platin) 1150 Vienna Peter Sandbichler Westbahnstrasse 26/2/4a 1070 Vienna
Veronika Schubert Stuwerstrasse 45/3, 1020 Vienna Fabian Seiz Holochergasse 45, 1150 Vienna Laurana Smith Sechshauser Strasse 55–57 1150 Vienna Station Rose Paulanergasse 9/19, 1040 Vienna Clemens Stecher Donaueschingenstrasse 30/11/18 1200 Vienna Dominik Steiger Nachlass (Renate Ganser) Dannebergplatz 11/14, 1030 Vienna Steinbrener/Dempf & Huber Glockengasse 6/1 (street shop) 1020 Vienna Petra Sterry Grimmgasse 29/2/17 (ring the “Atelier” bell), 1150 Vienna (same as Ölweingasse 22–26/2/17, 1150 Vienna) Michael Strasser Gartengasse 3/3, 1050 Vienna Karo Szmit Gablenzgasse 15/12, 1150 Vienna tat ort (Berlinger, Fiel) Taborstrasse 22, 1020 Vienna Sofie Thorsen Vorgartenstrasse 158–170/11/R1 1020 Vienna Johanna Tinzl Nordbahnstrasse 30/20–21 1020 Vienna Klemens Torggler Novaragasse 55/17, 1020 Vienna Alain Volpe Nordbahnstrasse 30/20–21 1020 Vienna Anita Witek Taborstrasse 57/1/22, 1020 Vienna Anna Witt Schönbrunner Strasse 91/14–15 1050 Vienna Rainer Wölzl Bürgerspitalgasse 8,1060 Vienna Daniel Amin Zaman Luftbadgasse 6a, 1060 Vienna © Florian Rainer
Interview
The Lethargy of Cuddly Toys On the Cosima von Bonin exhibition at mumok A conversation between Teresa Schaur-Wünsch and Karola Kraus
Karola Kraus © Florian Rainer
The title is “HIPPIES USE SIDE DOOR. THE YEAR 2014 HAS LOST THE PLOT.” for the hitherto most comprehensive exhibition of works by Cosima von Bonin in Austria, on show at the mumok this fall. Director Karola Kraus on the artist, on cuddly toys, work pressure and the Phantom Ghost concert at the mumok.
Are you looking forward to Cosima von Bonin’s cuddly toys taking over the mumok? Karola Kraus: And how! (laughs) Cosima von Bonin’s work can be viewed on four levels – from her artistic beginnings in the early 1990s to her more recent stage-like installations and the new works conceived especially for Vienna. The exhibition t races how her oeuvre developed from her early single works, which from the very start had a performative character, to large-scale spatial installations in which her – supposedly – cute cuddly toys loll around. Lethargy plays a major role in the works of Cosima von Bonin. Karola Kraus: Her cuddly toy congregations allude in many ways to incapability, not being able to do anything, and futility. The basic mood isn’t cheerful; it tends to be desolate. One of Cosima von Bonin’s central themes is resistance to the demand for constantly new artistic output, which she counters with an exuberant zeal in production. This hyper-affirmation distracts from a certain sluggishness, which possibly results from the pressure to be permanently creative as an artist. Teresa Schaur-Wünsch graduated in English studies and in the combined studies “Stage, Film and other Media” in Graz. She has worked as a journalist for 14 years and is editor with the daily newspaper “Die Presse” in Vienna.
What are the other reasons for your choosing Cosima von Bonin? Karola Kraus: Because I think she is one of the leading inter national artists of her generation. She has already put on major exhibitions in many leading museums – including MOCA in
Los Angeles, the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Museum Ludwig in Cologne and the Arnolfini in Bristol. The retrospective show in the mumok provides the first large-scale overview of her work in Austria, a country with which she has long had connections. Cosima von Bonin was born in Mombasa and grew up in Salzburg. She had her first major solo exhibition in the Forum Stadtpark in Graz; instead of presenting her own works, she decided to put on the “First Graz Fan Fest” and invited her friends, who included artists, musicians and DJs. Since then Cosima von Bonin has worked together with a handful of good friends, all masters of their genre, whom she integrates into her work process. One of her works is even called “We Are Many” – a line from a Tocotronic song. The German band gives a concert to strike up the exhibition; in addition their singer Dirk von Lowtzow is appearing with his formation Phantom Ghost. What do you think of that? Karola Kraus: A typical feature of the complex net of relationships Cosima von Bonin has tautened between the polarities of the visual arts and music is also reflected in Vienna, in the way she has integrated colleagues and friends of many years into her exhibition project. Cosima has been a close friend of Dirk von Lowtzow for many years. He has frequently written texts on her work and she has designed record covers for him. She also did the set design for a Phantom Ghost concert in Berlin. I’m looking forward to an unforgettable evening with the concerts in the mumok and to an opening of our house for younger people. Do you like music yourself ? Karola Kraus: Very much; I’ve been to Tocotronic concerts many times, Phantom Ghost as well. 45
Interview
Parallel Traces On the transfer of knowledge, memory and images by Michael Huber
Austrian National Library, Humorous and political map and sea chart of Austria-Hungary, ed. by F. G. Ilger, exhibition “To my peoples!”, 2014 Žarko Alexic´ , Revisions of History, 2014 © Žarko Alexic´
A project by students exposes connections between Vienna and Budapest. The fruits of their intense investigation are now on view in the exhibition “Parallel Traces/Párhuzamos nyomok. Budapest–Vienna 1914–2014”.
At the end of a year that saw countless exhibitions and historiographical books examining the First World War, is there anything left to say about the “primal catastrophe of the 20th century” that hasn’t been said already? Yes indeed: for students of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, these comprehensive commemorations became the starting shot for their own investi gation. Approaching the subject from a new, artistic perspective, the students explored lines of communication that were brutally severed by the war 100 years ago. The exhibition “Parallel Traces/Párhuzamos nyomok. Budapest–Vienna 1914–2014,” set to open on 20 November as part of VIENNA ART WEEK 2014, shows the fruits of an intensive process: eight students from each of the partner universities tried to feel out the connections between Vienna and Budapest. “It wouldn’t have been productive to create an artwork about the outbreak of the First World War,” explains Martin Guttmann, who leads the Vienna Academy photography class from which half of the project participants were recruited. “It is easier for us to look at the urban conditions of the time.” Vienna and Budapest around 1914: nostalgic glamorizing aside, the cities were caught in a frenzy of modernization. In 1896, Budapest became home to the first underground railway in continental Europe (now the second oldest in the world after the London Underground). Budapest’s population quadrupled from 309,209 inhabitants in 1875 to 1,232,000 in 1910. Vienna likewise experienced a growth spurt: in 1875, the city counted 650,000 inhabitants in what is now known as the city’s inner districts; by 1910, that number swelled to 2,078,000 – partly 46
due to the rapid influx of immigrants, and partly to the city’s incorporation of the suburbs. The development spurred a new tramline, new roads and a new mobility. The speed, the rapid renewal – all this became topoi in art and literature, and not least in reflections of the First World War. Drift and becoming receptive But what does this spirit of optimism mean to us today, 100 years later? For participants in the project, the first step was to familiarize themselves with the material, and then process it in an artistic way. Two excursions in March 2014, where the students of each university swarmed over Vienna and Budapest and conducted “field research,” provided them with motifs. The program included visits to exhibitions about the First World War – like the one at the Austrian National Library, for example – along with guided tours and individual exploration. “We are following the idea of a visually oriented psychogeography,” says Martin Guttmann, referring to one of the central precepts of Situationism: the method of “dérive,” or drift involved taking in the city through direct perception, strolling around, wandering, being receptive, open, and paying special attention to the breaks and discontinuities one finds in architecture, traffic, crowds of people or whatever else. “Participants had to look at situations with a visually trained eye, bearing in mind that spectacles are being staged, even consciously,” says Guttmann. “Moments of density appear again and again – and those moments bring out something you can see.” Visitors to the exhibition are ultimately dependent on what the students could make visible. But the framework was kept intentionally broad. Though the Vienna Academy participants are in a “photography class,” its head, Martin Guttmann (one half
Martin Guttmann and Eva Blimlinger © Florian Rainer
of the artist duo Clegg & Guttmann), advocates an expanded notion of photography that incorporates elements of performance and spatial installation as well as in-depth theoretical and historical research. The Budapest side of the project is helmed by Valéria Sass, a sculptor known for her innovative approach to monuments. Her “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Wiesbaden” (2011) features the engraved the names of 1,507 of the city’s Holocaust victims. Inscribed on stone blocks and set at eye-level, the memorial draws the names into the present for a face-to-face encounter of another kind. “Why should we know about this?” Monuments are an important part of a city’s “psychogeography,” since they charge specific places with meaning. “A network of memorial sites is superimposed over the regular city architecture,” says historian Eva Blimlinger, Rector of the Vienna Academy. “Manifestations of memory have become more pronounced in the city over the past 20 to 30 years.”
Michael Huber, born 1976 in Klagenfurt, has been art correspondent for the “Kurier” daily newspaper since 2009. He studied Communication Studies and Art History in Vienna and New York (NYU) and holds a master’s degree in Cultural Journalism from Columbia University, New York City.
“Liberty Square, Szabadság tér, in Budapest is crazy in this respect,” says Tamás Kende, one of the project participants. “You can walk around that square and read history like you were checking the time on your watch.” The square is home to both a memorial for the Soviet liberation of Hungary in the Second World War and one honoring US President Ronald Reagan. The urban environment, one quickly realizes, is a palimpsest; places of memory are subject to economic cycles and are overlaid with new meaning as things change. Academy Rector Blimlinger refers to commemorative plaques marking the homes of often forgotten individuals, but also the “Stolpersteine” (stumbling blocks) in Vienna and other European cities, where a marker bearing the names of those deported by the Nazis has been inserted into the cobblestones or sidewalk in front of the houses where they once lived. “It always
begs the question: why should we know about this?” says Blimlinger. “It’s something projects like this one have to negotiate.” Transfer of knowledge, memory and images So how do you immerse yourself in the life of a city as it was lived 100 years ago, and how does one reflect on the processes that shape memory and history? “Every generation writes its history anew,” says Michael Höpfner, photography artist and assistant to Martin Guttmann. This generation of students did not actively witness 1989 and would approach history from a very different perspective: “This allows us to discover new aspects, even in a year where there were several projects tackling ‘1914’ as a topic.” For the Budapest-Vienna project, participants were encouraged to cast their visually adept eyes not only on places, but also on things. A project blog (http://budapestvienna.tumblr.com) soon emerged with a collection of visual artifacts that have no monumental character whatsoever – including bizarre, propagandistic playing cards emblazoned with the likeness of Austrian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf and other war protagonists. Robert Musil’s “Man Without Qualities” was another key reference for participants. Guttmann’s class had already addressed the idea of “Parallel Action” – a central theme in Musil’s novel – at the 2013 “ReMap” festival in Athens. Back then, student Maximilian Anelli-Monti transplanted the lettering from the Austrian pavilion at the Venice Biennale into an Athenian apartment building; the program had also included guided tours by artists. At the time this magazine was being printed, participants were not yet able to say what the transfer of knowledge, memory and images during the Budapest-Vienna Project would look like in the exhibition. But judging from the work behind the scenes: it is worth seeing. 47
Interview
“Building Bridges Through Art” A conversation with Francesca von Habsburg by Irene Gludowacz
Founded by Francesca von Habsburg in 2002, ThyssenBornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) is a thriving platform for 21st-century art in Vienna. But apart from supporting and commissioning projects in the international art world, the private foundation reflects Francesca von Habsburg’s unwavering vision and mission to connect the “universal language” of art with science and the environment and to address economic, social, and political issues. Fully committed she does not shy away from efforts and expenses. Drawn to projects which provoke and challenge her understanding, she is showing her courage that is out of any comfort zone.
Your family has been collecting art for four generations now. How has your family background influenced you? Francesca von Habsburg: I lived at the Villa Favorita in LuganoCastagnola, at a time when it was closed to the public. It began opening its doors slowly in the 1980s and then only upon request on weekends. My father regularly entertained some of the most influential personalities in the art world. The highlight was always a private viewing of the sublime art collection just a stone’s throw away from our dining table. I am frequently asked what art from my childhood influenced me most, and on reflection, it was not the art but the people I had the privilege to meet at that time. It was not the great exhibitions that my father took me to see in New York, St. Petersburg, Paris, or Tokyo; it was spending intimate time with art lovers such as J. Carter Brown, Sadruddin Aga Khan, Giovanni Agnelli, Mikhail Piotrovsky, Lord Gowrie, Ursula Dreyfuss, Norman Rosenthal and Simon de Pury, among many other eclectic people from those times. I learned that art is worth so much more when you can understand it through experienced and cultured eyes. Pioneers of their times, and conservative as they all were on the outside – they were tremendous innovators and had 48
great ambitious projects. In New York we met with Lichtenstein and Warhol – my father was somehow connected there too, but more reluctantly. Contemporary art was not his thing at all. Your father’s collection is known for its chronological approach to the history of art up to American art from the seventies and eighties and includes a memorable portrait of him by Lucian Freud. How did you come to focus on contemporary art? Francesca von Habsburg: When I was in New York with my father in the seventies, I stumbled quite by accident into a very comprehensive exhibition of minimalism at the Whitney – this drastically changed my life. I found myself immersed into a completely new aesthetic and I completely identified with it. I can see now, 40 years later, how much it influenced me. Some of the earliest works I bought for TBA21 were from Cerith Wyn Evans, Janet Cardiff, Olafur Eliasson, and Angela Bulloch. Such extraordinary power in such simple artworks. It was not academic for me; it was the beginning of a love story. What are your plans for TBA21 in Vienna? Francesca von Habsburg: Vienna is the home base of the TBA21 foundation. We really regret that in the past months other contemporary foundations, such as BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary, the Generali Foundation and the Essl Museum, have all struggled with their presence in Vienna. A vital part of Vienna’s cultural life has been neglected, and it is clear that there is not enough support for independent contemporary art positions in Vienna. What are your future exhibition plans? Francesca von Habsburg: I am collaborating with a few very important private collectors who enjoy like me to commission
is also moving to Buenos Aires in 2017. The current exhibition at TBA21 Augarten is called “LEBEN” (Life) and is dedicated to works by Carsten Höller. Several of the new works shown were commissioned in collaboration with the Botín Foundation in Santander, Spain. I enjoy working with visionary collectors who have their heart in the same place as mine. What brought you and the TBA Foundation to commission and support contemporary art projects internationally? Francesca von Habsburg: Commissioning work is not a simple exercise; it takes skill, sensitivity, a great deal of courage as well as faith in the process. Otherwise you will not give it enough space and fermentation to develop fully. Artists are extremely open to collaboration, as they need to explore their own limits as part of their practice. It is indeed a process that TBA21 has pioneered as the means of establishing a unique collection that defies traditional categorization. In a space in which I am also a creative protagonist of a collaborative project that requires more than just sitting two parties together, with the support of a highly qualified team, we establish the process through which the artists, architects, composers, scientists, programmers, and environmentalists can all explore their extreme positions. It's an immensely rewarding experience!
Francesca von Habsburg © Greg Gorman / USA, 2012
projects that defy traditional categorization. I am looking for synergies among our different approaches, and the most prominent common denominator is our philanthropic spirit.
Irene M. Gludowacz graduated from the fine arts academies in Vienna (AfBK) and Berlin (UdK) and went on to work as a fashion/textile and product designer. She lived in New York, Paris and Munich but has meanwhile moved back to Vienna and now works as an author, curator and communications expert for foundations, museums and enterprises in the international arena.
The first project in this line is a large exhibition of works by Ragnar Kjartansson in collaboration with the Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, which was our partner in the “Palace of the Summerland” production in Augarten this spring. It was the most extraordinary project I think we have ever done. It will be the core of a joint exhibition, which will also include works from Patrizia Sandretto Rebaudengo’s collection in Turin. For 2016 we are working on another collaboration with the Belvedere Museum in Vienna and the Fundación Jumex – in dialogue with the Juan and Patricia Vergez Collection in Buenos Aires. This will be an extensive exhibition featuring works which will include several new works by Olafur Eliasson, presented at the Winterpalais in Vienna, at TBA21 Augarten, and then at two venues in Mexico City, the Museo Jumex and the famous baroque church of the city. This project
TBA21 has another “department” called the TBA21 Academy. Could you speak a bit about the TBA21 Academy program and what it does? Francesca von Habsburg: Recently we buried an exhibition on Cocos Island in the Pacific. The miniature artworks, created especially for this project by 40 artists, were preserved in a vacuum-packed globe and packed into an Aranda/Lasch-designed treasure chest in the shape of a truncated tetrahedron. They will eventually be lost under landslides, sink into mud pools and be grown over by a dense and inhospitable jungle. Sharks guard the entrance to the bay that is the only access to the secret location – similar to a typical exhibition during an art fair. No one will ever find the chest, open it, or see the artworks. We have created a map from the encrypted GPS coordinates of the exact location, which we will auction off at Phillips in November to any collector who wishes to own a collection of art that he or she will most probably never see! The code itself is made by an encryptor who works on Snowden standards. This may attract a programmer who loves these kind of challenges as it is very real. The proceeds will support the study and protection of all species that live in the waters that surround Cocos Island. Particularly the sharks. My understanding of sharks has changed, by the way, from fear to protection, since I have become aware of our mindless brutality against them. Like the jaguar, the leopard or the white rhino, the magnificent tiger shark which I had the pleasure of swimming with in Cocos is near endangered. We organized a symposium for sharks in Los Angeles last summer which was very well received, and this all came out of our “Treasure of Lima” exhibition project in Cocos. I established TBA21 Academy as a platform from which I can take this interdisciplinary work to another level, not only engaging artists but now also taking science and conservation as our point of departure. Again, this has to do with being in the art world and wanting to do things differently. As an individual you can follow your own way of doing things. I would like to encourage art and activities that draw more people to look at our environment.
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World War I Centenary
Heroism, Patriotism, Self-Sacrifice Artists in the First World War by Nina Schedlmayer
“How proud I was” For many of them the catastrophe in fact seemed to pass them straight by. It apparently made little impression on Gustav Klimt, then over 50; nor did the First World War impinge upon the work of Egon Schiele, who was called up for service but was injured and later worked primarily at an army desk job, as Franz Smola noted in the catalogue for the exhibition “Trotzdem Kunst! Österreich 1914–1918” (And Yet There Was Art! A ustria 1914–1918) held in the Leopold Museum this year.
Albin Egger-Lienz, Finale, 1918 Leopold Private Collection
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the First World War. The “official” Austria is commemorating the historic events and their victims. But what effect did the catastrophe of the century have on art?
“My heart isn’t angry at the war; on the contrary, I’m thankful from the very depths of my heart; there was no other gateway to the spirit of the time, the Augean Stables; only thus could old Europe be purified – or is there any single person anywhere who wishes this war not to have happened?” These lines were written by the German expressionist Franz Marc on 1 2 November 1914 to his colleague Wassily Kandinsky. The artist joined up in a fit of euphoria – and fell at the front. As did August Macke and several Italian futurists, whose enthusiasm for the war has long been known. For this commemorative year the question arises as to what role art and artists played in the First World War. The idea that they were generally pacifist in attitude actually turns out to be wrong, and not only in the case of the Italian and German avant-garde; it does not by any means apply to Austrian artists of this time, either. 50
But a not inconsiderable number of Austrian painters – including the leading figures of their time – caught the war fever of their German colleagues, at least at the start. Many of them joined up immediately as volunteers for combat duty, among them Oskar Kokoschka: with Adolf Loos’s help he was recruited into the Imperial-Royal Archduke Joseph No. 15 Regiment of Dragoons. To do this he had to acquire his own horse and a uniform. A contemporary photograph shows him, 28 at the time, proud and with resolute glance, crowned by a splendid shiny helmet. “I was a wonderful target in my bright blue jacket with white cuffs, red breeches and golden helmet,” writes Kokoschka in his memoirs decades later. “We thought we would run down the enemy heroically with trumpets and waving flags.” The ironic tone runs through his observations on his own role at the beginning of the war. Elsewhere the painter recalls: “How proud I was to be a rider.” Later he describes comparing himself “to the equestrian monument of the victorious military leader Victor Emanuel, which I had seen not long before in Naples.” And Kokoschka remembered his first military operations at the Eastern Front in Galicia: “Now, finally, the great day had arrived; I, too, had longed for it.” In a letter to Loos he even expressed the hope of winning an “Iron Cross” for his services in the war. He portrayed himself in a drawing in his uniform, in another his horse. “Archetypal spirit of the elements” Albin Egger-Lienz was also one of the volunteers. He reported for service in late April 1915 with the Tyrolean Standschützen rifle guild, hoping not to be sent to Galicia – a wish that was f ulfilled. At first the war certainly seemed to have fascinated him. He states, “There is and lives an archetypal spirit of the elements here such as now lives only in the Iliad or in Macbeth” –
Albin Egger-Lienz, To the Nameless 1914 © Museum of Military History, Vienna
evidence of how much the battles impressed him. Some of his compositions of massed armies storming into attack – for instance “War” dated 1914, which he varied later – really do seem to make heroes of the soldiers and their attacks. The year the war broke out he described a new idea for a picture in a letter to a friend: “I now plan to paint a whopper, the biggest yet: ‘The War 1914’, Germany-Austria’s march to attack; in the center at the front St. Michael, swinging sword and scales (all gold, armor).” But in the end he didn’t execute the painting (we don’t know why), which probably would have turned out to be the epitome of propaganda art. Alfons Walde, renowned for his Alpine idylls, also joined up as a volunteer: he moved into combat only a few days after the outbreak of the war, on 1 August 1914, and was even awarded four medals in the course of the war. In retrospect in 1956 he gave a euphoric description of the deeds of a Kaiserjäger (rifle regiment soldier) at the Italian Front, where he was stationed in 1915. His paintings, for instance of soldiers on furlough at home, give us little idea of the brutal actions in combat, and his portraits show his comrades in sharp profile as resolute f ighters – in short, as paragons of brave and dutiful soldiers.
Nina Schedlmayer, born in 1976, studied art history in Vienna and Hamburg. After freelancing in the gallery and exhibition business, she has worked in free journalism and art criticism. Since 2004, she has written for such journals as “profil,” “artmagazine.cc,” “Handelsblatt,” “EIKON” and “Spike Art Quarterly.” Her work further includes numerous catalogue and book contributions and a thesis on art historiography in the time of National Socialism. She lives and works in Vienna.
From battlefield to graveyard The initial fascination soon gave way to sober realization. Oskar Kokoschka, for instance, suffered serious wounds, a bullet in his head and a stab in the chest – it was practically a miracle that he survived. After a long convalescence and much toing and froing, Kokoscha was stationed with the group of artists working in the Imperial and Royal Press Office. The staff were expected to document the events on the front and convey them in artistic – and propaganda-oriented – media. But Kokoschka’s works in no way corresponded to these instructions: thus approaching us in his sheet “Projecting Weapon in Covered Position” of 1916 is a desperately staring soldier on visibly unstable ground; elsewhere the painter records the combat zones in the Italian mountains, although more in the form of landscapes: military equipment is only seen marginally, or not at all. His later drawings, naturally not on official commission, condemn the war and those politically responsible for it: men fight with crucifixes, naked, crawling human beings are stamped, like animals ending up on the shambles.
The art of Albin Egger-Lienz also changed: his initial, occasionally still heroic soldiers soon began to break down in despair, the battlefields turned into graveyards teeming with corpses, the heroes anonymous food for cannons. At the end of the war Egger-Lienz painted another, very depressing picture with the telling title “Finale,” in which there is no doubt any more about the horror of the catastrophe. Likewise, Alfons Walde’s tanned soldiers eventually came to their tragic end, for example in a “Soldiers’ Grave,” painted in 1919. In the somber picture two uniformed men mourn a comrade who is buried in a fresh grave mound on a field; a great number of crosses manifest the mass killings. Blade runners The ambivalent attitude to war can even be manifested in one and the same picture: in 1916 Albin Egger-Lienz painted his monumental composition “To the Nameless 1914,” sized 243 times 475 centimeters, now held by the Museum of Military History in Vienna. He noted on a loose slip of paper: “The gasping in distress of man straining to the ultimate limits of will and strength – it is the ‘deed’ and nothing else that can someday revive the gruesome breath of our time for us and our grandchildren.” Just as the war and its “archetypal energies” had once visibly inspired Egger-Lienz, now, according to his own statement, he endeavored most of all to demonstrate its horrors. But not everyone saw a condemnation in “The Nameless”. Fascinated on seeing the painting in a presentation, an author for the “Allgemeiner Tiroler Anzeiger” newspaper described it thus: “In every face a part of the wild, unleashed archetypal energy, every movement spellbound by the mighty rhythm, in every thrust forward a wave from the great billow that has to keep reappearing behind the high horizon as soon as the front line surges forward!” Like few other works “The Nameless 1914” and its interpretations show how densely fascination and horror, glorification and condemnation were juxtaposed. The edge upon which many artists were running was as narrow as a blade.
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Interview
“Unbelievable Quality” On a par with the Old Masters by Nicole Scheyerer
Nicole Scheyerer was born in Salzburg in 1974 and studied philosophy in Vienna. She writes regularly for the Vienna weekly magazine “Falter,” “Der Standard” and “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,” with a focus on art and the art market. 52
Are museum classics still a source of inspiration today, in the 21st century – do they still have intellectual traction? Of all the places in Vienna to discuss this question, none could be more appropriate than the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Imposing Baroque paintings behind them, General Director Sabine Haag and artist Erwin Wurm describe their experiences.
combined artworks from the Kunsthistorisches Museum with objects from the Natural History Museum to create his own, very unique sort of Wunderkammer. The heart of the exhibition consisted of a meteorite found in 1891, the same year that the Kunsthistorisches Museum was founded and Ed Ruscha’s father was born.
Erwin Wurm loves the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. “As a student, I came here every weekend,” says the artist in a conversation with museum director Sabine Haag, and adds jokingly, “… also because it was always so nice and tidy here!” Photos are taken in a large exhibition gallery at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien with Baroque paintings by Guido Reni and Luca Giordano looming on the walls. Even today, the sculptor gets little out of looking at them. As a young man, Erwin Wurm would rather spend his Sundays with the Northern Renaissance painters, antiquity sculptures or the art of the pharaohs.
“I thought it was very refreshing to see how differently an American artist – someone free from the burden of the European educated bourgeoisie – dealt with our icons like the Bruegels,” says Sabine Haag.
“I’ve noticed that my artist colleagues fall into two groups that are almost incompatible with one another: the ones who are interested in old art, and many others who have no interest in it whatsoever,” says Wurm. This could also have something to do with the fact that the work was done for patrons who used it for representational purposes or to safeguard their power, and the Old Master pieces were overlaid with the patrons’ own feudal or religious requirements. “But if you can get past that, then what you are left with is the ‘pure’ painting or sculpture – and that’s where you have this incredible quality.”
Erwin Wurm also took an extremely subjective approach to the medieval art at the Albertina. He asked male artist friends to assume poses and gestures from the Gothic paintings. “I was also interested in these poses because they are now extinct. No one stands like that anymore; it had something to do with a different concept of the Self,” reflects the artist, who always connects sculpture to social issues.
Can museum classics still serve as a source of inspiration in the 21st century; do they still have intellectual traction? The question highlights a key topic on modern and contemporary art, a project launched by KHM General Director Sabine Haag in 2012. “Unfortunately, we can no longer speak to the Old Masters in person. So speaking to contemporaries is all the more important. We want to know where they start, what they get out of it and what could be relevant for a mixed audience.” Today’s best artists are good enough to do just that: Haag is thinking of renowned artists who are “on a par with Rubens or Rembrandt.” This claim was amply demonstrated in the show “The Ancients Stole All Our Great Ideas,” where American artist Ed Ruscha
Why are curiosity cabinets enjoying such a comeback in contemporary art? Haag, an expert on the Kunstkammer, says the fascination lies in the ability to capture and experience the world in a highly personal way through a combination of very different objects.
Another exhibition exploring the possibility of contact with old art came with Erwin Wurm’s presentation of “One Minute Sculptures” in the Old Masters collection at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. In front of the priceless paintings, drawings or brief instructions encouraged visitors to assume certain positions for 60 seconds. “The performers have to follow the instructions exactly, otherwise it is not my artwork,” says the artist, clarifying his expanded concept of sculpture. With Wurm’s short and ephemeral sculptures, the question “What is that?” forms the first moment of a thought process leading to either agreement or refusal. Museum director Sabine Haag also speaks of the “emotionalization” needed to reach audiences with 5,000 years of world art. Both Haag and Wurm agree: ancient or contemporary – when it comes to art, the important thing is to approach it with an open mind.
Sabine Haag and Erwin Wurm Š Florian Rainer 53
Interview
“Every Exhibition Is a Performance” A conversation with Arnulf Rainer and Klaus Albrecht Schröder by Joachim Riedl
It is every exhibitor’s dream: countless forgotten works by a famous artist are rediscovered decades later. That is what happened with Arnulf Rainer, whose life’s work the Albertina is dedicating a large exhibition to. The artist and the director of the Albertina, Klaus Albrecht Schröder, speak to Joachim Ried about critical distance, curators who direct, and the revision process that never seems to end.
Mr Rainer, on the occasion of your 85th birthday, the Albertina is showing a comprehensive retrospective of your work. How do you go about finding a selection that represents your extensive body of work? Arnulf Rainer: My wishes have nothing to do with it. I am just the object, not the subject. That’s what curators are for. Klaus Albrecht Schröder: It is not difficult to make a show about Arnulf Rainer, but it is difficult to do so in Vienna, where everyone has seen everything and believes there is nothing new. What makes this exhibition special is that most of the works have never been shown. Luckily there was a lot of material by the artist that is completely unknown to the public. The unknown Rainer? Klaus Albrecht Schröder: Unknown works by the famous R ainer. Of course we didn’t suddenly discover Rainer to be a painter of Alpine scenery. This exhibition is about permanent change and improvement. “The Unknown Masterpiece,” a famous short story by Balzac, is also the subtitle of the exhibition: it is about laboring on a work of art until it has reached its state of completion and thereby extinguishes itself. Mr Rainer, what do you mean when you say you are “just an object”? Arnulf Rainer: I don’t make any choices and I am not there when the works are hung. That is my principle. Even in my own museum in Baden. I don’t even take part in the concept. Why this abstinence? Arnulf Rainer: I would lose myself, and it would take three years to complete an exhibition. My eye is not distanced and critical enough for me to distinguish a work that is almost good from a work that is good. It is a very challenging intellectual task to recognize the difference. 54
When did you lose the critical distance to your work? Arnulf Rainer: With me it’s a matter of the brain. I no longer trust myself to do it. Even with works that were created a long time ago? Arnulf Rainer: No. Sometimes I don’t like anything, and sometimes I’m in a good mood and then I like everything. That is much too dangerous for a large exhibition. Klaus Albrecht Schröder: That’s not unusual, quite a few major contemporary artists refuse to attend the selection and hanging of their works. Gerhard Richter, for example, or Georg Baselitz. But I don’t believe what Arnulf Rainer just said, that he has no critical distance and would make a random selection. Although I am not at all surprised that he says that. Especially when you look at the works he kept back in his studio, it is clear to see that he has a lot of it, and, with a keen sense for the significance of his works, he has kept those that can almost be called unique. So why not choose your best works yourself, if you know which ones they are? My theory: there is another perspective, one that is also important, and that is the objectification of works by others. So the responsibility lies with the curators and the director? Klaus Albrecht Schröder: Exclusively. So Arnulf Rainer can now lean back, relax, and express his displeasure afterwards if need be. Klaus Albrecht Schröder: That has happened with him, as it has with other artists: they do not think the exhibition anything like as good as the curator. But that doesn’t make them do it themselves the next time. Arnulf Rainer: I view the curator of an exhibition as a kind of director, and even the best actors follow a director’s instructions. Klaus Albrecht Schröder: That is a good comparison. Every author has very precise ideas, and yet he enables the director to explore the things that may be hidden in his work. After all, every exhibition is a performance. If I understand Mr Schröder correctly, the real jewels have been slumbering in your studio for all these years, Mr Rainer, and you have guarded them jealously. Klaus Albrecht Schröder: That does not mean he didn’t sell
Klaus Albrecht Schröder and Arnulf Rainer © Florian Rainer
some jewels as well. He is not one of those artists who cherry-pick the best works and then throw the worst works on the market. Have you really forgotten some of your own works? Arnulf Rainer: Not just individual works, but entire storerooms. I have three studios. And because one of them is in Bavaria, I am in part a Bavarian painter as well. What is it like to suddenly stumble across such a forgotten storeroom after 20 years? Arnulf Rainer: I don’t even dare go in. I send the curator. Klaus Albrecht Schröder: I have experienced that with many artists, particularly if they work quickly and in series. I have been in Arnulf Rainer’s studio when he had four or five long tables holding works he was working on simultaneously. It seems to me that while you are working, you are almost in a delirious state of extraordinary concentration. Then, exhausted, you clear everything away, so you are likely to be very surprised, 15 or 20 years later, at what you produced.
Joachim Riedl, born 1953 in Vienna, is an author, exhibition designer and journalist. He studied English literature, sociology and psychology in Cambridge and Vienna. Riedl currently heads the Vienna office of the “ZEIT” newspaper and lives in Vienna.
But there is also the opposite effect: you remember old works as being very good and are then disappointed to discover how mediocre they actually are. Arnulf Rainer: That is why I have started painting over my own paintings. The aim is not to extinguish a work, but to make it more intense through corrections and revisions. Klaus Albrecht Schröder: The process of working over older works is also familiar from Alfred Kubin, for example. Old Kubin was notorious for wanting to prove he was still in full possession of his creativity. So he enjoyed drawing on earlier major works in front of visitors. Now we have a lot of destroyed works, because the old Kubin scrawled on earlier
asterpieces. Once, Alex Katz turned up here at the Albertina m with a case full of brushes and paints and explained to me, laughing, that he had sold a picture that was so bad he would now have to improve it, even though he no longer owned it. Another case: Richard Serra. Two years ago, he had an exhibition in New York; he borrowed a big black work from 1970 from a private collector and reworked it. Now the owner is suing. He lent an expensive work from 1970 and received one from 2012 in return. A legal battle is being waged in the US. Does an artist, who has full copyright on his work, also have the right to modify a work he no longer owns? And doesn’t that interfere with the intrinsic value of an object? On the other side, like in Balzac’s short story, is a permanent, never-ending improvement process, where the painter paints over his work, pointing to the aspect that a work never stops being. So that means a work is never finished. How long can this revision process take you? Arnulf Rainer: That depends. Sometimes, if I am unsure, I make a facsimile of my own work, which is easy to do now thanks to laser printing. Then I rework it and confront it with the original. This process can even take 50 or 60 years. Really? Arnulf Rainer: Sure. Once, after an exhibition, I had stored my works in the academy. In the summer, someone broke in and drew very aggressively over 36 works. The police did not take it seriously. Anyway, these works could no longer be shown. I had one restored, but it looked like a ruin. I had no other option than to paint over the pictures again, so I wouldn’t have to throw them away.
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Interview
“The Secession Is Unique” The new president of the Secession in conversation by Angela Stief
Herwig Kempinger © Florian Rainer
Asked about the Beethoven Frieze, the new president of the Succession likes “the idea that the co-founder still ensures the institution’s survival today.” Herwig Kempinger spoke with Angela Stief about democratic programming decisions, theinstitution’s financing – and how the Secession scores “well-known no-sayers” for its exhibitions.
How does the Secession assert its position compared to other, similar exhibition venues in the city – institutions like Kunsthalle Wien, Künstlerhaus and KUNST HAUS WIEN, for example? Herwig Kempinger: The Secession is unique. Not only is it the world’s oldest independent institution devoted exclusively to contemporary art, but the program is also entirely designed by artists. These days we have a completely different approach to art; our program tries to put emerging artists in a meaningful 56
context with more established colleagues. Once a year we would like to show an older artistic position that is very important for contemporary art but for some unknown reason has never been shown in Austria. So we don’t want to be either a museum or an alternative space; instead we aim to offer a program that builds meaningful connections in its own right. There is a lot of great art around, but in Vienna you get the impression it’s only a very narrow segment that gets shown over and over again. The Secession makes its programming decisions democratically. Some say too many cooks spoil the broth. Herwig Kempinger: The board is composed of 13 artists; we decide on the program together and democratically. The program might be sharper or more profiled if it were headed
How is the Secession financed? Herwig Kempinger: We have an annual budget of 1.5 million euros, a combination of funds from Erste Bank and subsidies from the state and city. The Vienna Chamber of Labour supports one exhibition per year. But the majority of revenue comes from visitors, from the Friends of the Secession, the sales at the shop, etc. We are an independent association and don’t have to show the number of visitors, although we can compete with many much larger institutions. Basically, I think counting heads is a useless and stupid form of quality assessment. Not everything is quantifiable. The Secession benefits from the building’s striking architecture and Gustav Klimt’s “Beethoven Frieze.” What is its status at the moment? Herwig Kempinger: I like the idea that the co-founder still – and not insignificantly – ensures the institution’s survival today. Historians have looked into the provenance of the “Beethoven Frieze” and the results of this investigation have been given to the Art Restitution Advisory Board. It is now up to the Advisory Board to decide.
Angela Stief, born 1974 in Germany, lives and works in Vienna and Berlin as a curator and journalist. She was a curator at Kunsthalle Wien from 2002 to 2013, where she realized group exhibitions such as “POWER UP – Female Pop Art,” “Lives and works in Vienna III” and solo exhibitions with artists including Yüksel Arslan, Leigh Bowery, Urs Fischer, Nathalie Djurberg and Gert & Uwe Tobias. She has lectured at various universities both in Austria and abroad and regularly edits and publishes texts on contemporary art.
by a single individual, but it is precisely this heterogeneous decision-making structure that, I think, makes it a very vivid reflection of its time. Artists are people with very strong preferences, and it is always exciting to see how the group comes together, and how they come to a result that makes sense to others as well.
Some directors – the Burgtheater comes to mind – exceed their budget by many millions and the state has to step in. The Minister didn’t bat an eye at the wildly overdrawn construction budget for the 21er Haus, even when it drew sharp criticism from the Court of Auditors. Is it ever tempting to push the bounds of what is financially possible, even a little? Herwig Kempinger: Not really, because we are not a state institution and I can’t be sure that the Minister will give us a dime if we go into debt. But I do feel a little ridiculous if I have to think about how I can save another 100 euros somewhere. The lack of understanding for our work is often annoying.
How do you draw international attention? Herwig Kempinger: It’s very simple. We work with our staff to take care of the invited artists from the moment they arrive to when they leave, and do our best to make the time they spend and work with us a good experience. It is because of this that we have a fantastic reputation in faraway countries and can – even with our very modest means – show artists who reject offers of much larger museums. It’s always great to hear a well-known no-sayer say, “Let’s do it!”
Künstlerhaus and Kunsthalle Wien on Karlsplatz use their facades for advertising. Can we expect to see this at the Secession as well? Herwig Kempinger: The Secession is a unique architectural statement that does not tolerate nonsense. But I would say the same goes for other structures – St. Stephen’s Cathedral, for instance. It would be unacceptable. There’s something wrong with politics when banality and trivialization encroach on the facades of art institutions. 57
Interview
History in Stone 150 years of the Vienna Ringstrasse by Maria Rennhofer
In 1865 Emperor Franz Joseph I opened the Vienna Ringstrasse. The 150th anniversary marks an opportune moment to put the Ringstrasse as a brand in the spotlight of tourism. After all, the buildings, the commissioning parties, architects and participating artists tell a great deal about Austrian (cultural) history.
“Vienna around 1900” – a concept we’re proud of. Was this not an era in which Vienna showed the world that – at least in the arts – a new age was dawning? Admittedly, a new political and social world order was not yet in sight; this did not dawn until after the catastrophe of the First World War, when “Vienna around 1900” was long passé. But what went before this? Historicism. Ringstrasse Style. Eclecticism … uninteresting. This is the impression that generally prevails when reflecting the official Austrian concept of (art) history. The phenomenon of the Ringstrasse – and this applies to historicism in general – arouses extremely conflicting reactions here in Austria: on the one hand pride at the imposing, prestigious architecture that shapes the Viennese cityscape more strikingly than do buildings from any other epoch; on the other hand with a disparaging eye on an out dated style and its social and political background. But this ambivalence is the very quality that harbors the potential for a new, complex confrontation with the phenomenon of the Ringstrasse 150 years after its official opening – both from the touristic and the art-historical perspective.
Christian Witt-Dörring and Norbert Kettner in the Imperial Assembly Hall of the Parliament building, Vienna © Florian Rainer 58
Christian Witt-Dörring, curator at the Vienna MAK and the Neue Galerie New York, deplores the fact that the appreciation of an identity-shaping ensemble such as the Vienna Ringstrasse falls well below its actual significance. “We Austrians have a peculiar understanding of history based on forgetting. One thing is always played out against another – such as ‘Vienna around 1900’ against Historicism – instead of discerning the continuity of quality.” Witt-Dörring names two reasons for this: “On the one hand, a modernist approach to art production needs a ‘bogeyman,’ or adversary; the other approach is a socio-political one: Ringstrasse represents the era of the old society, a society that was ultimately to blame for the First World War.”
Political, social and cultural changes This was the very society – the aristocracy and haute bourgeoisie – from which the patrons were recruited who founded Vienna’s reputation as one of the great cultural capitals of Europe in the second half of the 19th century and gave the city the shape that culminated in the Ringstrasse ensemble. Many prerequisites for this existed: the imperial resolution of 1857 to raze the obsolete medieval fortifications – the city walls, the bastions and glacis – and build a resplendent boulevard in their place; the incorporation in 1850 of the suburbs and thus the integration of various social structures to form a modern metropolis; and finally the freedom of trade from 1859 and the gradual emancipation of the Jewish population after 1860, fostering industrialization and creating an affluent haute bourgeoisie. This “second society,” however, didn’t yet have its own stylistic media at hand with which to express its new self-confidence, hence it oriented itself on those of the aristocracy. But in courtly and aristocratic circles, too, the Gründerzeit – the age of industrial expansion in the latter half of the 19th century – was an epoch of transition, of pause and of recollection. Historicism invoked Neo-Classicism and re-interpretations of the Gothic period, Renaissance and Baroque as tried and tested movements. The result was the stylistic mix of the Vienna Ringstrasse buildings, whose quality was dependent not only on the architecture of each edifice, but also on the availability of funds. The Ringstrasse was a Gesamtkunstwerk that attracted the best artistic forces – Theophil Hansen from Denmark, for instance, and Friedrich Schmidt and Gottfried Semper from Germany. “Successful cities are content machines” – the Vienna Director of Tourism Norbert Kettner translates into marketing jargon the phenomenon that talents converge wherever they can realize their ideas. Model of urban development For Christian Witt-Dörring, Ringstrasse is unique in more than just art and architecture history: “Ringstrasse is a medium of social integration: the archduke dwells next to the Jewish b aron and in between we have government, administration and cultural buildings – this is something quite new. Added to this is the integration of the suburbs with the Imperial Residence as the centerpiece. In America this urban planning concept is seen today as an option for reconciling dead urban centers with the suburbs.” The time is ripe, he says, to revalue these qualities and overcome the typically Austrian fear of contact with one’s own past: “We only have to take the House of Austrian History as an example, which is still not realized: the first concept aimed to start in 1918, the second – wonders never cease – in 1848. This is the Austrian understanding of history!”
Maria Rennhofer is a cultural journalist. She studied journalism and art history at Vienna University, was head of Aktuelle Kultur on Austria’s radio for many years, and has been a freelance journalist and author since 2010, also active as a freelance partner in cultural and media projects. Her work includes several book publications, i. a. a monograph on Koloman Moser.
And this is exactly where the tourism branch hooks in: in 2015 it is focusing on the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Ringstrasse by Emperor Franz Joseph I as an opportunity for an intensive information and marketing campaign. “We’re trying to get away from a discussion about epochs and move towards one about quality,” says Norbert Kettner. “We want to cast an unprejudiced look at something that in the course of history was somewhat blanked out, but is so omnipresent in the city that no one can ignore Ringstrasse. Our guests don’t even need to buy a ticket; they just have to board the tram and see the essence of the city.”
Many visitors who were hardly aware of Austria’s historic greatness are at first completely puzzled, since the imposing Ringstrasse glamor has little to do with Austria’s significance today. “The imperial image of magnificence associated with Vienna – particularly in international tourism – is both a curse and a blessing,” admits Norbert Kettner. “A blessing, because we have never ceased to profit from this image; a curse, because we have to stress that the city is more than a museum. Vienna is the third fastest-growing city and one of the youngest in Europe, but also has the enormous advantage of this grandiose architecture.” Thus, in the anniversary year of 2015, the spotlight will be directed on Ringstrasse as a brand. Vienna salon The buildings, the commissioning parties, architects and ar tists involved in realizing the buildings also tell a great deal about Austrian history and culture. Norbert Kettner: “We want to tell what Ringstrasse means for the city today and what it meant in earlier times. We’re not only relating what was built, when and by whom, but we’re telling stories; and really dark stories.” Indeed, tourism marketing has now come to mean conceding the dark sides of a place’s history as well. “And the people behind this history,” adds Christian Witt-Dörring. “The Palais Ephrussi for example, or Palais Schey: no on knows them any more. We are surrounded by history, aesthetically conditioned by it, and yet people don’t know it because no on explains its significance. History is only exploited.” But doesn’t tourism marketing more than anything else live from exploitation and clichés? Isn’t there a danger lurking here in the way we treat our history? “If you do things intelligently and explain where something comes from and where it’s going; if you make people aware of things, then there’s no danger,” says Norbert Kettner soothingly. “Vienna’s image is of course shaped by the imperial heritage. But we always try and lay a cuckoo’s egg in the nest. Many guests coming to Vienna for the first time are surprised that we not only possess such a historic heritage, but are also modern and young.” The historic heritage should also be used in a contemporary way. Foreign visitors who come to Vienna for its art and culture usually have no problem with this in any case and are not as strict about separating history and the present. For international experts, curators, museum people and art experts who are expected for VIENNA ART WEEK (or other occasions) the classical imperial Vienna is top of the list, apart from the topical aspects. Looking forward towards 2015, WienTourismus, which is also communications partner of VIENNA ART WEEK, is re-interpreting the Vienna salon and is taking it on tour. Events are being organized in Vienna’s leading target markets in which authors read from their texts written for the Ringstrasse anniversary, conveying a very personal view of Vienna. Their descriptions were furthermore published in a bright red book “1865, 2015. 150 Jahre Wiener Ringstraße. Dreizehn Betrachtungen” (1865, 2015. 150 Years of Vienna’s Ringstrasse. Thirteen Views). They range from various memoirs to discreet declarations of love and also include critical associations evoked by imperial power, which still throws its shadow today on the artistic splendor of the Ringstrasse. www.ringstrasse2015.info 59
Interview
“Sometimes a Critical Remark Is More Valuable” Caught between the polarities of a historical collection and design for the future by Michael Hausenblas
This year the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art is celebrating its 150th anniversary. Director Christoph Thun-Hohenstein talks about his favourite exhibitions, Jaguars, and the success of museums.
What do you think about the polarities of quality and quantity in exhibition politics? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: I ask myself the following questions: “What is the core task of a museum? What do we have to do?” It’s our job to develop exhibitions that are accessible to a wide public. I’m not a fan of specialist exhibitions. It should be like a text book, fascinating for specialists, but also written so that everyone can get something out of it. We’ve tried to do this with the MAK DESIGN LAB, and I think we’ve succeeded. Of course, you can always improve on things! How can you gauge the success of a museum? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: Here it’s a question of how an exhibition is received on the national and international levels. Its success with visitors is also relevant, of course. It really is difficult to compare it with other houses. For instance, we have an entirely different agenda to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. If the only criterion were visitor statistics, I would put on very different exhibitions.
Michael Hausenblas has been on the staff of the daily newspaper “Der Standard” since 1999, primarily as editor in the field of design. 60
What about the difference between a museum director and exhibition curators? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: Team spirit is crucial, and here, if you’ll pardon my Latin, I’m the primus inter pares. I have to see it’s going according to my idea of what the museum should be. The discussion always heats up whenever it’s about developing a vision for the MAK. Incidentally, we have a dozen curators in all, including the chief curators of the various c ollections. These are frequently joined by guest curators. I’m a great fan of such connections. Both sides profit from them. The MAK was often criticised earlier that it did too little for the applied arts and showed too much of the art part of its name.
How do you achieve the right balance between design, art, architecture and the historical collection? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: One of our core competencies is “Vienna around 1900,” and for a long time we’ve been dealing with the issue of “How do we make the world better?” We have to address this theme today in the digital modern age using the options offered by the applied arts, which include design and architecture, and by integrating the visual arts. This is a huge “playground,” but if we deal with it intelligently it can all work out as totally coherent. What matters now is to realise projects that support international credibility, and to continue building up the public for museums. Furthermore, we have to integrate the collection so that it also makes sense in the contemporary context. Thus, for example, the project with the artist Michael Riedel? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: We have invited this artist because he constantly veers in his themes towards the applied arts, but from the perspective of a visual artist. At this point I’d also like to mention that I find performance formats utterly fascinating. Do you have a favourite place in the MAK? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: It’s always the place where something is just opening. The feedback need not always be positive: sometimes a critical remark that brings you further is more valuable. What I can use least of all are empty compliments that say nothing. Do you have a favourite object in the museum? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: Well, we have 600,000 objects, so this is infernally difficult to answer. Now and then I dream of things we don’t have, for instance the “Sitzmaschine” (sitting machine) by Josef Hoffmann, which we loaned for a few months from the Imperial Furniture Collection. But also the 1962 Jaguar E-Type Stefan Sagmeister chose for the exhibition “EXEMPLARY: 150 Years of the MAK: From Arts and Crafts to Design.” This car has always fascinated me. Unfortunately I’ve never had the chance to drive one.
Christoph Thun-Hohenstein Š Florian Rainer 61
Interview
No Slip-Ups “Young ART Lounge”: where young art and economics meet by Eva Komarek
Richard Rella © Florian Rainer
The “Young ART Lounge” is a platform devised by Zürcher Kantonalbank Österreich AG for young artists to communicate and present their work. Johanna Binder and Rudi Cotroneo have already shown their work in the “Young ART Lounge.” They talked to the manager of the Viennese branch of the bank, Richard Rella, about art buyers, market prices, court painters, and what success means for them.
The Zürcher Kantonalbank Österreich AG’s “Young ART Lounge” is a project promoting young art. How did it all start? Richard Rella: The idea of exhibiting art was already aired in the bank before I started here. It was an interplay between the existing contact to the University of Applied Arts, the readiness to sponsor art on the part of the parent company, and the desire to remodel the interior space of the bank. Added to this was my personal passion for contemporary art. Hence I was able to continue and develop the project to make it a more professional mode of support for young artists. The “Young ART Lounge” enables us to give them their first opportunity of exhibiting their works and presenting them to financially potent, potential buyers. What criteria is the choice of artists based on? Richard Rella: We work together with the University of Applied Arts, which recommends artists to us. My colleague Daniela Tomacek chooses three artists from their suggestions. I stay out of this, firstly so that my taste doesn’t intervene – it’s whetted through my passion for collecting – and secondly so that I can enjoy being surprised. The three artists – despite all the differences in their work – are meant to work together as far as possible and share the interior space with one another. It’s deliberately left up to them to decide which pictures they want to hang where. You have already presented your works in the context of the “Young ART Lounge.” Where do you normally exhibit your art? Rudi Cotroneo: In Vienna in alternative spaces. But I’m slowly trying to put out my feelers abroad. I’ve just been given the chance to show my works in galleries in Venice and Rome. 62
Johanna Binder: Vienna is not very much my scene. This year, I had two exhibitions in Italy – in a gallery in Trieste and one in Venice – and was represented in a show in the Traklhaus in Salzburg. And in September I had an exhibition in Armenia. Is it harder or easier today to become famous than it was before? Rudi Cotroneo: It’s harder, because in the meantime art is everywhere – and there’s so much crap. Every bored housewife wants to paint and put her stuff on show these days. When I take a look at what’s hanging in galleries I’m pretty speechless. Johanna Binder: I agree. So many art students and hobby artists are active on the scene and claiming to be marketable. But in a certain way it’s also become easier: there are more options today. Thousands of associations, alternative spaces and other opportunities exist for young artists to present their work. How do you define success? Rudi Cotroneo: Success for me is recognition from other artists. Of course I’m happy to sell works. But recognition is more important than money! Johanna Binder: It’s very difficult to say … because you can get so much recognition and earn so much money and still have the feeling you aren’t a good artist. Artists who sell well on the market are generally called successful … Rudi Cotroneo: It’s not just about money, but about playing a role, contributing to society, establishing a dialog. When I put on an exhibition I want people to talk about the theme, discuss it and argue about it. This is so important in art! Johanna Binder: I’m not at all a friend of making art just in order to sell something. But there’s the other side as well, that you’re dependent on it. Richard Rella: Unfortunately success in our consumer society is now only reflected in money value. This is one of the reasons that so many people are unhappy. This applies in a similar way to art as well. Artists are assessed according to ranking lists
Richard Rella, Johanna Binder and Rudi Cotroneo © Florian Rainer
these days – like doctors and lawyers. The higher the price for an artist, the more successful and important he or she is counted! Johanna Binder: If people are prepared to spend so much money they must love art very much … Richard Rella: There are two types of art buyers – those who do it for passion, and those who do it as an investment. Both are prepared to pay the market price. But in principle the investors are the ones to drive the prices sky-high, not only for well-known artists but now also for the young. They see well-known artists as a “brand,” whereas they feel like patrons for the young ones and place their stakes on potential increase in value. Artists and their art are less important to the investors than the purchase price and the upward curve in potential. Soon people won’t be able to afford even the young artists. This annoys me intensely as a passionate art collector of modest means! Johanna Binder: Artists are treated like brands and this really is a shame. It’s no longer about the work itself, but the name tagged onto it.
Eva Komarek inherited the love of art from her artist father. Professionally, she has devoted herself to business coverage for Dow Jones, the “Wall Street Journal,” Reuters and “WirtschaftsBlatt.” She started the art market column in “WirtschaftsBlatt” and has served as its editor since 1996.
Wasn’t this always the case? Just think of the court painters, for example. Johanna Binder: Art had a completely different function then. It was a medium of prestige for representational purposes; today it’s a luxury product. Richard Rella: Court painters were a brand already. Their art was exploited for marketing and political purposes, and they were paid a lot for it. But even then it was regarded as vulgar to talk about price. These days, art is more than ever a financial status symbol, which labels someone as belonging to an intellectual class. Similar to an expensive car or watch with a potent
logo and brand, many people deliberately purchase famous artists for their high recognition value. If you see a Picasso hanging on a friend’s wall, for instance, you immediately know he’s a multi-millionaire. What are your actual tastes in art, Mr. Rella? Richard Rella: I adore 19th-century French artists and contemporary Austrians like Peter and Deborah Sengl, Jürgen Messensee, Jakob Gasteiger, Tone Fink and lesser-known young artists. I find it very important to establish a direct contact to the artists and have a constant exchange; this is an added enrichment to the pictures. I would never buy the work of a contemporary I know but don’t esteem as a person – the work wouldn’t be a reminder of a positive moment!
OPENING
8th Young ART Lounge* Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 6:30 p.m. Zürcher Kantonalbank Österreich AG Hegelgasse 6, 1010 Vienna Artists: Olivier Hölzl, Stefanie Holler, Lisa Slawitz * Registration is required: E sonja.rischer@zkb-oe.at 63
Photography
“An Effervescent Productivity” The Austrian federal collection of photography by Herbert Justnik
The federal collection of photography combines an extraordinary range of artworks. Three exhibitions have been curated recently with works from the collection. They create the impression that an invisible hand has gone through the virulent questions of contemporary photographic discourse in almost dialectic order.
When we look at photographs, we mostly see nothing more than what is presented within that framework. We are satisfied with an excerpt of the world that exists and is staged in front of the camera – and ignore the very act of recording. These ramifications are the subject of the exhibition entitled “DLF 1874. The Biography of Images,” which was curated by Ruth Horak and showcased in 2012 in the exhibition spaces of Camera Austria in Graz, and later in Leipzig and Vancouver. Instead of arranging photographs from the federal collection of photography around a specific topic, the curator uncovers the scenes that are usually hidden in an exhibition, namely those showing how artistic photography was created. In 2013, curators Severin Dünser and Axel Köhne created an exhibition at 21er Haus that reinterprets three collections of Austrian photography: the Belvedere, the federal Artothek and the federal collection of photography. They wanted a contemporary view of “Austrian photography from the 1930s to the present” on the basis of these three collections. The exhibition with the succinct title “Photos” offered to examine what makes photography so complex today. The curators ask daring and simultaneously humble questions about “things,” “people” and “photography” – and they do so in an open display outside t raditional exhibition conventions, in a way that allows the viewer to stroll and think about the subjects that photographs can show.
Herbert Justnik is a cultural scientist, curator and author with a focus on object cultures, media and contemporary art. Head of the photograph collection of the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art. 64
In 2014 the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York hosted an exhibition entitled “SELF-TIMER STORIES,” which will be on view at the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg from October 2014. Based on the current hype surrounding “selfies,” curator Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein has united objects where a dialog between subject and medium is exposed using the self-timer as photographic tool. These forms of media reflexivity illuminate in various ways the dispersed distortions of identity that we encounter today. When you examine these exhibitions, all of which were curated with works from the federal collection of photography, in the
Ruth Horak © Florian Rainer
order in which they took place, you get the impression that an invisible hand has gone through the virulent questions of contemporary photographic discourse in almost dialectic order. The thesis is the complexity that condenses even in one single photograph. The antithesis is the feeling of disorienta tion when attempting to sort large numbers of images while remembering that photographs and their circulating avatars are uncountable. The synthesis is the subject, which is thrown back upon itself and must grapple with all the things that are constantly pulling it in different directions. This cycle demonstrates what the federal collection of photo graphy and its public presentation can achieve with a reflective examination of the medium. It can do so because of its huge scope, the result of the fact that photographs are purchased by a committee that changes every three years. The aim is to select young innovative items and accompany the processes of growing and maturing. The collection has existed since 1981, currently comprises more than 16,000 individual works – around 8,500 from the federal portfolio – by around 470 artists, and is stored and managed in the Museum der Moderne together with the Salzburg state collection. The curator Ruth Horak, who has worked with the federal collection of photographs and been in constant contact with Austrian photographers, describes the astonishing efferves cence of productivity when the artists engage reflectively with the medium. She says: “There is every reason to exhibit our collection of photography with pride, even in an international comparison.” www.kunstkultur.bka.gv.at/ www.museumdermoderne.at/
Interview
Creative Seismographs Art and the pioneering spirit by Norbert Philipp
Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör is the new director of departure, the creative unit of the Vienna Business Agency. Norbert Philipp spoke with her about the creative milieu in Vienna, galleries as an important factor for the image and economy, and the annual experiment “curated by_vienna.”
How important is the arts sector for Vienna’s international profile as a business location? Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör: Culture is an important quality- of-life factor in cities, and the annual Mercer survey reflects this. No wonder it has listed Vienna as the number one most liveable city for the sixth year in a row. Vienna is a formidable art and culture metropolis, and its qualities are well known throughout the world. Recently it has also become known as a city with a unique knack for combining the traditional with the contemporary. Is the city’s art market more of an image boost or an economic factor? Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör: The galleries stand for much more than just image and beautification – they are a driving force for art and culture in Vienna. At the same time the art market, as part of the creative industries sector, is also a substantial economic factor that should not be overlooked. Artists are often referred to as seismographs of social conditions; they anticipate many trends that other creative economic sectors, like architecture or design, pick up only later. The galleries, as the primary authorities in ideological, but also financial value creation and distribution chains, occupy an important role in the creative industries.
Norbert Philipp has been editor of the “Schaufenster” section of the daily newspaper “Die Presse” since 2008. His primary topics include design, architecture, urban development and creative industry.
How does the art scene influence a city’s creative milieu? Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör: Visual arts are a source of inspiration for both the creative industries and the traditional economy, so the art scene has a considerable influence. Business and art are interdependent and inspire each other. “Art as research” comes to mind as one example. Creatives give significant impetus to a city, and the classical economy benefits from this pioneering spirit. The Vienna Business Agency positions Vienna as a start-up hub for precisely this reason. And departure supports these synergies with targeted funding programs and initiatives.
Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör © Florian Rainer
Which of departure’s (or the Vienna Business Agency’s) initiatives promotes the arts sector of the creative economy? Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör: Our number one task, hands down, is to put Vienna on the map as an international hub of creativity. The gallery festival “curated by_vienna” is a step in that direction, but we also cooperate with various cultural institutions and support a wide range of projects including Vienna Design Week, the Waves Vienna and sound:frame festivals – and of course VIENNA ART WEEK. How does one create a fertile environment for art production? Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör: Of course creative and artistic production requires an innovation-friendly climate and the right surroundings – like a proper ecosystem – and development opportunities as well. It also means that there should be room for a person or enterprise to fail now and again, without drowning. Vienna has an affinity for art, but it is also socially secure. Creatives can try something out without having to worry about the rug being pulled out from under them. This is a unique situation compared to other countries in Europe. How will the gallery festival “curated by_vienna” present itself this year? Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör: First, it’s about cooperation; after all, we have 20 galleries putting on a festival together. But it is also about submitting to an experiment, handing one’s workplace over to a curator, and opening up one’s own sphere of activity for new perspectives in the process. “curated by_vienna” has meanwhile become a fixture on the international art and culture map, and it contributes to Vienna’s international status as a vibrant art city. This year we were able to bring Beatriz Colomina, a luminary in the fields of art and architecture, to Vienna – something we are very excited about. 65
Interview
“Film Has Always Been a Bastard� A conversation about the Austrian Film Museum and film as a medium by Stefan Grissemann 66
A cathedral of world knowledge: Peter Kubelka, founder of the Austrian Film Museum, and Alexander Horwath, its current director, on the threatening extinction of film as a medium and their institution’s first half century, on analog projections and digital film facsimiles.
The Film Museum used to be an unforgiving place: films without subtitles, silent movies without music, extra-hard seats. Today the Museum is softer, more open, more “digestible.” Do you have to make concessions to the public to seduce and attract it? Peter Kubelka: My anger grows with every word. For me, the Film Museum is a pendant of the university, not a place for Sunday afternoon family entertainment. It is not bound to entertain but should offer those interested in film as a medium everything they need, concentrated and in the highest quality. Alexander Horwath: Fifty years after the founding of the Museum, the university and the Sunday afternoon entertainment referred to by Peter Kubelka are different from what they were in 1964. Terms like “concession” and “seduce” remind me of the market rhetoric typical of today’s museum industry. At the same time, no institution will complain if what it has to offer and say is seen as inviting and seductive. Peter Kubelka: In 1964 we were not there to guess what the medium would become. We were interested in the richness of film history, which for me has always been a history of the avant-garde and not of feature films. All works of art are created through dialog between the author and the medium with which he works. A sculptor thinks in stone and can sense what stone can do for him. But he will not attempt with his stone to make a statement about the economic situation in Ukraine. Because stone can’t do that.
© Florian Rainer
Is the Film Museum a place of education, a cinema university? Alexander Horwath: Naturally – but not only. Visitors must also understand how much this medium is influenced by mass culture. A museum for film cannot simply continue the old museum logic as a neatly defined place for high art – that would not be enough. This is significantly different from Kubelka’s ideal of a museum devoted primarily to the avant‑garde. The idea that the “real” film can be found only in works of those working as independently as a sculptor with his stone is nothing like an exhaustive description of what this medium has produced. Like Hollywood, the avant-garde is just one of the manifestations of film as a medium.
Stefan Grissemann is head of the “profil” news magazine’s arts section and author of books on the filmmakers Ulrich Seidl, Edgar G. Ulmer, Michael Haneke and Robert Frank.
But is it the most important one? Alexander Horwath: Film has always been a bastard. It is a global and highly profitable entertainment industry – and at the same time an artistic medium, a new type of historical testimony, a propaganda instrument, a scientific tool. The social energies in this medium are extremely heterogeneous. A film museum can communicate these broad elements as long as the cultural aspects are not ignored: film is a specific production and perception technology that has left its mark on history through screenings. Thus a film museum is not a museum full of objects but a place where the central focus is on screenings. Peter Kubelka: Every museum is in flux and changes with time. In 1964 film was the most modern medium, an omnipresent technology. All that was needed was to collect copies and define a new quality standard. In today’s digital era, the major companies are waging a veritable economic war. And in a war the preservation of mankind’s cultural heritage falls by the wayside. Our opponents go as far as destroying cinematographic material: the projectors, cameras, film laboratories. They destroy the structure of this art. The situation is highly dramatic.
Peter Kubelka and Alexander Horwath
Do you think that analog film will disappear? Peter Kubelka: Not at all. Mankind has shown that when the situation becomes serious, it is willing to make strenuous efforts to recover things that seemed lost. Film has recorded over 100 years of human ideas and avant-garde thinking. Unless it wants to wipe out its memory, humanity cannot afford to destroy this. There is no content as such, just material that stimulates ideas and associations. Museums don’t keep content, but screens, stone, metal and wooden items – and filmstrips. … which are all perishable, making them difficult to preserve. Peter Kubelka: The younger the medium, the more short-lived. The step from film – which, admittedly, is less durable than paper, wood, or stone – to digital media is immense. Analog film has proven to be much more stable than the digital version. Film museums today have to take responsibility for the preservation of the entire technology and materials – and this has to be done on a cooperative and global basis. Only in this way will it be possible to help the film laboratories and film production centers to survive. Alexander Horwath: The radical statement in 1964 – which can be found in a letter from Kubelka to Friedrich Heer before the Film Museum was even founded – was “the locus of a film museum is the screen.” This statement, which sounds so logical, was necessary because in people’s minds the concepts of film and museum were incompatible. And today it’s just as important to point out that the locus of a film museum is the cinema. Is the content of a film solely a question of the material? Peter Kubelka: Imagine that a member of the government were to go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and say that the site was needed for a car park. All of the works in the museum would then be photographed, digitized, and archived in the correct format. And yet, anyone with an understanding of art would argue that this is insufficient. No art catalog can replace the pictures themselves. Every medium is autonomous and stands on its own. Oil painting cannot replace drawing, although it appears to be more “versatile.” This is relevant today because the digital medium is so novel that it is difficult to convey the crucial fact that film is a unique medium in its own right. It becomes clearer every day that digital media are going in a different direction from film. Alexander Horwath: A film museum could distance itself categorically from all digital interventions – or it could put out feelers to the offshoots of the medium. I am in favor of museums attending to these new developments, but it is important to be transparent and honest and not to adopt the ridiculous rhetoric of the market, which claims that films “look better” in digital facsimile. Peter Kubelka: Looking better is not a criterion. What does a relic of the Stone Age look like? Certainly not spruced up and shiny. The most important relic in archeology is shit: excrement, which enables us to determine what people ate 70,000 years ago. Beauty is not a factor there. Alexander Horwath: Above all, the concept of “beauty” depends on a very tenuous and variable consensus. What was once ugly can become attractive – and vice versa. This shows the transience of terms like “beautiful” or “normal.” They are merely conventions. Anyone who finds scratches on the surface of a film to be “ugly” shouldn’t be doing historico-cultural work. Of course, making a fetish of these scratches is just as bad. If a painting doesn’t have hairline cracks or a Technicolor copy of a 1950s film doesn’t have scratches, so much the better! But the digital culture is bent on ensuring that attention is not drawn to the historicality of an object. 67
Interview
“The Things We Share Help Us Move Forward” Four Vienna gallery owners on Austrian art and its international significance by Angela Stief
Galleries offer artists their first platform for presentation, spend years laying the groundwork to position Austrian art on the international market, and foster cooperation at home as well as g lobal networks. How easy is Austrian art to place? And what are the conditions in which galleries work? Curator and publicist Angela Stief spoke to established representatives of the domestic gallery scene.
What is the role of Austrian contemporary art in an international context? Gabriele Senn: A lot is happening here. The situation does not look too bad, especially if you think about internationally renowned artists such as Maria Lassnig, Franz West and Heimo Zobernig. Ursula Krinzinger: It’s true that there is a fantastic art scene here. But there is also a lot that needs to be improved. You have to ask yourself who, apart from the people mentioned before, is actually shown in international museums. Emanuel Layr: We all agree that Austria has a modest number of creative artists, both established and young, who can easily keep up on an international level. At the moment, galleries are taking their first steps towards creating an international network. But nobody else in Austria is doing so. We do all the fundamental work, and only then do the critics, collections and institutions begin to act. Gabriele Senn: That is quite true. Galleries offer artists a platform where they can position themselves for the first time. Andreas Huber: In my eyes, public perception in Austria is aimed far too much at national art. The Austrian market itself is modest. I would like to see greater interest in international items, some of which we naturally exhibit in our galleries. What about networks at the museum level? Andreas Huber: In general, I believe that the institutions lag behind in the developments that the galleries have initiated. 68
In the past ten or 15 years, galleries have worked continuously with others abroad and sought out intensive cooperations. They have launched their own projects, and have worked with other galleries and many exhibition spaces. Ursula Krinzinger: Unfortunately, exhibitions produced by Austrian museums and art spaces rarely travel abroad. It would be very important for them to do so, but not enough is being done about it. You would need to set up a special body. Gabriele Senn: Another way would be to push for exhibitions with an Austrian focus abroad. Smaller art fairs like the A rtissima in Turin do that, and they are popular with curators and collectors. How easy is Austrian art to place at trade fairs? Andreas Huber: Basically it is true to say that Austrian art is undervalued on the international art market. That means we need plenty of confidence-building examination, plenty of discussions with collectors and others who are interested in art – in other words, development work that will take a long time. It is easier to position young artists than those in mid-career and medium price brackets. Ursula Krinzinger: Yes, that’s right. In Austria, a certain price bracket quickly becomes a barrier, which is not the case at trade fairs. That means we are all highly dependent on the international market and on international collectors; without them, Austrian galleries would not be able to exist. Gabriele Senn: There is also a drawback to collecting in Austria. For collectors, the big opportunity is to get in early. A good example is Christian Boros from Berlin. We don’t have those kinds of people here. My advice is to start collecting before the art becomes blue-chip. Ursula Krinzinger: Anyone who bought from the most important gallery exhibitions in Vienna in the last 20 years would now have a sensational collection. But when you launch an artist you are viewed with suspicion. There is a fundamental
Ursula Krinzinger, Gabriele Senn, Emanuel Layr and Andreas Huber (f.l.t.r.) © Florian Rainer
lack of awareness and confidence in us gallery owners. A lot still needs to change. Gabriele Senn: Collectors and those interested in art who join in from the start and get excited about young art have a great advantage. It is not advisable to wait until an artist has a certain résumé and value and has been positioned through acquisitions and exhibitions. You cannot follow the artistic development or buy early major works that way. That is something you cannot make up for. Andreas Huber: That’s right, there are not many collectors who accompany you programatically, which would be best for everyone involved. Ursula Krinzinger: Compared to international levels we have too few collectors, so we have to find other ways to support artists.
Angela Stief, born 1974 in Germany, is a curator and publicist. She lives and works in Vienna and Berlin. Between 2002 and 2013 she was a curator at the Kunsthalle Wien and staged group exhibitions such as “POWER UP – Female Pop Art,” “Lives and Works in Vienna III” and individual exhibitions with artists like Yüksel Arslan, Leigh Bowery, Urs Fischer, Nathalie Djurberg, Gert & Uwe Tobias. She has been teaching in Austria and abroad since 2003. Angela Stief edits and regularly publishes texts about contemporary art.
What would you recommend? Gabriele Senn: A nation that believes itself to be cultured must certainly work on it. To a certain degree, the state is responsible for promoting the arts. But we also want to address private persons and businesses. There are plenty of people in Austria who have a lot of money. Politicians should seek more ways to cooperate with business. I ask myself what a model of promotion could look and work like in a rich community. Ursula Krinzinger: When I look at other European countries, I see that they offer more support. The dedication of organizations such as the Mondrian Fund in the Netherlands and Pro Helvetia in Switzerland gives national art international visibility. That kind of promotion is completely lacking in Austria. Gabriele Senn: Globalization has made it necessary to think of new ideas for Austria as an artistic location. One would be to set up an Austria Fund. The point of a fund – to give something back to the society you live in – has been lost. Politicians must create a new framework for initiatives in arts and culture. Emanuel Layr: It could be based on the Swiss model of Pro
elvetia. Businesses must be invited to participate by politiH cians, tax incentives should be created and so on. To finance such an organization, one could question the point and current constitution of Austria’s art institutes. Do the Austrian art institutes abroad fulfill the function of representing Austrian contemporary art at an appropriate level? Ursula Krinzinger: No. To do so they would have to be managed by experts, not diplomats. Emanuel Layr: Once again, you could look at a Swiss model that works in a different way, the Swiss Institutes. These are exhibition spaces for contemporary art in major cities such as New York or Paris that are very highly regarded. They are managed by experts and curators. Restaffing the forums for Austrian art would be an important building block in the meaningful representation of contemporary Austrian art abroad. Do you have a last recommendation on how to improve the current situation? Andreas Huber: It is very important that the wider population becomes aware of the openness and internationalization of Austria as a location for the arts. We live in a city that is traditionally characterized by art and culture and also profits from them. Few are aware of the role that galleries play, the work they do to create networks, and how much they do to build up artists, and for the international visibility of Austrian contemporary art. Gabriele Senn: I think that, compared to other countries, we have an unfortunate culture of constant criticism here. We should pull together in one direction! We must work together to tackle and resolve the problems that we have addressed. The market, museums, politicians, art critics, curators and the media all have a role to play. What we share is important, it will help us move forward. 69
Art in Public Space
Facts, Myths and Affairs Art along the U2 subway line by Franziska Leeb
Pedro Cabrita Reis © Florian Rainer
Honet
Ingeborg Strobl
Peter Kogler
© Iris Ranzinger
© Florian Rainer
© Florian Rainer
A ride along the U2 subway line from Karlsplatz to the Aspern lakeside city heightens passengers’ perception. Artists like Ernst Caramelle, Ingeborg Strobl, Honet, and Pedro Cabrita Reis have left their mark in the stations, ventilation shafts, and on the pillars supporting the elevated sections.
The U2 subway line is 16.7 km in length and connects the center of Vienna with the outer suburbs in the east. Compared with other international cities like Paris, London, or Berlin, Vienna was a late starter. The U2 dates back to the 1960s: the underground tramway between Mariahilfer Strasse and FriedrichSchmidt-Platz started operation in 1966. It follows part of the route of the “Zweierlinie,” named for the former streetcar no. 2, from Getreidemarkt, Museumstrasse, and Auerspergstrasse to Landesgerichtsstrasse. Although you won’t find the name “Zweierlinie” on any city map, this stretch has long been referred to as such by drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike. 70
The road was already important in the 19th century. When the former city walls, which had long become a hindrance in the rapidly growing metropolis, were demolished in 1858 to make way for the Ringstrasse, a parallel road – Lastenstrasse – was built to keep commercial traffic away from the local inhabitants and strollers on this prestigious boulevard. The poet Anton Wildgans described it in 1928 in “Musik der Kindheit” as “a kind of periphery around the historical core of the city and as such filled with the most colorful, diverse, and uncitylike life, full of romanticism, poetry, and exoticism.” The Lastenstrasse of his childhood was “still a country road,” he recalls. Viennese collage The subway along the Zweierlinie started operation in 1980 – from Karlsplatz to Schottenring. It was almost 30 years before it was gradually extended, from 2008 onwards, to the present-
Stephan Huber © Iris Ranzinger
day outskirts – where Aspern, Vienna’s Urban Lakeside, is currently being constructed around an artificial lake. It only takes half an hour by subway to reach the former village, which was not incorporated into the city of Vienna until 1904. Napoleon had suffered his first defeat there in May 1809, and in 1912 the largest commercial airport in Europe at the time started operation. These two historical events are the themes of “Aspern Affairs” by Stephan Huber at Aspern Nord station. He has made a collage on the back walls of the platforms with historical maps of Vienna, pictures, portraits, lifelines, quotations, and personal commentaries to form a dense, varied, informative and amusing representation of the former imperial capital and residence. For now the station still stands forlornly in the middle of a field. In this Kafkaesque urban setting at a site in the throes of change, Huber has managed to highlight historical links and give the area a name and identity. Street art in Krieau A few kilometers closer to the center, the minimalist inter vention “two drawings in the sky, two paintings underneath” by the Portuguese artist Pedro Cabrita Reis creates a link not only between the bridgehead stations Donaustadtbrücke und Donaumarina, but also between the Leopoldstadt and Donaustadt districts on either side of the Danube. Using orange and white paint on large surfaces, he emphasizes the architectural elements of the stations. On each of the stair t urrets a sculpture in the sky points toward the other bank and creates a visual link as night falls.
Franziska Leeb, born 1968, works as a freelance journalist, architecture journalist, communicator, and moderator in Vienna. She writes feature articles on architecture for the “Spectrum” weekend supplement to the newspaper “Die Presse” and contributes to “architektur. aktuell.”
In the new Viertel Zwei district in Krieau the subway is still elevated before it returns underground, true to its designation. The pillars of the elevated section have been left to two stars of street art. Honet from Paris has transformed the round supports into modern totem poles, referring not to members of Native American tribes but to the superheroes of his youth, symbols that are no doubt much easier to decipher in today’s urban jungle. Meanwhile, in the style of Brazilian folk literature, graphic artist Speto recounts the old myths from his home country, such as the story of Boto, the Amazon dolphin, which in human guise seduced fishermen’s wives, the rain man Begorotire, or the mermaid Iara. The work entitled “3 Brothers” recalls three genuine Brazilian heroes, Orlando Villas Bôas and his brothers Cláudio and Leonardo, who in the
1940s took part in a major state-funded expedition to colonize unexplored jungle regions and instead became defenders of the rights of indigenous peoples and their habitats. One exit from Taborstrasse station comes out onto Novaragasse, formerly known as Gartengasse or Gärtnergasse. Over it is an apartment building, a dense urban block allowing no space for greenery. And yet nature is still present thanks to Ingeborg Strobl, who has decorated the ventilation shaft with 56 enameled panels entitled “a garden (for example).” The subjects – all plants that could also grow in Viennese gardens – are taken from the report on the “Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara,” which describes the only major voyage of discovery by the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the years 1857 to 1859. Art on Karlsplatz The culminating artistic intervention on the U2 line is at Karlsplatz, one of the most important interchanges in the Vienna subway system. On the level between the U1 and U2 lines a large-scale tubular pattern by Peter Kogler symbolizes the complex urban underground transport infrastructure. It defines the architectural space, enlarges it, and creates a completely new experience in a hitherto unattractive transit area. In the Westpassage is a work completed in 2005 by the Canadian artist Ken Lum entitled “Pi.” The high-tech installation features floor-to ceiling, full-length mirrored panels offering passers-by continuously updated global and local facts and amusing trivia, taking a potshot at a perception of the world transfixed by numbers. Ernst Caramelle relies solely on the medium of painting without any technological assistance for his 70-meter mural in the central underground passage from Operngasse to Karlsplatz. The eight sections painted directly onto the wall provide frontal and distorted views, making generous use of the perspective tricks of Renaissance and Baroque artists. In contrast to the otherwise rapidly progressing commercialization of public spaces by stores, kiosks, and publicity, Karlsplatz manages to regard passers-by as what they are rather than merely as potential consumers. 71
Art and Economy
All’s Booming on the Eastern Front The Vienna Insurance Group and its commitment to the arts by Stephan Hilpold
work maintains its effect even on this scale.” In the last seven years – the art action has been going on this long – artists, including such figures as Christian Ludwig Attersee and Xenia Hausner, have been commissioned to create a work especially for the building. This year, an existing picture was chosen.
Barbara Grötschnig © Florian Rainer
For many years the Vienna Insurance Group has been focusing its multifarious cultural campaigns in those countries in Eastern and Southeastern Europe in which the group is active. Particularly the Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, principle shareholder of the Vienna Insurance Group, is committed to realize social and cultural projects in the Group. But a spectacular stance is being made in Vienna as well. Namely, on Vienna’s Ringturm tower, the headquarters of the insurance concern.
A luminous yellow brush-trail traces a vertical arc across two sides of the building. Color spaces nestle up against each other, the building’s austere geometry suddenly seems lightweight and delicate. Like all works by the overpainting artist Arnulf Rainer, the “Veil of Agnes,” too, lives from the various levels coinciding within it. A new dimension was added to Rainer’s painting when in early summer a gigantic version of the work cladded the Vienna Ringturm. “A stroke of luck,” says Barbara Grötschnig, who is in charge of sponsoring in the Vienna Insurance Group and the Wiener Städtische Versicherungs verein: a work by the overpainting artist, which has now, in a sense, “overpainted” the Ringturm once again.
Stephan Hilpold is head of “Rondo,” the lifestyle supplement to the daily newspaper “Der Standard.” 72
The annual “veiling” of the building in which the VIG headquarters is located is one of the most symbolic cultural activities realized on the initiative of the main shareholder. The Ringturm is clad for several months by a gigantic work of art covering 4,000 square meters. “The challenge consists in ensuring that a
In the last two years, artists from Central and Eastern Europe were responsible for adorning the building – in 2012 the Hungarian László Fehér and in 2013 the Slovakian Dorota Sadovská.“It’s most probable that we’ll continue to focus on Eastern Europe in the future as well,” says Grötschnig. For many years, the Vienna Insurance Group has been concentrating its multifarious cultural activities in countries in Eastern and Southeastern Europe in which the Group has been active since the borders opened. Recently, Prague has been given its own exhibition gallery with the main focus on Czech Modernism; in Serbia, too, a start has been made on building up a collection. A key item on the agenda of the Vienna Insurance Group is the sponsoring of young art. “What we want to do is promote the exchange of cultures and demonstrate how multifaceted the artistic scenes are in these countries.” Since 2007 the Essl Art Award CEE has been instrumental in supporting an initiative oriented on art students from Central and Eastern Europe, giving them not only financial acknowledgement but also the opportunity to present their works to the public. Each year two finalists are chosen in each of the participating countries who then show their works in the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg. About six months later an exhibition is held in the Ringturm: “We ask an artist from each country to create a work especially for this occasion.” The target public is young and ultra-urban; the impact direction frequently political and spiced with social criticism. Barbara Grötschnig makes a clear statement: “It might occasionally be controversial, but we’re not judgmental about content.” The main thing is that it’s all about a fascinating project.
Design
New Accents at the Top WIEN PRODUCTS Collection by Stefan Musil
Fritz Panzer, Jean-Paul Vaugoin, Barbara Kamler-Wild and Leonid Rath (f.l.t.r.) © Florian Rainer
WIEN PRODUCTS was initiated by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce in 1995. Its purpose is to support selected Viennese manufacturers and cultural institutions in their efforts to market themselves internationally. WIEN PRODUCTS currently consists of 48 local companies with products and services that not only meet the highest quality critera and manufacturing standards, but capture the unique flair and particular aesthetic of Vienna as well. For more on the finest materials, perfect craftsmanship and modern Viennese service, please visit www.wienproducts.at or call the WIEN PRODUCTS Service Center at T +43 1 514 50 1517.
Stefan Musil lives and works in Vienna as an art historian, freelance culture journalist and music critic (“Die Welt,” “Die Presse,” etc.).
Table culture today, hovering between tradition and contemporary interpretation, in times of fast food and the gourmet cook-show craze – polarities marking the activity fields of Augarten, J. & L. Lobmeyr, Jarosinski & Vaugoin and the Wiener Silber Manufactur with their creations for the WIEN PRODUCTS Collection 2014.
Augarten Porcelain Manufactory Gottfried Palatin has designed a 20-piece table service for Augarten as a congenial combination of practicality and aesthetic beauty. The new service is a response to today’s needs and includes, for instance, a sushi platter. “The sociologist George Ritzer has identified the ‘McDonaldization of society,’” says Augarten CEO Fritz Panzer: “Fast food has changed society – and family life. But it brought about the need to rise above this trend. The invitation to a meal is a sign of special esteem. This ‘culture’ isn’t a mass phenomenon.” Hence Augarten is placing its stakes on individualization: “Since every single piece is made by hand, the service parts can also be marked with Gottfried Palatine’s own, individually designed signature.” Jarosinski & Vaugoin, Silversmiths Never change a winning team. This is why Jarosinski & Vaugoin are working together with Thomas Feichtner yet again in 2014 and presenting a new cutlery set. “With this year’s product we’re edging nearer towards our core segment, the manufacture of silver cutlery,” says Jean-Paul Vaugoin. In recent years he has observed a “partition” in table culture: “On the one hand we serve the classical sector with our comprehensive range. A festively decked table is always a thing of beauty and joy and marks a special occasion. On the other hand, it’s very important especially for an enterprise with a long tradition like ours to work together with contemporary artists. Only in this way can we show potential customers our complete service portfolio.”
J. & L. Lobmeyr A work on the theme of ornament was developed at J. & L. Lobmeyr’s by Kay Sallier, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. “We work with computer-generated ornaments based on ‘The Analysis of Beauty,’ an essay on the history of art by William Hogarth from 1753,” explains managing partner Leonid Rath. For him, “table culture has always been dynamic. The classical table setting has existed for 200 years at the most. And it’s important for us to communicate what joy there is in using lovingly designed and manufactured goods as part of everyday life – as well as on special occasions.” Rath draws attention to the current slow trend: “The trend in cuisine is absolutely up our street. Customers are again choosing their tableware with more care, perhaps not buying a 24-person service so often, but splashing out one time on a beautiful whisky glass by Adolf Loos or on our bestseller, the colored Alpha beaker. Once people develop the taste for it they usually become repeaters.” Wiener Silber Manufactur For the first time on its quest for young talent the Wiener Silber Manufactur invited the industrial design class at the University of Applied Arts. Chosen for realization from the many original designs was the bowl “Plain” by Julia Obermüller. The design, developed from origami technique, was the one that best fitted the materiality and aesthetic effect of silver, says Barbara Kamler-Wild, Art Director of the Wiener Silber Manufactur: “The goal of the Manufactur involves creating new accents for silver tableware in cooperation with national and international designers and artists, meanwhile developing the product range continually and on the highest level in the spirit of its great design tradition. A festively decorated table has always been a scenario with countless props, which peak in the collective enjoyment of food and drink. Even today, the culture of the table and exquisite gastronomy is still the privilege of an exclusive group.” 73
Art Collectors
Golden Era of Private Art Collections? The demand for private collections in exhibitions by Ursula Maria Probst
Gertrud Gürtler and Jasmin Wolfram © Florian Rainer
“Dollar, euro, Swiss francs, Jeff Koons, Bitcoin”: as the title of the summer issue of the art magazine “Spike Art Quarterly” indicates, art today has the status of an international currency. Markets, art, workfare, and networks are closely interlinked. The record prices achieved by contemporary works are attracting a new collector clientele. But it is not only money that drives collectors – on the contrary. Ursula Maria Probst presents three Austrian collectors who have one thing in common: their desire to live with art.
Art is (also) a matter of taste, but above all it reflects socio- cultural, ethical, and political categories. Apart from personal preferences and individual decisions it also provides information about social conditions and processes. In our globalized societies, art has an identifying function and promises authenticity. Collecting art today is a complex and far-reaching activity. The boom in contemporary art 25 years ago, like the sociopolitical processes in Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America, has brought about an increase in the involvement of private collections in international art projects. Collectors now do not restrict themselves to lending and giving items to museums or operating collector museums. They also develop projects outside the institutional framework and take part in production and publication processes. The summer 2014 issue of “Kunstforum International” titled “Herrschaften des Sammelns” takes a look at the influence of private collections on museums and art historiography. In 2011 the art magazine “Texte zur Kunst” also ran an issue on collectors as a social class, titled “The Collectors.” Galleries devise new models to involve collectors in their projects. Initiatives like CCC (Curators Collectors Collaboration) by Galerie 74
rinzinger use exhibitions to link up international curators K and collectors and in this way make private collections accessible to the public. The “CCC Newspaper” published for each exhibition serves as a platform for discussion and cooperation. Behind art collections are often exceptional characters who open up new social categories and aesthetic contexts through their activities. The London-based art collector Valeria Napoleone makes a sociopolitical statement by concentrating on women artists. In spite of their different preferences, the Viennese art collectors Gertraud Gürtler, Alexia Stuefer, and Jasmin Wolfram all collect art in order to live with it, fascinated and stimulated by the possibility of coming into contact with exceptional people through art. Individual methods of addressing art and intuitive, ritualized approaches both play a role here. Art is strongly present in their lives, and despite their openness to the new digital media, within their own four walls they celebrate their love of original items. Manifesto of a self-determined life “As Albert Einstein once said: ‘The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.’” Criminal defense lawyer Alexia Stuefer is a dedicated collector and promoter of artistic production in Vienna. Her collection covers all media and includes installations, videos, photos, sculptures, and paintings by female artists like Toni Schmale, Lucie Stahl, Katrina Daschner, and Elke Krystufek. It reflects the rise of women in art: never were women artists as successful as they are today. It is also an effort to ensure that great women artists occupy the top positions in the art world that they deserve. Stuefer’s collection asks questions about the sociopolitical potential of art and about fundamental aspects of human
Alexia Stuefer © Florian Rainer
e xistence. She pursues a systematic collection policy by emphasizing the social status of women artists and combating remnants of patriarchy. As a collector of contemporary art, she is aware of her role and of the function of collecting. Her collecting activities are thus a manifesto of a self-determined life: “My collection is part of myself. It reflects me and my view of things. Individual and collective (self-)awareness, the cycle of life, seen from the perspective of social involvement and the needs arising from it are central aspects of collecting.” In the sunlit rooms of her apartment near the Naschmarkt in Vienna, she continuously changes the hanging of her works and films the hanging performances on video. On the pulse of the age Attorney Gertraud Gürtler talks about the latest trends in art and new purchases at international art fairs, collectors’ communities, and regular meetings with collector friends in Munich and Zurich. She has no fixed strategy. For her, to collect art is to have her finger on the pulse of the age. Her collection thus contains works by Elfie Semotan, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Olaf Breuning, and Franz West.
Ursula Maria Probst lives and works in Vienna as an art historian, guest lecturer, art critic, freelance curator, and artist. She studied art history at the University of Vienna and worked as a researcher and artist with Louise Bourgeois in New York. She is co-initiator of the Female Obsession performance collective. In 2014 she curated the collection exhibition “CALL ME ON SUNDAY” at Galerie Krinzinger.
In an art world that is continuously growing thanks to the art fairs and biennales taking place everywhere, she appreciates the expertise offered by gallery owners. “Today’s collectors are faced by an immense range of items on account of the increasing number of art fairs and are thus more than ever reliant on advice from a good gallery.” International contacts and networks of art collectors have an influence on the development of local art scenes. As Gürtler’s collection shows, collecting art signals an openness and a progressive attitude that is becoming increasingly visible through the growing collaboration of collectors.
Attraction – passion – program A collection is more than the sum of its parts and creates resources for inspiration. Jasmin Wolfram has a broad definition of art. Her collection includes portraits and street art. She shares her fascination and enthusiasm for street art and its sociopolitical potential with her children. As a culture manager, she has good contacts in the art world and encourages an interdisciplinary exchange, having herself interviewed other collectors for diverse media. In the last few years, Wolfram has consulted art experts to refine her purchasing motifs and collection profile. She sees herself as a discoverer. “Discovering non-established art and knowledge about it – that is the attraction. Exposing myself to the unknown and trying to understand it for myself – that is the passion. Acquiring established work to close historical gaps in my collection – that is the program.” Art offers an experience that is recognized today as increasingly worthwhile. Wolfram’s goal is to make this experience as intensive as possible.
CONVERSATION
Gallery Talk Saturday, 22 November 2014 3:00 p.m. Galerie Krobath, Eschenbachgasse 9, 1010 Vienna In German 75
Interview
“It Could Change Your Perception” Positioning the 21er Haus in a globalized era by Michaela Knapp
First came Naples and London, now Vienna: a few months ago, the 21er Haus welcomed Mario Codognato as its new Chief Curator. The Italian-born expert told “meet art” how he wants to shape the institution’s exhibition program and make the quality of contemporary Austrian art known beyond its national borders.
It’s a career that speaks for itself: born in Venice, Mario Codognato studied art history in England before devoting himself to curating international contemporary art exhibitions. Notable projects included developing shows with Jeff Koons and Anselm Kiefer for the Naples National Archaeological Museum, as well as Damien Hirst’s first international museum retrospective in 2004. In 2005, the art historian became head curator of the then newly-founded Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina Napoli (MADRe) in Naples. There he organized solo exhibitions of work by the likes of Rachel Whiteread, Thomas Struth and Franz West and, in the context of a large project on the Baroque, explored how 17th-century culture is revived in the work of artists including Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman. In 2012, he accepted a position as Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Blain|Southern in London, one of the most important contemporary art galleries with branches in New York and Berlin. In January this year, the internationally wellconnected specialist became Chief Curator of the 21er Haus and head of the contemporary art collection at Belvedere in Vienna. Now, after a phase of familiarization, the first program ideas are being brought to bear – concepts that will set the pace for Codognato’s future exhibitions at the institution. 76
Mario Codognato © Florian Rainer
Why, after places like Naples and London, did you decide to live and work in Vienna? Mario Codognato: I’d have to ask myself the same question. But seriously: it’s been just two years since the Schwanzer Pavillon reopened as 21er Haus, and the process of positioning the new museum is nowhere near complete. The institution is still forging its identity. Positioning an undertaking like that, almost from the beginning, is an interesting task – especially in a place like Vienna, which is already heavily influenced by art. What did you know about Vienna and the 21er Haus collection before you came? Mario Codognato: Not a lot, to be honest. I only knew Vienna from the context of work. The last exhibition I was responsible for in Naples was a major retrospective showing the work of Franz West, who I visited here several times. But of course one always wants to stay on top of what is going on and know the
protagonists in a country’s art scene, like the gallerists and artists. The fact that I am not directly involved could also be seen as an advantage: I approach projects with an open mind, can’t be ascribed to any camp and am not going to be co-opted by any one side. You’ve been on the job since January. What are your first impressions of the market in Vienna and the overall climate of the art scene? Mario Codognato: Vienna is certainly one of the most historically interesting cities in Europe, and right now it is also one of the most exciting, with an incredibly interesting emerging art scene. One thing that might be missing is a stronger coordination of all of the projects that are taking place. It is important to make the high quality of contemporary Austrian art visible on an international level as well. How will you go about doing that? I’m sure your network will be useful when it comes to positioning the institution and raising its international profile … Mario Codognato: It is clear that I, as a newcomer, have to bring something to the table: I want the 21er Haus and contemporary exhibition program at Belvedere to secure a clearly def ined, stable position in the already highly diversified international museum landscape, and to build a certain continuity. In other words, the institutional focus until now – finding and exhibiting emerging Austrian artists in an international context – will not change, but our task will be to place even greater emphasis on the international aspects and developments there, and to make the work more visible on an international level.
Michaela Knapp is a theater scholar and has been chief editor of the culture and lifestyle sections of the “FORMAT” business magazine since 2006. Since 2002, she has been publishing the annual “FORMAT Kunstguide,” an art guide ranking the 100 best Austrian artists. With contributions to numerous catalogues and books, Michaela Knapp works at the intersection of theater, visual art, performance and fashion.
Does such a thing as typical Austrian art even exist in the global age? Mario Codognato: Austria has produced an incredible number of artists and many exciting ones at that, especially in relation to the size of the country. Of course, you couldn’t really speak of one distinguishing trend anymore, but of universal trends in terms of various media and types of content. But artists are always influenced by their environment. The thing that matters today is where an artist lives and works – regardless of where they were born. That said, Austria has a long artistic tradition; it has always been a conservative country with a very strong Catholic background. I know what I’m t alking about: I am Italian. It brings out a different kind of work dealing with taboos and provocations – Viennese Actionism springs to mind, for example, as a phenomenon that set international trends and influenced artists around the world.
What about the market prices of Austrian artists, which are still below the international price level? Mario Codognato: The gallerists are doing great work, but market mechanisms are complicated. A lot of it has to do with the relatively small local market and the country’s collector culture: people like to play it safe and do not invest that much in work by emerging artists. It requires extra effort on the part of mediators. But we live in a globalized world, of course, when it comes to art. It is a wonderful challenge to promote young Austrian positions not just in Vienna, but to get their work known and established internationally as well. What’s next on the agenda? Mario Codognato: Right now we have a project with the Sigmund Freud Museum, drawing a connection between art and psychoanalysis to mark the 75th anniversary of Freud’s death. We’re showing Freud’s theories as reflected in contemporary art, with work from artists including John Baldessari, Clegg & Guttmann, Jenny Holzer, Ilya Kabakov, Haim Steinbach and Franz West. Actually it’s a very Viennese topic! Also in the works is an exhibition about “The Bed in Art,” which is set to open on 28 January 2015. As the site of birth, love, illness and death, the bed is probably one of the most f requently depicted objects in art, and its portrayal often has a metaphorical significance. Yoko Ono and John Lennon staged a Bed-In 40 years ago, to protest the war. Mario Codognato: We of course address this in the exhibition as well. The then most famous artist couple in the world made their honeymoon public, and declared from their bed that the world should “Make Love, Not War!” In this scene, the bed becomes a political instrument of the visual arts. Our show focuses on the bed as a motif in art history and in contemporary art. It includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and video, from works by Old Masters to contemporary pieces by Diane Arbus, Lucian Freud, Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Yayoi Kusama, as well as Egon Schiele and Franz West. The large hall at 21er Haus features a retrospective of work by media artist and theorist Peter Weibel. Mario Codognato: Weibel is an important figure in the Austrian art scene, and we want to make his work accessible to a wider public. The artist worked closely with us for this exhibition, which covers all the facets of his multi-media oeuvre. If you had to come up with a slogan for the exhibition, what would it be? “This Weibel exhibition is a must-see because …” Mario Codognato: “… it could change your perception!” 77
Program
Performative Perambulation The “Running Minds VIENNA ART WEEK Anniversary Tour”
ANNIVERSARY TOUR
Performative perambulation with cultural theorist and artist Gerald Straub 17–22 November 2014 Six days, six tour stages. All participants in the “Running Minds VIENNA ART WEEK Anniversary Tour” with cultural theorist and artist Gerald Straub are certain to get more than just an overview and golden thread through the program of events. In fact the tour itself is going to be a kind of performative perambulation: on their visit to a whole array of events the participants will find ample opportunity to debate, associate and reflect on ideas, or simply to chat. This is to say that the “Running Minds VIENNA ART WEEK Anniversary Tour” team will consist of both permanent and temporary members. Everyone is welcome to participate on a daily or hourly basis and is guaranteed to receive a stamp card and certificate of attendance as part of the program. Monday, 17 November 2014 6:00 p.m. / meeting point and start: WWTF Conference Room, Schlickgasse 3/Top 8, 1090 Vienna 8:00 p.m. / MuseumsQuartier, Ovalhalle, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna Finish: opening of VIENNA ART WEEK, exclusively for participants of the “Running Minds VIENNA ART WEEK Anniversary Tour” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 5:30 p.m. / meeting point and start: das weisse haus, Kriehubergasse 24–26, 1050 Vienna 7:00 p.m. / Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Mariahilfer Strasse 1b, 1060 Vienna 8:00 p.m. / MuseumsQuartier, Electric Avenue, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna 9:00 p.m. / finish: MAK Columned Main Hall, Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna Wednesday, 19 November 2014 4:30 p.m. / meeting point and start: Paradocks, Marxergasse 24, 1030 Vienna 6:00 p.m. / 21er Haus, Schweizergarten, Arsenalstrasse 1, 1030 Vienna 7:30 p.m. / Ubik Space, Linke Wienzeile 72, 1060 Vienna 9:00 p.m. / finish: fluc, Praterstern 5, 1020 Vienna Thursday, 20 November 2014 5:00 p.m. / meeting point and start: Academy of Fine Arts, Lecture Hall on ground floor left, Schillerplatz 3, 1010 Vienna 7:00 p.m. / Secession, Friedrichstrasse 12, 1010 Vienna 8:00 p.m. / finish: brut im Künstlerhaus, Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Vienna Friday, 21 November 2014 7:00 p.m. / meeting point and start: k48 – Offensive for Contemporary Perception, Kirchengasse 48/Lokal 2, 1070 Vienna 78
8:00 p.m. / Friday Exit, Döblergasse 2, 1070 Vienna 9:00 p.m. / DI∞G, Kundmanngasse 13, 1030 Vienna 10:00 p.m. / finish: Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Währinger Strasse 59/2, 1090 Vienna Saturday, 22 November 2014, Open Studio Day 1:00 p.m. / meeting point and start: Studio Johanna Tinzl / Stefan Flunger, Nordbahnstrasse 30/20–21, 1020 Vienna followed by / Nika Kupyrova, Miriam Laussegger, Roberta Lima, Luiza Margan, Christoph Steinbrener / Rainer Dempf, Karo Szmit, Alain Volpe 9:00 p.m. / grand finale of the “Running Minds VIENNA ART WEEK Anniversary Tour” including the presentation of certificates. Förderatelier des Bundes, Westbahnstrasse 27, 1070 Vienna STUDIO VISITS
Artist-in-residence programs in Vienna Saturday, 22 November 2014 Starting from 12:00 noon at each hour Artist-in-residence programs are a great opportunity to connect international curators, artists and theorists with the local art scene. The guided studio visits give an insight into Vienna’s multifarious art community. Galerie Hilger Studio visit with cultural journalist Alexandra Matzner 11:00 a.m., BROTKunsthalle, Absberggasse 27/stairway 1, 1100 Vienna Studio das weisse haus Studio visit with art historian and curator Lucas Cuturi 12:00 noon, studio das weisse haus, Kriehubergasse 24–26, 1050 Vienna Krinzinger Projekte Studio visit with cultural journalist Alexandra Matzner 1:00 p.m., Schottenfeldgasse 45, 1070 Vienna quartier 21 / MuseumsQuartier Wien Studio visit with art historian and curator Lucas Cuturi 2:00 p.m., MQ Staatsratshof, Courtyard 7, (entrance vis-à-vis Volkstheater), 1070 Vienna VBKÖ – Austrian Association of Women Artists Studio visit with cultural journalist Alexandra Matzner 3:00 p.m., Maysedergasse 2/4th floor, 1010 Vienna LENIKUS COLLECTION Studio visit with art historian and curator Lucas Cuturi 4:00 p.m., STUDIOS of the LENIKUS COLLECTION, Passage Bauernmarkt 9/Wildpretmarkt 6, 1010 Vienna Kunsthalle Exnergasse Studio visit with cultural journalist Alexandra Matzner 5:00 p.m., Währinger Strasse 59/stairway 2/1st floor, 1090 Vienna
BMUKK Federal Studios
The Charm of the Genius Loci Open house at the BMUKK Federal Studios and the sculpture studios in Prater by Maria Christine Holter
sculpture, installation art, photography, film and media art in two other locations, namely in the eleven government-sponsored Förderateliers on Wattgasse in Vienna-Hernals and in the nine studios on Westbahnstrasse in Vienna-Neubau. Here, artists and public meet at eye level, for these places offer a great opportunity for contemporary art-viewing and discourse on the very site where art happens. © Florian Rainer
As in recent years, artists are once more opening up their federal government-sponsored studios this year for VIENNA ART WEEK’s interested audience. Owing to the great demand, there’s something new: to make sure the guided tours are stress-free, the public can now visit the studios on two subsequent afternoons.
Maria Christine Holter lives and works as an art historian and curator in Vienna. She studied art history in Vienna and Berkeley, USA (Fulbright Scholarship), and had an internship with the Museum of Modern Art, NYC. Her later work includes the “in situ” and “follow up” exhibition series; guest curatorships at diverse art institutions; consulting for exhibitions and collections; numerous publications on contemporary art. www.mariaholter.at
Those finding their way to the magical grounds of the Vienna Prater in the Second Viennese District have quite a few things to discover: they will not only see the sole architectural witnesses of the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873, but also that artists have set up their workplaces in the two pavilions now listed as protected buildings next to the stables of the Krieau trotting course – and have done so for decades. Here, the leading figures of the Austrian avant-garde once used to work, including Anton Hanak, Tina Blau, Alfred Hrdlicka, Bruno Gironcoli, and the late Oswald Stimm and Hans Hollein. Now, the 23 Prater studios sponsored by the federal government are being shared by established and aspiring younger artists working in all genres. The available facilities – between 45 and 435 square meters in size – are allotted for a period of seven years through a process of selection. Those who are finally lucky enough to be among the users not only find unique work conditions in spacious and reasonably priced studios, but can also relate themselves and their current artistic work to the spirit and atmosphere of this exceptional location. The widely renowned genius loci of the Prater studios offers a unique experience to visiting “outsiders.”
OPEN STUDIO DAY
STUDIO VISITS Friday, 21 November, and Saturday, 22. November 2014 Guided tour of the Prater studios with curator Maria Christine Holter Friday, 21. November 2014 3:00 p.m. Meeting point: Meiereistrasse, vis-à-vis the Ernst Happel Stadium, 1020 Vienna Guided tour of the studios on Wattgasse with curator Maria Christine Holter Saturday, 22 November 2014 3:00 p.m. Meeting point: Wattgasse 56–60, 1170 Vienna Guided tour of the studios on Westbahnstrasse with curator Maria Christine Holter Saturday, 22 November 2014 5:00 p.m. Meeting point: Westbahnstrasse 27, 1070 Vienna Drinks Saturday, 22 November 2014 7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
A great variety of workshops all boasting their own particular charm and unique aura exists for the graphic arts, painting, 79
Interview
Dreaming of a Container Ship Thomas Angermair in conversation with Clarissa Stadler by Clarissa Stadler Thomas Angermair and Herbert Brandl © regina-ridder.at
A bright red watercolor once gave the initial spark. Works by Herbert Brandl have been piling up in Thomas Angermair’s apartment and office ever since. The corporate attorney spoke to Clarissa Stadler about his creative work environment, art-collecting lawyers and the dream of a museum that comes to the people.
Is it just me, or do lawyers have a special penchant for art collecting? Thomas Angermair: In Vienna, you always run into the same 30 to 40 collectors. More than half of them are lawyers. And why is that? Thomas Angermair: Well, on the one hand we attorneys also move in a very creative work environment, and on the other hand, artists like to pay the fees “in kind” (laughs). When do artistic matters call for a lawyer? Thomas Angermair: I just got back from a restitution hearing. That’s an example, but not necessarily our core business. My personal commitment to cultural agendas began, among other things, when I helped draw up the contracts for Rachel Whiteread’s Holocaust memorial on Judenplatz. But certainly the most important job in my life a as lawyer so far was to bring the Arnold Schönberg Estate to Austria and set up a charitable foundation here. At the time, I flew to Los Angeles and negotiated with the Schönberg children. Unforgettable: for 183 days after my return, grandson Randy sent me a fax every morning with further requirements for the foundation’s design. Was there ever a kind of initial spark that set off your activities as an art collector? Thomas Angermair: I was always a great admirer of Herbert Brandl’s work. Then he donated a piece for “Menschen für Menschen,” a nonprofit started by the late Karlheinz Böhm. That was for a charity auction, and I was one of the eager buyers sitting in the audience. I was immediately drawn to the glowing red watercolor, bid on it and won. And that’s where this “friendship for life” began. Clarissa Stadler studied business studies at the Vienna University of Economics. Active as a journalist since 1989, Stadler has been a culture editor for the Austrian television broadcaster ORF since 1997. She currently anchors the cultural TV magazine “Kulturmontag” on ORF2. 80
You now own the largest collection of Herbert Brandl works in the world. How do you find space for it all? Thomas Angermair: You only become a real collector the moment you don’t have enough space to hang the work. First I filled the apartment, and the works there were already sorted out in rows of five and six. Then it spread over to the firm – luckily we have a lot of space there, and everything is standing
around in my office, a big multicolored pile. In the end, I set up my own collection depository in a former frame shop. Now I store the really large format paintings, the three-by-five meter ones – like works from the Biennial, for example, or the Deichtorhallen exhibition in Hamburg – in professional art storage facilities. But some of the huge formats are “back at home.” Many collectors dream about having their own museum. Private museums are very fashionable right now. Thomas Angermair: I am certainly no stranger to the idea … (laughs). When they were saying Nitsch would get his museum when he turns 70, right away I said: “Alright! Then Herbert will get his when he turns 60!” But a monothematic museum is tough to pull together; you have to be a little smarter about it. In Hamburg I saw these container ships. You could pack the museum in there, then take your ship and set off to London, Sydney or cruise down the Danube to Budapest and bring the museum to a different audience each time. A museum that comes to the people, in other words, rather than the other way around! But these are only fantasies …
PANEL DISCUSSION
“Collectors and Their Influence on the Art Market” Thursday, 20 November 2014, 6:30 p.m. DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS attorneys, Conference Zone Universitätsring 10, 1010 Vienna In German
In recent years collectors have been more and more involved in the very art production, cultivating a broad network of players, making propaganda for individual artists, and kicking off hypes. What are the complex nexuses behind this development? Panelists: Thomas Angermair, partner of DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS attorneys, Vienna; Arne Ehrfried, general manager of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg; Karola Kraus, director of mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien; Gerald Matt, cultural manager, Vienna; Harald Falckenberg, director of Deichtorhallen, Hamburg Moderation: Clarissa Stadler, culture editor for the Austrian TV broadcaster ORF
Interview
All Change at the Sigmund Freud Museum An interview with the new director by Alexandra Matzner
Monika Pessler © Florian Rainer
Monika Pessler, the new director in charge at Berggasse 19, is planning to restructure the museum. An interview about the significance of missing objects, working according to the pleasure principle, and the father of the famous couch of psychoanalysis.
of the two museums. Which is not to say that the couch is likely to find its way back to Vienna some day. One of the greatest challenges facing Monika Pessler is to communicate the significance of the missing objects.
The Sigmund Freud Museum has had a new director since the beginning of 2014. Monika Pessler, an art historian from Graz specializing in contemporary art, worked originally for the Museum of Modern Art in Klagenfurt and the “steirischer herbst” festival before spending ten years helping to build up the Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation.
What plans does Pessler have for the future of the museum? The permanent exhibition has given rise to considerable criticism in recent times. It has been on display since the mid-1990s, and many of the copies in it are beginning to turn yellow. Not everyone finds this patina charming. Pessler is devising a long-term project for the new display and communication of the multifaceted content. She intends to put new objects in the exhibition rooms and restore the original access to the treatment room so as to offer an authentic experience to the 80,000 or so annual visitors. It will be necessary for this purpose to open one of the doors by which Freud’s patients used to leave incognito after their sessions.
A curator course with Dieter Bogner and training in organization development have made Pessler into a culture manager with a feeling for the difficulty of communicating text-based content.
Alexandra Matzner, born 1974 in Linz, studied art history, history and romance philology in Vienna and Rome. Her work as an art communicator and journalist includes numerous publications and catalog articles on photography and art in the 20th and 21st centuries. She works as a freelance writer in Vienna and is currently developing the independent culture platform. www.textezukunst.com
This now stands her in good stead. Her idea is to trace, investigate, and examine the present-day relevance of Sigmund Freud’s epoch-making innovations through interdisciplinary dialog between researchers, psychoanalysts, and artists. The starting point adopted by the new director of the Sigmund Freud Museum is Freud’s “The Moses of Michelangelo,” published in 1914, in which the father of psychoanalysis considers the parallels between scientists and artists and their apparent focus on incidental phenomena.
The archive material, scientific texts, and antique sculptures from Freud’s collection required to relate the story of Freud, his life, and his family, and also the history of psychoanalysis, will be presented in future with the aid of multimedia tools. In this regard, the director also makes a point of reminding the public authorities of their cultural mandate and of the fact that a person of Freud’s international renown deserves modern t reatment commensurate with his significance.
But what can be done about the missing objects? Pessler sees the Sigmund Freud Museum as a multifaceted site where complex, interwoven historical threads come together. The apartment at Berggasse 19 with its etched glass door panels and creaking wooden floors recalls the bourgeois life of the Belle Époque. Here, the Psychological Wednesday Society met every week in Freud’s office. It was here that Freud developed his theory of psychoanalysis and discussed it with friends. In 1938 he was obliged to leave the place where he had worked and lived. He took his famous couch and bookshelves with him. They are sorely missed in the Freud Museum today. The narration of Austrian and Jewish history through and around Sigmund Freud’s life is possible only by restructuring the presentation and through close cooperation with the Freud Museum in London, taking advantage of the complementarity
The new director of the Freud Museum is committed and communicative. She firmly believes that the museum as a “product” can succeed only if it manages to present an interesting and meaningful spectrum ranging from the past to the present. Interventions by contemporary artist whose works interact directly with the museum, literally giving gestalt to individual and crowd psychological phenomena, are an important part of this concept. One of the things she enjoys most about her work is making history and the culture of the past available for modern-day scientific and artistic discourse. Living and working according to the pleasure principle – an archetypal Freudian concept – requires an unending thirst for knowledge and a heightened interest in communication. For her, “the content really should come first,” followed by representation. 81
Interview
“There is a Need for a New Attitude” How can art and business stimulate new collector potential? by Ursula Maria Probst
VIENNA ART WEEK is celebrating its tenth anniversary, an occasion for gallery owners and their representatives in the Economic Chamber not only to look back at the past but also to think ahead to the future. How can projects and business investment attract new collectors? Gallery owners Silvia Steinek, Petra Seiser, Thomas Mark, Horst Szaal (Art and Antiques Committee, Economic Chamber), and Anja Hasenlechner (VIENNA ART WEEK / Economic Chamber) discussed this with art critic Ursula Maria Probst.
What has the VIENNA ART WEEK done in the last ten years for Viennese galleries? Horst Szaal: VIENNA ART WEEK has made the general public more willing to visit galleries. The gallery focuses during VIENNA ART WEEK and the opening up of artists’ studios make art and artists accessible to everyone.
Ursula Maria Probst lives and works in Vienna as an art historian, guest lecturer, art critic, freelance curator, and artist (Female Obsession). She specializes in art collections, performance art, and public art with a view to developing new structures in the art business. In 2014 she curated the collection exhibition “CALL ME ON SUNDAY” at Galerie Krinzinger. 82
What does that mean for galleries as an economic factor? Horst Szaal: At the national level it means more customers. At the international level, a united front is always important – be it art fairs, the Gallery Weekend, or the VIENNA ART WEEK. This should be further promoted in future. Silvia Steinek: I have been active on the art market for 30 years. It’s a great idea to draw attention to Vienna and its situation as an art hub. Opening up the DOROTHEUM through panel discussions and events has strengthened its position a lot. I just wish that galleries were involved more with institutions on an equal basis. Thomas Mark: The VIENNA ART WEEK is very important for promoting Vienna on international markets. International curators are persuaded in this way to look at Austrian art. Petra Seiser: The presentation of VIENNA ART WEEK and the advertisement for Vienna as an art location are of the highest quality. It’s extremely important for galleries to be included in this program so as to give them greater international scope. If we can encourage this even further we will have good prospects.
The podium discussions and gallery tours are of a very high standard. Silvia Steinek: It is mutually beneficial for us all to take time for one another. Anja Hasenlechner: The original motto and basic idea of the VIENNA ART WEEK was “Take Time Meet Art” – that was ten years ago … The number of collectors and curators coming to Vienna has grown steadily in the last ten years. It should be possible to devise special profiles to better coordinate their interests with those of the galleries. Thomas Mark: The VIENNA ART WEEK is very well publicized. The challenge for us gallery owners is to attract high earners who normally have little time to visit galleries. That’s the crux of the matter. Petra Seiser: Networking is increasingly important, as is the joint planning by gallery owners and the Economic Chamber or the Federation of Austrian Industry of targeted events, so that members of the younger generation who are not yet collectors will start collecting and become interested in art. Horst Szaal: There are quite a number of statistics in this regard. The average customer is between 40 and 70 years old. There is a need for investment to attract new, young buyers. This can only be done at large events, art fairs, or through major publications. In the modern event culture this also requires a new attitude: the object of desire should be a work of art rather than a luxury car. Petra Seiser: It takes months and sometimes years for a newcomer to really buy art or become a collector. The introduction to art often occurs through societies of friends organized by museums or institutions, or through personal acquaintances. Silvia Steinek: That’s true. How do you approach art? Through friends or by being acquainted with artists, critics, or gallery
Thomas Mark, Silvia Steinek, Petra Seiser and Horst Szaal (f.l.t.r.) Š Florian Rainer 83
owners. In other words, familiarity must first be achieved. It’s not about buying initially but about becoming interested and gaining knowledge about art through visits to museums and auctions. Horst Szaal: There is a statistic from “Zeitkunst” in Germany that more people go to museums than to soccer matches. That’s sensational! In other words, the affinity is there. Petra Seiser: My collectors are between 28 and 40 years old. It is important for them to grow together with the young artists. The general interest in art has never been as great as it is today. Thomas Mark: In the last few weeks I have been talking with young people with whom I’m acquainted to discuss what makes art attractive for them. We have reviewed a few suggestions. It’s important to involve young families with children and to communicate art in a way that they can enjoy together. What can be done in this regard? Anja Hasenlechner: Should the VIENNA ART WEEK concentrate more on children? Thomas Mark: The more galleries offer suitable programs, the more people will be educated to appreciate art. Petra Seiser: In my efforts to establish a base in the middle generation, I try to develop an identification with a gallery. Customers can buy works for as little as 500 euros. This attracts people who are not collectors in the classic sense. Everyone can afford art. I had one customer who wanted a graphic print as a graduation present rather than the conventional watch. Horst Szaal: The media concentrate too much on the hype, on the fact that a work was sold for 150,000 or a million euros or more. This hype overshadows the pure enjoyment of art. A day without art, for me, is a day wasted. Art which gives pleasure can be purchased for 500 or 1,000 euros. We need to reach out and not just look for the customers willing to spend millions. Silvia Steinek: On the other hand, I am very proud and pleased when I read that a work of art has achieved a high price. It shows that someone with a lot of money is prepared to spend it on art. The huge amounts of capital that are invested are an indication to me of the importance of art. The resulting wow effect is good for collecting in every way. Thomas Mark: It should also be remembered that this hype, these high prices, at auctions are no longer paid by individuals but by funds. There are lots of reasons for collecting. Some collectors have the necessary financial resources but drop out after a certain limit has been reached. Art is an economic factor as well. The subsidy system needs to be changed in that direction. Horst Szaal: Tax relief when buying art would be a good thing, even write-offs for minor collectors. Silvia Steinek: As far as modern art is concerned, Austria is an importer. More needs to be invested in the export of Austrian art. I would like to see the Economic Chamber provide a suit able budget to enable Austrian curators and galleries to carry out projects abroad.
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DI Walter Ruck President of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce The Viennese art trade has done a great deal to ensure that Vienna is no longer famous only for its history and music, but is increasingly coming into focus at an international level as a center of modern and contemporary art. Around 500 art dealers and galleries specializing in modern and contemporary art can be found in the capital, which means that more than three quarters of the national art scene are located here. In spite of heavy competition and a dense network of galleries, the Viennese art trade is a successful model with a future, as it provides a stable bridge between art and business. The galleries rely on their close relationships with their artists, on expert presentation of their works, and achieve great results through personal consultation and a high quality of service. Vienna’s galleries and art dealers are a visible feature in the cityscape. The works of art, displayed in galleries and showrooms that open onto the street, invite the viewer to stop, marvel, admire and, of course, buy. Galleries and exhibition spaces are an artistic face of the city in their own right, a tourist magnet as much as an economic factor, and they c ontribute to the quality of life in Vienna. That is why I will campaign for the interests of the art trade and the promotion of the art market. For the tax deductibility of art purchases over a period of ten years, for example. And for a reduction in the resale rights fee, which has been crippling the activities of the art trade since its introduction in 2006. The economic chamber of Vienna is spearheading the campaign against it and has made its demands heard at the 2014 CINOA congress in London, one of the most important meetings in the art and antiques trade. I will also campaign to prevent any changes to the ten percent VAT rate on purchases of original art, and to the option of differential taxation in sales tax legislation. It is very important to me that the Viennese art and gallery scene gain a stronger international foothold and open up new affluent markets more easily. One way to get there is for artists and gallery owners to join together in shared exhibitions at important art fairs. That will allow a brand to be created that can supercharge the entire industry. I have already had some preliminary meetings on this matter, and I want to reduce hurdles, build bridges and make new things possible. Vienna needs creative people and artists just as much as a flourishing art trade and an active gallery scene. They are all pacemakers for a city to become a center of culture.
Art and Economy
Art & Armageddon How might art be used to process crises? by Ursula Maria Probst Edgar Honetschläger and Rudolf Leeb © Florian Rainer
Ursula Maria Probst lives and works in Vienna as an art historian, guest lecturer, art critic, freelance curator, and artist (Female Obsession). She specializes in art collections, performance art, and public art with a view to developing new structures in the art business. In 2014 she curated the collection exhibition “CALL ME ON SUNDAY” at Galerie Krinzinger.
“Confronted with a catastrophe of such dimensions the production of art ceases for a time,” said artist Edgar Honetschläger, who was living in Tokyo at the time of the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima. How do other artists react to crises? Do these have an impact on the production of art? A panel discussion at the BAWAG P.S.K. focuses on these and other related questions.
ukushima. The idea behind the project “Sound of Sirens” was F to ask the Japanese themselves how they felt after Fukushima – connected with an invitation to openly express their political opinions. The intention was to examine the causes of the catastrophe. Although Edgar Honetschläger himself is a convinced opponent of nuclear power, people in favor of it were also invited to take part.
Since 2009 Rudolf Leeb has headed the art and sponsoring program of the BAWAG P.S.K. Following the closure of BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary as a consequence of the economic and financial crisis, the BAWAG P.S.K’s sponsoring activities now focus on the social and humanitarian field. Projects are carried out in cooperation with NGOs such as Caritas or CARE that also include exhibitions in the main banking hall of Otto Wagner’s legendary Postsparkasse building.
According to Edgar Honetschläger up to the present it has not been possible for people in Japan to express their honest opinions about this theme without risking problems with the authorities. For example: the substance of one of the laws passed in the last three years is to prevent journalists from expressing themselves openly about this theme or from voicing criticism of how the government handles it. Otherwise they risk prosecution.
In 2013 the BAWAG P.S.K. supported fundraising campaigns for the victims of a typhoon on the Philippines and showed photos taken during the deployment of the CARE ship there. The goal of the exhibition “Dear World,” which was presented in 2014 in the BAWAG P.S.K. headquarters, was to give an inter national voice to the fears and dreams of displaced persons from Syria, and to uphold their dignity as innocent civilians: in 2013 the photographers Robert Fogarty und Ben Reece joined the aid organization CARE on their journey to the Syrian refugees in Jordan. They photographed directly affected people who appealed to the governments of the world by writing mes sages on their skin to show how fundamentally shattered their lives had been by the war.
Artist Edgar Honetschläger sees himself as a worker on and for society: “That is what I’m here for. I believe that you must be able to help other people with art, at least that’s what I want to do.” As an artwork the project “SOS” belongs to the area of processing collective traumas by opening up the paths of communication. “I see little sense in reacting to catastrophes in an aesthetic form. Like saying ‘and now I’m going to paint a picture about this theme.’ For me it was necessary to work directly with the catastrophe in order to calm myself by giving others the opportunity to swap their feelings and opinions.”
For the discussion organized within the framework of the VIENNA ART WEEK Rudolf Leeb chose the theme “Kunst und Katastrophe” (Art and Armageddon): “I’m interested in how artists deal with the impact of the financial and economic crisis or the current catastrophes caused by climate change and war,” he explains. Japan’s political handling of the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident and the restrictions imposed on the media led artist and filmmaker Edgar Honet schläger to produce the streaming website “Sound of Sirens” (SOS 2012). For a period of one and a half years an internet vid eo platform encouraged people throughout the world to react to the nuclear catastrophe in Japan by means of film. Edgar Honetschläger, who lived in the 35-million mega-city Tokyo for 20 years, is currently based in Vienna. Asked how he responded as an artist to the catastrophe he answers: “At first I didn’t react at all. For six months I did nothing. Like many other artists in Japan I was incapable of doing anything. Confronted with a catastrophe of such dimensions the production of art ceases for a time.” He turned down an offer made by an Austrian producer to shoot a film about the true story of
PANEL DISCUSSION
“Kunst und Katastrophe” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 6:00–7:30 p.m. Main hall of the Österreichische Postsparkasse building, Georg-Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna In German
How do artists process the impact of financial and economic crises, the consequences of climate change, or the catastrophes caused by war and crisis situations in their work? Panelists: Edgar Honetschläger, artist, screenwriter and filmmaker, Vienna; Johanna Kandl, artist, Vienna and Berlin; Rudolf Leeb, head of the marketing and sponsoring department, BAWAG P.S.K.; Raimar Stange, curator and art critic, Berlin Moderation: Martin Staudinger, head of the “profil“ magazine’s foreign policy desk 85
10 Years of
2005 take.time.meet.art. Time for quality: with this ambition the week of events intends to rise above the normal hectic routine of the art scene. Communication, exclusiveness and knowledge transfer are the supporting pillars of the program.
“Hence I am delighted to support the experiment of merging several cultural institutions within the Art Cluster Vienna and of inviting around 200 internationally renowned creative artists and cultural communicators for the VIENNA ART WEEK.” By founding the Art Cluster Vienna, a joint venture of leading Viennese art institutions and galleries to give international flair to the home art scene, in 2004 the starting signal was also given for the VIENNA ART WEEK. At first held in spring parallel to the VIENNAFAIR and since 2008 uncoupled from it and organized in the fall, the week evolved every year with new formats and highlights, advancing from an exclusive event to become an art platform with festival character and broad-based resonance. The Art Cluster Vienna has also grown, from 11 founding members to 26 art institutions. Both VIENNA ART WEEK and the Art Cluster Vienna have become an essential part of the city. They have contributed to its international image as a top location for visual arts. Martin Böhm is the President of Art Cluster Vienna; Robert Punkenhofer is the VIENNA ART WEEK’s Artistic Director.
Founding members of Art CLUSTER VIENNA Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Albertina Association of Austrian Galleries of Modern Art Essl Collection Kunsthalle Wien Kunsthistorisches Museum Liechtenstein Museum MuseumsQuartier Reed Messe University of Applied Arts Vienna Wien Museum
Dr. Heinz Fischer, President of Austria, 2005
Highlights Gala dinner in the Town Hall Artists’ Fest at the Academy of Fine Arts Events offering exclusive time with
protagonists of Vienna’s art scene
Invited special guests include: Philippe de Montebello, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Earl A. Powell III, National Gallery of Art, Washington Neil MacGregor, The British Museum, London Ronald de Leeuw, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Christoph Vitali, Fondation Beyeler, Basel Christian Boros, art collector, Berlin Heike Munder, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich
80 events 26 art institutions 75 galleries 30 artists 20 experts
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400 visitors
2006
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The program is defined by exclusive guided tours, artistic interventions and panel discussions with prominent personalities.
The format “Ahead of Time” continues to be the focus of the festival, with debates by top-class panelists on topics such as China as up-and-coming art power Art and design Innovations in curatorial practice Art from Eastern Europe
The VIENNA ART WEEK takes place in the fall, for the first time separately from the VIENNAFAIR. The new schedule opens up the event to a broad-based public who are interested in art.
“Our defined aim is to present the multifaceted work of Vienna’s leading art institutions professionally and internationally.”
NEW FORMATS AND HIGHLIGHTS Gallery Night Daily Artist Talks at the mumok Exclusive Studio Visits Tours of alternative spaces Tours of art in public space Parties and cocktails
Martin Böhm
TOP EXPERTS debate on: “The Market and its Effects on Contemporary Art Production” “The Love for Old Masters – Fascination or Investment?” “How Contemporary Should Museums Collect?”
NEW Closer networking with artists through studio visits for international guests
NEW
Highlight
Viennaartbookaward
Including Agnes Husslein, Gerald Matt,
Peter Noever, Klaus Albrecht Schröder and Wilfried Seipel, for the very first time the heads of Vienna’s art institutions debate their museum work.
“… the VIENNA ART WEEEK, which attracts the art world’s most influential museum directors, curators, collectors and critics.” “Art Review,” London, 2007
Guests include: Charles Esche, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven Gijs van Tuyl, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Sally Berger, MoMA, New York Roger M. Buergel, documenta 12, Kassel Joshua Decter, curator, New York Hou Hanru, curator, Paris Robert Storr, Biennale 2007, Venice Osvaldo Sánchez, inSite_05, San Diego
5,000 visitors
Invited special guests include: Glenn D. Lowry, MoMA, New York Marc-Olivier Wahler, Palais de Tokyo, Paris Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Gallery, London Larry Gagosian, gallerist, New York Liam Gillick, artist, London Michael Kimmelman, “The New York Times,” New York Don Rubell, The Rubell Family Collection, Miami
NEW Performance series “Speak and Spell,” curated by “Spike Art Quarterly,” with musician blogger Momus, speech acrobat Tris Vonna-Michell, and computer musician Florian Hecker
“We offer the public extraordinary art experiences, and connoisseurs and experts exclusive information related to Vienna.” Robert Punkenhofer, Artistic Director VIENNA ART WEEK, 2008
4,500 visitors
5,000 visitors
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2009
2010
2011
ENTICEMENT TO ART
CROSSING LIMITS
REFLECTING REALITY
With the exhibition “Art as Sociotopia” a commission for an “in-house” production is given for the first time. As in subsequent years, the curators are Ursula Maria Probst and Robert Punkenhofer.
The exhibition “Crossing Limits – Art in Urban Transitions” gathers together international formations that explore new artistic and curatorial terrain in interdisciplinary exchange. Robert Punkenhofer for the first time curates and moderates an interview marathon at the Vienna Secession, including Vito Acconci, Minerva Cuevas and J. J. Hudson.
The exhibition “Reflecting Reality” in the Sigmund Freud Museum shows approaches of art to psychoanalysis. Another interview marathon by Robert Punkenhofer dealing with questions of psychodynamics in art production.
“Vienna was THE place to be last week.” Carmen Giménez, curator, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Highlights
NEW Guided tours of the artist-in-residence program and the BMUKK Federal Studios Street Art Tour departure design tour
Gallery Night: 50 galleries keep their
exhibitions open until midnight Visits to studios of architects and designers 17th Vienna Architecture Congress Opening gala at the DOROTHEUM Installation by Heimo Zobernig at the DOROTHEUM Collectors’ talks
NEW
“The VIENNA ART WEEK has developed at enormous speed into an event that has become an essential part of Vienna.” Michael Häupl, Mayor of Vienna
Guided Gallery Tours: seven curators give guided tours of 23 galleries and exhibitions • Corporate Cultural Programs • Photo Walk: guided tour of alternative spaces, equipped with cameras
Highlights Conference on performance art at the Academy
NEW “meet art” – the VIENNA ART WEEK magazine 20 art institutions 50 galleries 100 artists 40 experts 15 alternative spaces 23 special tours 8 panel discussions 25 studio visits 9 performances 4 lectures 1 symposium
14,500 visitors
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of Fine Arts Vienna Symposium on Michelangelo as draughtsman at the Albertina Interventions at Kunsthistorisches Museum by students of the University of Applied Arts ARTmART – an experimental art market: each artwork priced 80 euros
“What makes VIENNA ART WEEK unusual is that it brings together museums and the market.” “The Art Newspaper,” London, 2010
15,000 visitors
Highlights Opening of the 21er Haus Theme day on artistic research at the
Academy of Fine Arts
36,000 visitors
2012
2013
2014
PREDICTING MEMORIES
PROJECTING WORLDS
RUNNING MINDS
Highlights
“This is where forces are power-packed to present the scene in its best light.”
The exhibition “Predicting Memories” in the former Imperial and Royal Telegraph Office shows 33 international positions on art as a storehouse for memory and knowledge.
Open Studio Day in 84 studios including
talks and final party Meet Art Day at the Brotfabrik “Art & Science” exhibition at the University of Applied Arts The artist Elke Krystufek gives a guided tour of the newly opened Kunstkammer in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
“Weltkunst,” Berlin, November 2013
NEW Curators’ Vision in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts: international curators talk about their curatorial approaches.
“... there are few places in Europe where the tension between backwardsoriented traditionalism and the desire for the radically other and new is as strong as in Vienna” NEW “Frieze Magazine,” London, January 2013
Curators’ Picks: international curators are invited to Vienna and taken to selected galleries, alternative spaces, art ateliers and studios to introduce them to Vienna’s art scene.
“With Open Studio Day we have established a format that ideally complies with the public’s wish to come as close as possible to art.” Robert Punkenhofer, Artistic Director of VIENNA ART WEEK NEW Open Studio Day in 60 studios with 2,000 visitors • departure fashion tour • Panel discussions concentrated at the DOROTHEUM HIGHLIGHTS Jack Smith homage at the Austrian Film
Museum Photography conference at the MUSA Symposium “Planning Unplanned” on urbanity and urban planning Conference on “Queerness” at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Gallery Weekend
35,000 visitors
26 art institutions 43 galleries 84 artists 30 experts 18 alternative spaces 21 special projects 84 open studios 179 individual events 35 special guided tours 15 panel discussions 9 lectures 15 artist talks 12 studio talks 8 performances 3 symposiums 31 guided gallery tours
35,000 visitors
Members of Art Cluster Vienna 2014 21er Haus Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Albertina Architekturzentrum Wien Association of Austrian Galleries of Modern Art Austrian Film Museum Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation Belvedere departure – the Creative UNIT of the Vienna Business Agency DOROTHEUM Essl Museum – Contemporary Art Jewish Museum Vienna KÖR – Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier & Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz KUNST HAUS WIEN Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien Künstlerhaus Leopold Museum MAK Vienna mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien MUSA quartier 21/MuseumsQuartier Wien Secession Sigmund Freud Museum The Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary University of Applied Arts Vienna Wien Museum 89
Interview
Not at all Off, but Bang in the Middle Independent art spaces in Vienna by Barbara Wünsch
The term “offspaces” might be a little misleading. Because in actual fact, Vienna’s many free art spaces – operated with great idealism and small financial means – are not “off” but on the contrary very close to what’s hot off the press on the art scene. They offer the most direct insight into Vienna’s current art production. A new free art space opens every couple of months while others have existed for many years and the city’s art scene can barely be imagined without them. A stroll through Vienna’s alternative art landscape is rewarding: there’s an incredible amount to discover in the city off the beaten track of the great museums, exhibition houses and galleries!
© Florian Rainer
mo.ë Team: Hannah Menne, Christian Bazant-Hegemark, Alisa Beck, Max Bogner, Katharina Day, Alexander Felch, Matthias Gassner Thelemangasse 4/1–3 1170 Vienna E contact@moe-vienna.org www.moe-vienna.org Opening hours: From 7:00 p.m. on event days Exhibition openings every Tue.; discursive events every Wed.; concerts every Thu.; performances, concerts etc. every Fri. and Sat.
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The mo.ë, or: a plea for self-empowerment The site where the artists’ association of picapica have been running the mo.ë since 2010 is steeped in history: until the Second World War the Imperial and Royal Decorations and Medals Factory of the Mandelbaum family was located on Thelemangasse 4. The medals gave way to metalware, until the production was finally shut down in 2000. The factory stood empty for ten years before Hanna Menne and her artist friends found the perfect site here for their art space. With great zeal and much do-it-yourself, the mo.ë was founded – a phenomenal site, with a programme and spatial arrangement structured into three main sections: the exhibition and event rooms, the atelier building with studios for ten artists, and a studio- cum-apartment for artists-in-residence. This is a place, the team all agree, where the dream of tangible self-empowerment within the art and culture scene can materialize: “The concept works!” The mo.ë is far more than just an exhibition space for the free scene and a versatile set for films: around 150 events
take place here every year – from the World Refugee Day to international architecture workshops, to welding courses for women … and of course there’s no end of music and theater productions. “It’ll work if you want it to work,” to coin a succinct slogan for the association’s basic attitude. It might sound like a political statement, but it reflects the wish of every one of the members to scoop added value out of his or her work for the mo.ë. Whether the people exhibit or perform, curate or stage, public or staff: all participants are part of the “Experiment of Diligence,” the image the mo.ë has chosen for itself. “It’s possible to do things” – this is the credo you can feel at every turn. Because the mo.ë – independent in content and free in interpretation – is the materialized vision of a free cultural operation.
© Florian Rainer
© Florian Rainer
Ubik Space Founding team and operators: Adam de Neige, Arin Eliyahu Zadoorian Linke Wienzeile 72 1060 Vienna M +43 660 40 50 677 E hello@ubikspace.com www.ubikspace.com Opening hours: Every two weeks: exhibition opening on Wed. 7:00–10:00 p.m., Thu.–Fri. 5:00–8:00 p.m., Sat. 2:00–5:00 p.m., or by appointment (by phone) wellwellwell Team: Philipp Friedrich, Julian Inic, Maria A. Mäser, Lukas Posch, Christian Scherrer Mittersteig 2a (on the corner of Grosse Neugasse / Rienösslgasse) 1040 Vienna E office@wellwellwell.at http://wellwellwell.at Opening hours: Fri. 4:00–8:00 p.m., Sat. 12:00 noon– 4:00 p.m., or email for an appointment
Barbara Wünsch lives and works in Vienna as a cultural manager. A graduate of the University of Vienna and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Wünsch has been project manager for VIENNA ART WEEK since 2012.
Ubik Space: art not veg
wellwellwell: window onto the applied arts
With much passion and entirely stress-free, since 2012 two students of the Academy of Fine Arts have been running a small exhibition space not far from Naschmarkt. By now, the neighborhood has got used to the fact that they can now admire young art instead of fresh veg in the little shop window.
In March 2014 five students of the University of Applied Arts founded the independently operated art space wellwellwell. Every year a guest curator is invited – in 2014 Melanie Ohnemus – to present artworks produced in the sphere of the Academy of Applied Arts in exhibitions alternating every month. The ideal site for this project was offered by the former oil store on Mittersteig, which was transformed into a charming white cube with timber gallery. The University of Applied Arts provides the funding for the space, the project operators organized in the art association Ind_ex conceive and manage the programme.
Alternating every fortnight, Adam de Neige and Arin Eliyahu Zadoorian present artists in solo exhibitions. The selection is done on an open-call basis. The flood of applicants doesn’t worry them, since their main interest lies in getting to know as many artists as possible. “It’s important for us that we stay in contact after the exhibition. We stay friends with the artists.” The two young art entrepreneurs see their initiative as a chance to learn – for both sides: “The artists learn from us, and we learn from them. The exhibitors organize their show themselves, we just help to set it up.” Seasonal topics – such as the concept of only showing painting – form a rough thematic bracket within which almost everything is possible. One permanent effect of Adam de Neige’s and Arin Eliyahu Zadoorian’s initiative is that each exhibited artist leaves one work to the collection. The Ubik Space Collection has meanwhile gathered together more than 40 works, some of which now adorn the wall of the small back room. Incidentally, the two art entrepreneurs were inspired for the name of the space through Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novel “Ubik,” derived from Latin ubique, everywhere. And there is indeed creativity slumbering everywhere, waiting to be kissed awake and come to the ball. The presentation of what happens then is what Adam and Arin have dedicated themselves to.
The wellwellwell team were able to convince the university principal with their curatorial meta-concept, which plans to present close-ups of students and graduates of the university. “We see ourselves as the university’s window to the outside,” is the organizers’ own definition. The task of the guest curator is to sound out current artistic productions, bring them together, and place them in a new conceptual context. In this way, the creativity of a university can be presented off the beaten track of annual exhibitions. At the same time wellwellwell sees itself as a venue of discourse. “We want to offer a platform for dealing with contemporary art.” Here, the reading club “lesen und lesen lassen” (read and be read) is ideal as a forum for the exchange of ideas beyond the conventional university curriculum.
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© Florian Rainer
© Florian Rainer
SWDZ – So Weit, die Zukunft Founding team: Rebecca Lynch, Andreas Pohancenik
Project space in flux: SWDZ – So Weit, die Zukunft
FRIDAY EXIT: decision-making in the curators’ collective
Gärtnergasse 14 1030 Vienna M +43 660 561 01 65 E projektraum@so-weit-diezukunft.at www.so-weit-die-zukunft.at
Upon his return from London, the graphic designer Andreas Pohancenik joined forces in the summer of 2013 with the design curator Rebecca Lynch to found SWDZ – So Weit, die Zukunft (So Far, the Future). The former perfumery depot in Vienna’s third district soon turned out to be the perfect creative neighborhood for the project site. Both founders brought with them an abundance of energy and pleasure in art projects, but also much experience in running an art space. SFTF (So Far, the Future) had been the name of the London forerunner, and SWDZ, likewise, wasn’t chosen at random, since the project is focused on what science, technology, design and art can do for the future. It was more of a coincidence that the organizers have meanwhile been drawn more and more to art and away from design, which had been the project’s key activity in London. The first contacts to artists and partners also happened by chance.
FRIDAY EXIT all started with the wish of students from the Academy of Fine Arts for a self-organized exhibition space. When it was founded in 2011 they could count on the backing of the academy. The collective sees itself as interface between inside and out, between students and artists. All decisions are made in the collective, both as regards the design of the space and the choice of projects submitted on the basis of open call applications; small groups are formed in some phases for the collective practical work with the artists.
Opening hours: Tue.–Sat. 11:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. FRIDAY EXIT Current members: Dusan Chladek, Olivia Jaques, Eleni Kampuridis, Bettina Kattinger, Ulrich Nausner, Marlies Surtmann Former members: Ricardo Almeida Roque, Miriam Bethmann, Daniela Grabosch, Jessyca R. Hauser, Mads Egeberg Hvidtfeldt, Marlene Maier, Jöran Möller, Tanja Nis-Hansen, Paran Pour, Anna Rettl, Anna Spanlang, Mario Strk, Annamaria Tatu, Ida Westh-Hansen, Lucas Zallmann Döblergasse 2 1070 Vienna E fridayexit@akbild.ac.at www.fridayexit.at
Exhibitions alternate every three weeks, with a background program that is especially dear to Andreas Pohancenik’s heart. “I love coincidences,” is how he describes his strategy of the project space in flux, because what frequently happens is that the right people turn up at the right moment and can be integrated into the program. Apart from exhibition production and curating, the projectspace organizers are also active in publishing. The little shop’s display does indeed attract chance visitors into the exhibition, and occasionally artworks are sold straight off the wall. If there is any orientation at all, it is the idea of a “project space becoming a gallery.” Nevertheless Andreas Pohancenik has no desire to quit as a designer – it’s far too much fun!
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The initiative aims to be a platform for sounding out different curatorial and artistic approaches. “We can give artists more scope for self-determination because, being an alternative space, we are not market-driven. This offers students a fantastic opportunity of trying out what works. You get to know the other side – that of organizing exhibitions.” The collective system keeps the group on their toes through permanent internal reflection, joint contemplation and the cooperation with the artists. At the same time, the chorus of creative voices has an utterly positive effect on curatorial-creative processes. FRIDAY EXIT started in facilities in the inner city. In the original program, an exhibition opening was scheduled every second Friday, which, together with the idea of being an interface, was ultimately reflected in the name.
Program
To the Power of 10 Jubilee notes by Gerald Straub
© Jörg Piringer
eSeL REZEPTION / zamSpielen GAME NIGHT
“Art & Games feat. Jörg Piringer” Sunday, 23 November 2014 starting at 5:00 p.m. MuseumsQuartier, Electric Avenue
© Florian Rainer
Time for jubilation. The delight in an anniversary or jubilee is really nothing new because, on the contrary, it means the festive recurrence of an event located in time. Years of service. The foundation of a nation. A life experience. An eclipse of the sun. The Olympic Games. Delighted anticipation is included in the package.
anniversary, the umpteenth holiday in the same place, long years of membership … The moment of celebration counts more than the connection to one’s own cyclic past, because the future has an end here. At the moment of the individual anniversary the anniversary itself counts most – presuming one joins in the celebrations.
Every single one of us has plenty of anniversaries determined either by ourselves or others. They demarcate remembrance, serve as a connection between past, present and future. And the events that are not directly self-determined – not defined by one’s own life cycle, that is – contribute to a collective identity. Historical events are mainly the occasions which, for a great variety of reasons and interests, came to be commemorated in anniversaries or jubilees; often more monuments than jubilant celebrations, they provide brief insights into very diverse historiographies and their references.
The art scene is no different. Art is celebrated, both self-determined and determined by others. More than ever. With or without an anniversary. In the here and now. Anniversaries in art are like smoothly running hamster wheels – extremely cyclic. The value lies in the moment of celebration. The historical bridge of reference that will be forged in retrospective plays hardly any role in an art anniversary. Which is logical, because the centenary of the Venice Biennale won’t take place until 2103, and from today’s perspective probably only very few will make it there. But we can fearlessly and enthusiastically enjoy the 10th edition of the VIENNA ART WEEK. Regardless of what used to be and what’s coming. A great reason to celebrate. Hurrah to the power of 10.
We wouldn’t be what we are if we didn’t have our respective culture of memory and the accompanying glimmer of hope that helps us to appreciate a timeline that far transcends our own time of life – whether we join in the celebrations or not. Self-determined anniversaries are much more immediate. A wedding
For more on the “Running Minds VIENNA ART WEEK Anniversary Tour,” see page 76. Gerald Straub is an artist and cultural theorist. He lives and works in Vienna – again.
Be it algorithms, programming languages, or social arrangements within the arts communities: strategic discussion of game rules features prominently in the everyday lives of digital art and cultural workers in the Electric Avenue of quartier21. Taking advantage of loopholes – and bugs in the system – and using them to benefit artistic freedom in the 21st century means bringing innovative art and cultural practices into a never- ending game with social conditions and their audiences. Besides the general enjoyment of playing with other people, the “parlour game” – whether a board game or a multi-player game – offers clearly defined rules for social interaction and serves as an ideal medium for staging encounters with digital art.
Jörg Piringer invites the public to interact with sound poetry apps on smartphones and tablets as part of “Art & Games.” Piringer’s installation “Untitled” at the eSeL REZEPTION transforms visitors’ live sounds and speech into abstract visual text compositions. “If we were to invite people to an ‘internet art’ opening, then we would only reach people who are already interested in digital art,” says Lorenz “eSeL” Seidler of his collaborative initiative with the gaming community zamSpielen, which has facilitated “intelligent conversation with ulterior motives” for over two years at quartier21. Featured artworks will be mediated in person while playing games together: “Bring your own games!” eSeL REZEPTION
E rezeption@esel.at http://esel.at zamSpielen E hello@brokenrul.es http://zamspielen.tumblr.com quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien Electric Avenue Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna www.quartier21.at
Open access game stations including selected board games, communication games and multiplayer games on the big screen invite the public to a night of games along Electric Avenue. “Art & Games” uses personal contact and a low threshold to make the artworks and practices of various quartier21-based initiatives accessible to the widest possible audience. For VIENNA ART WEEK 2014, digital musician and voice artist 93
Special Projects
AnzenbergerGallery
© Marlene Hausegger
© Borjana Ventzislavova We are nowhere and it´s now – this must be the place, 2012; courtesy: bäckerstrasse4
© Julia Bornefeld, Final Play, 2012 Courtesy Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman
Atelierraum N.E.U.
bäckerstrasse4
Kunstraum BERNSTEINER
GUIDED TOUR
EXHIBITION
GUIDED TOUR
EXHIBITION
Rare, self-published and signed photography books
“NO-GO”
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “Specters of the West and Photographic Figments”
Exhibition “Julia Bornefeld | SUBLIME”
Saturday, 22 November 2014 3:00 p.m. In German
Regina Maria Anzenberger presents rare photo books from a collection of more than 500 publications, self-produced and signed by the photographers. Photo books are becoming more and more important in the art market as an artistic form of expression. They are affordable artworks of contemporary photo graphy, which makes them a democratic art form, and have yet been predicted a brilliant future as an asset recently. Most of the books are produced in a small edition of copies. Their exceptional design and hand-crafted details make them highly coveted collectors’ items. EXHIBITION
Robert Zhao Renhui, “A Guide to the Fauna and Flora of the World” Ricardo Cases, “Paloma al Aire” 7 November 2014– 17 January 2015 AnzenbergerGallery Absberggasse 27 1100 Vienna T +43 1 587 82 51 F +43 1 587 90 07 E gallery@anzenberger.com www.anzenbergergallery.com www.anzenbergergallery-bookshop.com Opening hours: Mon.–Sun. 12:00 noon–6:00 p.m.
19–23 November 2014 Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Run by Eva Engelbert, Marlene Hausegger and Maria Mäser, Atelierraum N.E.U. is in the basement level of a classic fin-de-siècle building diagonal to and across from the flak towers in Arenbergpark. The three politically and artistically engaged artists make the space available to other artistic and curatorial projects. The condition for starting activities in their space is that the project address the letters N, E, and U – the letters that give the space its name. N: Neigung (tendency), Nabel (navel), NO-GO E: emancipated, elaborate U: unswerving, umackern (plough over) Participants in the project “NO-GO” include artists Rita Vitorelli, Susanne Richter, Ben Pointeker, Female Obsession and Bernadette Anzengruber. Concieved by freelance curator Ursula Maria Probst, the exhibition raises questions about the “no-goes” of artistic life. Switch off, cancel, stay in bed? How do artists benefit from informal economies, from the resources of time and space in their work in society, from the intensive debates and updates on current art, or the promises and rhetorics of artistic liberties? Do exhibitions in studio spaces and project rooms hold transgressive potential for artistic production and reception? Atelierraum N.E.U. Neulinggasse 18 1030 Vienna T +43 699 195 444 96
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 6:00 p.m. In German and English
The exhibition unites photographic works that deal with the sociopolitical imaginations of the West as an expression of an ideology that clearly still possesses great appeal. Do the different imageries and narratives demonstrate a highly ambivalent fascination or a transition to a chronotopic after? Participating artists: Brice Bischoff, Songül Boyraz, Thomas Gänszler, Sonia Leimer, Seth Lower, Biddy Tran, Santos R. Vásquez, Borjana Ventzislavova et al. Curator: Claudia Slanar IN CONVERSATION
Conversation with the artists Biddy Tran and Borjana Ventzislavova After the guided tour In English
The work of Biddy Tran and Borjana Ventzislavova grapples with the American Dream, its construction and representation in the media. EXHIBITION
“Specters of the West and Photographic Figments” 29 October–21 November 2014 bäckerstrasse4 Platform for young art Bäckerstrasse 4 1020 Vienna T +43 676 555 17 77 E office@baeckerstrasse4.at www.baeckerstrasse4.at Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 11:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat. 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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18 November 2014– 10 January 2015 Opening: Monday, 17 November 2014 7:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. To the observer, this apparently existentialist world of images based on thoughts of life and death, infinity and transience, slowly morphs into a well-thoughtout quote from past eras: there are motifs of vanitas that characterized baroque art, such as mirrors, music and gold; and in her “Feuerinszenierungen” (performances of fire) the artist reflects the world between illusion and reality. There are also hints of romanticism and decadence, of times of transition and transformation – like the present … everything is cyclical, everything returns. In her body of work, Julia Bornefeld demonstrates not just the fragility of the present, but also people who are no longer people, who, like the fictional characters in the Romantic period, depend on social concepts that have reached their limits. With her installation, Bornefeld overcomes the limits of the stationary in fine arts: she includes elements from surrealist film and music that transcend the borders of space and time. She thereby reduces the idea of eternity to absurdity. Beate Gatterer Kunstraum BERNSTEINER Schiffamtsgasse 11 1020 Vienna T +43 664 307 70 97 E mail@friendsandart.at www.friendsandart.at Opening hours: Wed.–Fri. 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
Special Projects
© Ilyukhin-Matsune Objective Point of View
© Bernhard Cella
Photo © Orit Ishay
© Alois Mosbacher, Shelter, 2013
brut im Künstlerhaus
Bernhard Cella
EIKON – International Magazine for Photography and Media Art
ELISABETH ZEIGT
EXHIBITION | PERFORMANCE
“OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW” 20–22 November 2014 7:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m. on all days Performance: daily at 8:00 p.m. Opening: Thursday, 20 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. “OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW” combines performance and exhibition with a humorous and ironic focus on the bigger questions of art reception: how does meaning and imagination develop? How do contexts become visible? And how do we as human beings relate to objects? In other words: what are we actually doing when we reverently stand in front of an art object that has our head spinning? An installation of paintings, objects and ordinary things becomes the scene of an encounter between performance and visual art. Choreographer-artists Michikazu Matsune and Maxim Ilyukhin take art objects from their pedestals in the truest sense of the word. They interact with them in an absurdly comical way and play at the intersection between poetic nonsense and ever-changing constructions of meaning. An exhibition in the brut foyer shows topicrelated photographs of various everyday objects. Performance: Maxim Ilyukhin & Michikazu Matsune Exhibits by: Aldo Giannotti, Maxim Ilyukhin, Anna Jermolaewa, Leopold Kessler, Michikazu Matsune, Elsa Okazaki et al. A cooperation of Michikazu Matsune & Maxim Ilyukhin and brut Wien. With generous support from the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Vienna.
EXHIBITION
“kunstbuchpanorama” 21 November 2014– 11 January 2015 Opening: Thursday, 20 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. The trend of artist-produced publications has gone unabated over the past several years in contemporary art, as artists continually strive to re-define the medium. With his contribution to VIENNA ART WEEK 2014, conceptual artist Bernhard Cella examines the economic and sculptural framework conditions within which artist’s books – as highly-informed objects in themselves, so to speak – can be used as material for producing three-dimensional artwork. What formats and topics have emerged? How significant is the art book in terms of the artists’ social status and their role in the creation and discussion of contemporary publicness? Can the low numbers of published artists’ books and their semi-public or private channels of distribution be taken as a sign of the “biedermeierization” of socio-critical strategies and practices? Cella’s installation offers a panoramic view of this publication genre. Eva-Maria Stadler from the University of Applied Arts Vienna will speak at the exhibition opening. 21er Haus Arsenalstrasse 1 1030 Vienna T +43 1 795 57 770 F +43 1 795 57 136 E public@21erhaus.at www.21erhaus.at
EXHIBITION PRESENTATION
Portfolio presentation: Orit Ishay Saturday, 22 November 2014 1:00 p.m. Meeting place: MQ Courtyard 7, Staatsratshof In English
EIKON has invited Orit Ishay, an Israeli photo, video and installation artist, to be the November Artist in Residence in quartier21/MQ. As part of the VIENNA ART WEEK, the artist will give the interested public an insight into her current work: during her stay in Vienna, Ishay will shoot photographs and videos and combine them with pictures she has taken in her home country of Israel and around the world to form “fragments of life.” New images are combined and melded with old ones; over time, a new location develops, which could be anywhere and nowhere in equal measure, and which is a metaphor for ever-present globalization. Through her actions, the artist seeks to break open political and social structures and discuss issues of time and space. EIKON – International Magazine for Photography and Media Art quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Museumsplatz 1 / e–1.6 1070 Vienna T +43 1 597 70 88 F +43 1 597 70 87 E office@eikon.at www.eikon.at
Alois Mosbacher 20 November 2014– 9 January 2015 Opening: Thursday, 20 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. “Surprisingly, Mosbacher’s art is always personal, radically individualistic, even anarchist, illimitably random, totally sovereign and manically ‘self-centered,’ but also almost ‘neutral,’ almost indifferent, almost physically objective. At the same time, he is able to foreground the subject matter as something irrational, inexplicable, unpredictable, thereby giving absolution to its meaning while still putting the narrative into perspective – the ‘story’ that draws a direct connection between a picture and the artist’s life – by going so far as to destroy ‘painterly’ manipulations par excellence. It is in this apparent ambivalence, this hidden irrationality, that one finds some of the most important and striking aspects of Alois Mosbacher’s art.” Lóránd Hegyi ELISABETH ZEIGT Lobkowitzplatz 3 1010 Vienna M +43 664 42 46 414 E elisabeth.melichar@icloud.at www.elisabethzeigt.at Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 2:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Sat. 12:00 noon–2:00 p.m. or by appointment
Opening hours: Wed., Thu. 11:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. Fri.–Sun. 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
brut im Künstlerhaus Karlsplatz 5 1010 Vienna T +43 1 587 05 04 F +43 1 587 87 74 31 E tickets@brut-wien.at www.brut-wien.at
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Special Projects © T. Ohno (Detail)
Eyes On – Month of Photography Vienna GUIDED TOUR
Managing director Thomas Licek gives a tour of selected exhibitions in the Brotfabrik* Wednesday, 19 November 2014 4:00 p.m. Meeting point: Photon Gallery In German and English
“Eyes On – Month of Photography” is one of Europe’s largest festivals for art photography. Eyes On takes place biennially in November and aims to strengthen and establish photography as an art form, serving as a platform for the whole spectrum of the medium. This year’s program includes 170 exhibitions of works by young artists, as well as documentary, experimental and historical photography. In addition, the participating museums, galleries, exhibition houses and temporary art spaces offer a wide range of accompanying events related to photography. * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: office@eyes-on.at Eyes On – Month of Photography Vienna Festival office 2014 Gumpendorfer Strasse 10–12/15 1060 Vienna T +43 1 799 50 91 E office@eyes-on.at www.eyes-on.at Photon Gallery Brotfabrik Absberggasse 27/9/10 1100 Vienna
Marcello Farabegoli Projects
© Kay Walkowiak, 2013
flux23
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
“Takashi Ohno: No more Fukushimas”
“insider&outsider art”
“A Different Order” Nandita Raman, Kay Walkowiak
18–23 November 2014 Verein 08 Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. “The cats of Tokyo have a celebrated portraitist,” Niklas Maak wrote of Takashi Ohno in a February 2011 newspaper article for the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntags zeitung.” Soon after came the devastating tsunami and nuclear disaster in Fukushima, the subject of Ohno’s woodcut series featuring his anthropomorphic cats. “His work shows the continued influence of renowned woodcutter Yasunori Taninaka (1897–1946),” explains Herbert Eichhorn, director of the Städtische Kunstmuseum Spendhaus in Reutlingen. “Also striking is that tool marks are intentionally used as a design element – unusual for both the Japanese woodcut tradition and the visual language of manga – and that prints show relief residue in the non-relief areas, for example. The artist probably borrowed this from Taninaka, who was strongly influenced by Expressionist woodcuts from the West.” Speakers at the opening: Klaus Werner-Lobo, the Green Party’s spokesman for culture and human rights, and Marcello Farabegoli For further information on the exhibition, visit: www.marcello-farabegoli.net Verein 08 Piaristengasse 60 1080 Vienna www.verein08.at Opening hours during VIENNA ART WEEK: Wed.–Fri. 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat.–Sun. 12:00 noon–4:00 p.m.
20–23 November 2014 flux23 opens its Wohnzimmer, with works by: Wilhelm Binder, Adi Brunner, Karen Elliot, eSeL, Beate Hausegger, Michael Haydter, Rohullah Kazimi, Iris Kopera, Andreas Pasqualini, Julia Rakuschan, Christian Rebhan, Patrick R. Scherer, Wolfgang Schuller, Franz Wedl, Andrea Vilhena et al. PROGRAM
Location-based performance by Evamaria Schaller Thursday, 20 November 2014 7:00 p.m.
Michael Blank presents knives Friday, 21 November 2014 3:00p.m.–8:00 p.m.
Workshop by Laura Popplow, “drawing things together. codedesign for public space” Saturday, 22 November 2014 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Portrait meeting Saturday, 22 November 2014 3:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
Art and kids Sunday, 23 November 2014 2:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. For further information about the program, visit www.flux23.net flux23 Wohnzimmer Novaragasse 55/2/19 1020 Vienna T +43 650 319 55 91 E freikrieger@flux23.net www.flux23.net Opening hours: during the events, or call for an appointment
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FRANZ JOSEFS KAI 3
18–29 November 2014 Opening: Monday, 17 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Two conceptual and spatial constructions located in India form the starting point of the exhibition: the planned city of Chandigarh, built in the 1950s under the direction of Le Corbusier with a utopian, Western and modernist approach; and the Maha Kumbh Mela held every 12 years in Allahabad, with its 40 million pilgrims believed to be the largest human gathering in the world. Nandita Raman and Kay Walkowiak have focused on different aspects of these real sites of utopian character in new works of sculpture, film and photography. They explore the topos of the failed utopia, likewise the phenomenon of unappeasable yearning for the place beyond all places. It concerns not least the question of transposing this non-place which, as place of potentiality, fuels our wish machines and keeps them running. Curator: Cornelis van Almsick LECTURE
Lecture by Arno Böhler Saturday, 22 November 2014 Time: see www.franzjosefskai3.com In German
Philosopher Arno Böhler will be holding a lecture to discursively enlarge upon the topic at the core of the exhibition. FRANZ JOSEFS KAI 3 Franz Josefs Kai 3 1010 Vienna M +43 699 108 81 984 E office@franzjosefskai3.com www.franzjosefskai3.com Opening hours: Tue.–Sun. 2:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
Special Projects
© Oliver Dorfer / Galerie Hilger NEXT wasteland volume 2, 2013
© Markus Hippmann
© Daniel Hafner
© Klaus Pichler
Galerie Hilger NEXT
House of Photography Vienna
IM ERSTEN
Jewish Museum Vienna
PRESENTATION
WORKSHOP
Exhibition
CONVERSATION
Catalog presentation Oliver Dorfer
Pinhole photo workshop “A Photo Through the Eye of a Needle”: “Motion and Emotion / Bewegung und Gefühl”*
“Daniel Hafner: angels and demons at play“*
A conversation with artist Maya Zack about her installation “The Shabbat Room”*
Monday, 17 November 2014 6:30 p.m. PhotoQuarter Vienna
“Fake? Yes. But it’s actually about much more than that! Being interested in destruction and self-destruction is a deeply human thing. The experience that comes from the act of destruction is quite possibly the simplest and most direct acknowledgment that one is alive. Decay and growth are continuous processes and intrinsic to our world. Whether a creative process is seen as constructive or destructive is a matter of opinion, a matter of morality. The creation of images of destruction is probably the greatest paradox in the art. Stories conveyed through images or sounds can be stronger and louder than the certainty that these tales are not based in ‘reality.’ I want to play with violence without becoming ‘weak’ in the process and using it; I want to tell a story, a fairy tale.” Daniel Hafner
Saturday, 22 November 2014 4:00 p.m. The artist will be present. EXHIBITION
Oliver Dorfer, “wasteland / niemandsland” 7 November–6 December 2014 Different parameters, linked to each other in an innovative way, characterize Oliver Dorfer’s new works: in the creative process he combines traditional and current techniques and, when building up his individual set of motifs, concentrates on combining disparate elements deriving from the most diverse of sources into one plausible composition. Assisted by a computer, he arranges the image layout his work is built upon, based on hand sketches and with additional image matter that comes from his archive or which he has found on the Internet or while studying various print media. In this way, Dorfer constructs narrative artworks, engineered between aggression and melancholy, latent threat and irony, whose details, disintegrating, melting into one another or rigorously separated, all claim attention individually. Galerie Hilger NEXT Absberggasse 27/2 1100 Vienna T +43 1 512 53 15 F +43 1 513 91 26 E ernst.hilger@hilger.at www.hilger.at Opening hours: Wed.–Sat. 12:00 noon–6:00 p.m.
In German
It is easier for a photograph to go through the eye of a needle than for a camel. You can see this in pinhole photography, where photographs are taken through an opening the size of the eye of a needle. More and more photographers use it as an artistic means of expression. But what is so exciting about this original and simple form of photography? Is it the simplicity of the artistic method as defined by the Arte Povera movement? Is it the “painting-like” effect of photographic “impressions” that photography with a pinhole camera provides? Or is it the dimly character and art of insinuation that makes things visible without actually capturing them? For 2015, the House of Photography in Vienna is planning a pinhole photography exhibition titled “Motion and Emotion / Bewegung und Gefühl.” As part of VIENNA ART WEEK, anyone interested can learn about the appeal of pinhole photography in an introductory pinhole photography workshop. Get a picture for yourself and shoot a photo through the eye of a needle! * Attendance is free. Registration is required: E office@haus-der-fotografie.at House of Photography Vienna Rechte Wienzeile 85 1050 Vienna T +43 1 890 41 46 E office@haus-der-fotografie.at www.haus-der-fotografie.at PhotoQuarter Vienna in the former Schlössl cinema Margaretenstrasse 127 1050 Vienna
20 November–7 December 2014 Opening: Wednesday, 19 November 2014, 7:00 p.m.
* cf. Sun Ra, “Angels And Demons At Play” – “The Nubians Of Plutonia,” 1956 & 1960 The exhibition features concerts and performances. For dates and further information, visit: www.imersten.com IM ERSTEN Sonnenfelsgasse 3/00A 1010 Vienna E office@imersten.com www.imersten.com www.facebook.com/IMERSTEN Opening hours during VIENNA ART WEEK: Thu.–Sat. 12:00 noon–6:00 p.m. 24 November–7 December 2014: Mon.–Fri. 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Monday, 17 November 2014 6:30 p.m. In English
The Jewish Museum Vienna cooperated with Israeli artist Maya Zack as part of its new permanent exhibition “Our City! Jewish Vienna – Then to Now.” The starting point for Zack’s work was Isidor Kaufmann’s “Gute Stube” (Shabbat Room) from 1899. Created for the first Jewish Museum Vienna, Kaufmann’s spatial installation – a revolutionary museum intervention – intended on the one hand to show non-Jewish audiences Shabbat as a family celebration, but also provided a nostalgic space of cultural orientation, rest and relaxation for Jews inhabiting the contradictory world of fin-de-siècle Vienna. The Jewish Museum Vienna still holds a few objects and a photographic document of this space, which was destroyed by the Nazis in 1938. Using both the objects and the visual material as a basis, and with the help of digital technology, Maya Zack developed a photographic, spatial installation that reenvisions and reinterprets this important, forgotten place at the turn of the century. In conversation with the artist: Danielle Spera, director of the Jewish Museum Vienna, and chief curator Werner Hanak-Lettner * Limited number of participants. Registration is required: E events@jmw.at Jewish Museum Vienna Dorotheergasse 11 1010 Vienna T +43 1 535 04 31 F +43 1 535 04 24 E info@jmw.at www.jmw.at Opening hours: Sun.–Fri. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
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Special Projects © Dejana Kabiljo
© Thomas Zipp, ABNembutal, 2013
© Elfriede Mejchar From the series Im Hotel 1970–84
© Bernhard Rappold
Kabiljo Inc.
Galerie Krinzinger
Kro Art Contemporary
Kunsthalle Exnergasse
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
Dejana Kabiljo, FENCES
Thomas Zipp
“Let’s Go – The Big Vacation Boom”
“With Small Words”
19–23 November 2014 Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 6:00 p.m. Have you ever googled “freedom”? In images, you will find individuals spreading their arms and leaping into magnificent glowing sunsets. In words, you will find clever quotes by Albert Einstein and Megan Fox. We all want to assert our own personal freedom, so we all collide helplessly with others, who are also seeking their own holy freedom, which in turn seems to endanger our own. Freedom is such an elusive term; is it surprising then that we are over-eager in choosing boundaries, safety and protection, the gilded cage? FENCES protects from lions, paper planes and from the racing. Dejana Kabiljo’s works have been showcased in Vienna, Milan, Paris, Saint-Étienne, Ghent, Brussels, Kortrijk, Eindhoven, Belgrade, Ljubljana, Barcelona, Warsaw, London, New York, Tokyo, and Beijing, and published in newspapers, magazines and books across the globe. They are represented in the collections of the Wien Museum, the Belgrade Museum of Applied Arts, the MAK Vienna, and in private collections. Kabiljo Inc. Gonzagagasse 5 1010 Vienna T +43 1 53 57 911 M +43 676 607 68 57 E wisdom@kabiljo.com www.kabiljo.com Opening hours during VIENNA ART WEEK: Wed.–Sun. 12:00 noon–7:00 p.m.
from 19 November 2014 Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Thomas Zipp, born 1966, counts as one of the most important German artists of his generation. He lives in Berlin and is currently teaching in Vienna as a guest professor at the University of Applied Arts. Zipp’s installations – like, for example, his contribution to the 55th Venice Biennale – are highly staged, allencompassing productions complete with specially designed furniture, paintings, scientific books and performances that double as experimental laboratories. Zipp is interested in the psychological depths of mankind – his depression, delusions and addictions – and how society handles these institutionally. Galerie Krinzinger is presenting its third solo show of Thomas Zipp’s work following “Beyond the Superego” (2012) and “The Family of Ornament und Verbrechen” (2007). The artist has already been the subject of significant solo exhibitions including, among others, those at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum and de Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam. Zipp’s oeuvre contains references to local art traditions like the Wiener Werkstätte; his paintings – portraits and illustrations of plants – have a symbolic significance and he often quotes passages from the writings of Sigmund Freud. Galerie Krinzinger Seilerstätte 16 1010 Vienna T +43 1 513 30 06 F +43 1 513 30 06 33 E galeriekrinzinger@chello.at www.galerie-krinzinger.at Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 12:00 noon–6:00 p.m. Sat. 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
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23 November 2014– 10 January 2015 Opening: Saturday, 22 November 2014, 5:00 p.m. Every year, some 700 million people leave their country of origin to embark on an overseas trip. International travel accounts for 25 to 30 percent of global commerce in the services industry; tourists pour into cultural and historical sites and cities, beach tourist destinations and ski resorts. Like locusts, the travelers come and go in cycles. What they leave behind is often a wasteland: ghost towns depopulated between the seasons; bare, unvegetated swathes of land beneath groomed, now defrosted ski slopes … But how interested is the average traveler in the culture and character of the host country? The craving for adventure is usually within limits. Visitors expect familiar structures and host countries able to provide the maximum degree of comfort at the lowest possible price. Even here, our competitive, performance-oriented society breaks for no one, and does not take vacations. Participating artists: Silvia Camporesi, H. H. Capor, Pia Mayer, Elfriede Mejchar, Miriam Laussegger, Peter Wehinger Kro Art Contemporary Getreidemarkt 15 1060 Vienna T +43 676 503 05 32 E office@kroart.at www.kroart.at Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 14:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat. 12:00 noon–5:00 p.m.
6 November–20 December 2014 It’s no coincidence that David Thomas – art-loving singer of what he himself calls the “avant-garage” band Pere Ubu – inspired the idea for this exhibition. From Edison to Elvis it was only a matter of time, and the advantage that these two had over Neil Armstrong, for example, is best summed up in David Thomas’ conclusion that “Big Events are best heralded with Small Words.” Participating artists: Éva Bodnár, Nuria Fuster, Ha Za Vu Zu, Nicolas Jasmin, Santiago Morilla, O, Bernhard Rappold, Franz Schubert, Tobias Pils & Patrick Pulsinger, Carlos Vasconcelos, Brent Wadden PERFORMANCE
Performance as part of the exhibition “With Small Words” Friday, 21 November 2014 7:00 p.m. With Éva Bodnár (“Der Videot II”), O (Teresa Rotschopf), Ha Za Vu Zu, Wegwerfpizza, Trumatic & Felix Leon Westner, Dj Nicolas Jasmin Kunsthalle Exnergasse WUK Werkstätten- und Kulturhaus Währinger Strasse 59 1090 Vienna T +43 1 401 21 41 F +43 1 401 21 67 E kunsthalle.exnergasse@wuk.at http://kunsthalleexnergasse.wuk.at Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 1:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Sat. 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Special Projects
Holiday Event people cheering each other with champagne and wine © Olga Sapegina / Sthutterstock.com
© Max Lust
© Sophie Jung, ThrowUp/OnLine, 2014
© Erika Schmid, 2008
Kunstraum Niederoesterreich
Lust Gallery
Medienwerkstatt Wien
Nitsch Foundation
PARTY
EXHIBITION
OPENING | PERFORMANCE
MATINÉE
Netparty
“White Flag“
“DOUBLE”
Thursday, 20 November 2014 7:00 p.m. www.netpartyblog.tumblr.com
18 November–17 December 2014 Opening: Monday, 17 November 2014, 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, 20 November 2014 7:00 p.m. Performance: 8:p.m.
Breakfast matinée with Hermann Nitsch as part of the exhibition “Action Painting on Paper”
“When an adult in Berlin or Vienna wants to spend an evening with company, there are two basic options: one can have a cozy dinner with friends at a restaurant or someone’s apartment, or one can go out. The second option may not be a radical step into the unknown, as there are familiar signposts, but nevertheless, when we go out, we switch into an entirely different mode of experience.”
White Flag Superman emerges from his cave, “The Fortress of Solitude,” his sanctuary far away from civilization. There he accepts that he will always be alone, forsaken on a planet of people limited by their own weakness. Up … up and away he goes in search of a crisis to solve. He lands in Chelsea, a metropolis of galleries. Being new to the art world, he decides to look around. He notices a colorful, rebellious sign that reads “The Dapple Cow Gallery” and decides to go in. There he finds himself completely surrounded by art, which communicated its concept faster than a speeding bullet aimed at his impenetrable skin. He is at first excited but quickly gets bored. Just then, he realizes that without the use of his super powers he has viewed the exhibition within minutes. As he exits the gallery he looks at the unpaid intern and asks: “Excuse me, where can I find the nearest cave?” Thus Spake Kal-El
In German and English
Diedrich Diederichsen, “People of Intensity, People of Power: The Nietzsche Economy,” in: e-f lux 19, 10/2010
EXHIBITION
“‘I Multiplied Myself to Feel Myself.’1 On Intersections, Lines of Connection, Personal Networks and Accomplices” 24 October–6 December 2014 Curated by Barbara Rüdiger, the exhibition focuses on collaboration in the arts as a method and strategy. It looks at working relationships that expand the otherwise isolated creative process – particularly in art, where the personal “network” is identity-reinforcing, an economic must and a promising breeding ground that demands constant feeding. 1 Fernando Pessoa Kunstraum Niederoesterreich Herrengasse 13 1014 Vienna T +43 1 90 42 111 F +43 1 90 42 112 E office@kunstraum.net www.kunstraum.net
Awarded to a different artist every year, the 2014 edition of the Medienwerkstatt’s experimental “Carte Blanche for Young Media Artists” program went to artist duo Markus Hanakam and Roswitha Schuller. Two exhibition formats – “HOLO” and “PARA” (with the curators’ collective Plinque ) – offer a media-reflexive and ironic look at the notion of a channel. The third program, “DOUBLE,” collects works by internationally established American performance and video artist Shana Moulton (New York, Münster) and Luxembourgian media-performance artist Sophie Jung (London, Basel). The work of both artists features a narrative, sometimes fairytale-like or magical setting that finds expression in a performative practice. Moulton has created an alter ego with which she exposes the comical/critical practices of the New Age and wellness industries, while Jung only appears to have abandoned herself to the world of things presented in her work.
Participating artists: Anna-Sophie Berger, Angelika Loderer, Hanna Putz
For further information, visit: www.hanakam-schuller.com, www.shanamoulton.info, https://sophiejung.allyou.net/
Lust Gallery Hollandstrasse 7/15 A 1020 Vienna T +43 1 21 21 06 E office@thelustgallery.com www.thelustgallery.com Opening hours: Wed.–Fri. 1:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat. 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.
Medienwerkstatt Wien Neubaugasse 40a 1070 Vienna T +43 1 52 63 667 E office@medienwerkstatt-wien.at www.medienwerkstatt-wien.at
Saturday, 22 November 2014 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Hermann Nitsch began the practical realization of his Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries through action painting in the 1960s. The paintings that emerged from this process could be seen as relics of his actions as a painter, and yet – consciously intended as paintings in their own right – they are much more than that. As Hermann Nitsch once noted: “Painting is the grammar of my actions on an image surface.” Similar to his actions involving meat, blood and animal cadavers, Nitsch’s technique of spraying, smearing and splashing colored liquids aims to evoke sensually intense emotions. With this exhibition, the Nitsch Foundation presents the first-ever show of the artist’s action painting on paper and invites visitors to a breakfast matinèe with Hermann Nitsch as part of VIENNA ART WEEK. EXHIBITION
“Action Painting on Paper” November 2014–June 2015 Nitsch Foundation Hegelgasse 5 1010 Vienna T +43 1 513 55 30 F +43 1 513 55 30 13 E office@nitsch-foundation.com www.nitsch-foundation.com Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Free admission
Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 11:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat. 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. 99
Special Projects © Edith Payer
© Verlag Karl Lintl, Steyr: “Greetings from Steyr,” posted from Steyr to Vienna in 1900, private collection
© Borut Krajnc, Arja vas-Velenje road, 25 April 2007, from the Emptiness series, 2004–2008
© Markus Hofer
pendantpendant
Photoinstitut Bonartes
Photon Gallery
Porcelain Museum at Augarten
EXHIBITION
GUIDED TOUR
EXHIBITION
PRESENTATION
“System prostheses (or our Self-projects)”
Curator Monika Faber gives a tour of the exhibition “Format Postkarte”
“Aftermath. Changing Cultural Landscape”
“Cloud of Plates” at Augarten
6 October 2014– 10 January 2015
Tuesday, 18 November 2014 4:00 p.m.
19–23 November 2014 Opening: Wednesday, 19 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. The social paradoxes of contemporary capitalism are reflected in the subject’s state-of-mind: the desire and compulsion to constantly alter and adjust one’s identity and the simultaneous relativization through post- and post-post- modern concepts leaves little to do but answer the question “How’s it going?” with “OK I guess!” The excessive longings in each of the Self-projects, their possible failure and dissolution, but also the inevitable state of exhaustion that accompanies this phenomenon are at the core of the exhibition. Concept: Maria Hanl, Edith Payer Artists: Thomas Grill, Maria Hanl, Sophia Hörmann, Edith Payer, Daniela-Katrin Strobl, Lea Titz, Natalia Weiss DANCE PERFORMANCE
Kollektiv Sisyphos Friday, 21 November 2014 7:00 p.m. SOUND PERFORMANCE
Sound environment as installation Saturday, 22 November 2014 7:00 p.m. FOOD PERFORMANCE
Tabling Sunday, 23 November 2014 10:30 a.m. pendantpendant Posthorngasse 8 (entrance on Tongasse), 1030 Vienna M +43 664 457 26 50, E maria.hanl@gmx.at http://pendantpendant.wordpress.com Opening hours during VIENNA ART WEEK: Thu.–Sat. 6:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m. Sun. 10:30 a.m.–2:00 p.m. 100
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 7:00 p.m. In German
Postal administrators invented them as a standardized format for short messages at cheap rates. But users started drawing or sticking pictures to them, initiating a surprising success story around 1900. Millions of illustrated postcards were sent in Austria alone – and often ended up in elaborate albums. “Format Postkarte” focuses on many different aspects of this phenomenon. Private collections of postcards describe travel routes, tell love stories and bear witness to a collector’s passion, but there is also a drastic example of the popular practice of illegal copying. Curators: Monika Faber, Eva Tropper and Timm Starl In cooperation with the GrazMuseum
EXHIBITION
“Format Postkarte. Illustrierte Korrespondenzen 1900–1930” 22 October 2014– 23 January 2015 Photoinstitut Bonartes Seilerstätte 22 1010 Vienna T +43 1 23 60 293 E photoinstitut@bonartes.org www.bonartes.org Opening hours during VIENNA ART WEEK: Wed.–Fri. 12:00 noon–6:00 p.m. or by appointment
Following exhibitions in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade and other cities, the project “Aftermath. Changing Cultural Realities” is now on show in Vienna. The artists, all of whom come from former Yugoslavia and are regarded as leading protagonists of the contemporary photography scene, have been active since the breakup of the federation in 1991. “Aftermath” is a metaphor for the consequences of the turmoil and its influences both on the physical environment and the social coherence in the Balkans. The project was conceived as a regional study and served as a curatorial platform. For further information, visit: http://aftermathsee.wordpress.com
PANEL DISCUSSION
“Changing Cultural Landscape” Wednesday, 19 November 2014 4:00 p.m. In English
Panelists: Miha Colner, curator; Dejan Sluga, curator; Sandra Vitaljic´, Zagreb Photon Gallery Absberggasse 27/9/10 1100 Vienna T +43 1 954 35 88 E info@photongallery.at www.photongallery.at Opening hours: Wed.–Sun. 12:00 noon–6:00 p.m.
In German
Artists in past centuries were known to put a cloud wherever they needed to show a place located between reality and transcendence. “Cloud of Plates” is based on a sculptural concept: the idea of a 21st-century artistic intervention in the entryway to Vienna’s Augarten Park, which was built by architect Isidore Canevale in 1775. Markus Hofer’s “cloud” of oversized plates transforms everyday objects into a work of art. At the same time, the Augarten sculpture is both a reference to and an artistic interpretation of the Augarten Porcelain Manufactory’s production. “Sculpturally depicting clouds is a big challenge for me as a sculptor, since clouds are always moving and change their shape constantly,” says Markus Hofer. Together with curator Claudia Lehner-Jobst and museum director Marina YolbulurNissim, the artist will present models and plans from the project at the Porcelain Museum at Augarten as part of VIENNA ART WEEK. Porcelain Museum at Augarten Palais Augarten Obere Augartenstrasse 1 1020 Vienna T +43 1 211 24 200 F +43 1 211 24 199 E museum@augarten.at www.augarten.at Opening hours: Mon.–Sat. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Special Projects
© Konrad Friedel, Schalentier No.17
© Lenikus Collection
© Song Song
© Katarina Matiasek, Mock Rock, 2014
harald bichler_rauminhalt
LENIKUS COLLECTION
Song Song
Stable Gallery im Palais Brambilla
GUIDED TOUR
GUIDED TOUR
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
Aperitif and tour of the exhibition “Schalentiere” with Konrad Friedel
Director Angela E. Akbari gives a tour of the LENIKUS COLLECTION’s annual exhibition
“Hillebrand van Kampen. Dutch Interiors”
Katarina Matiasek, “Mock Rock”
21 November 2014– 8 January 2015 Opening: Thursday, 20 November, 7:00 p.m.
20 November 2014– 25 January 2015 Opening: Wednesday, 19 November 2014, 7:00 p.m.
Song Song is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Hillebrand van Kampen (b. 1945). For his second exhibition at Song Song, van Kampen presents paintings of rustic interiors. The paintings are made on embroideries that the artist collects from flea markets across Holland and B elgium. The embroidery functions as the painting’s ground, and it structures the image. The paint, by turns, articulates or erases the embroidered forms: the viewer looks in on a conversation between the painter and a modest little corner of history.
Katarina Matiasek’s “Mock Rock” focuses on the rampant use of a design element that few of us would even notice. Combing such diverse environments as zoos, museums, churches, theaters, department stores, spas and climbing gardens, the artist traces the artificially-simulated rock formations used to create the look and feel of nature. References pointing to the various social contexts behind these obsessive rock stagings are always at the edge of the image, so that the works become picture puzzles asking us to hunt for clues – clues about our relationship to increasingly synthetic environments, but also the real conditions of their construction and the world that they are replacing. “Mock Rock” also draws a connection between this relentless theatrical staging and the photographic medium’s own illusionistic formations. Presented together in an installation, photographs of the nature-simulating rock structures convene to form a comprehensive, monolithic exhibition element.
Friday, 21 November 2014 6:30 p.m. In German
Tuesday, 18 November 2014 5:00 p.m. STUDIOS
EXHIBITION
In German
Konrad Friedel, “Schalentiere”
Martin Lenikus has been collecting for 25 years. The result is a collection containing over 450 works from young, emerging Austrian and international artists. Since its inception, over 100 artists from Austria and beyond have been given access to studios as part of the LENIKUS COLLECTION’s artist-inresidence program, and the close collaboration and exchange it facilitated has contributed greatly to the LENIKUS COLLECTION in its current form. The annual exhibition presents selected works from the LENIKUS COLLECTION to the public. Director Angela E. Akbari, who curated the show, will be giving a tour of the exhibition in the STUDIOS.
13–29 November 2014 Konrad Friedel’s lighting objects are the result of compositional experiments with steel ball elements. To create his spherical and animal-like “Schalentiere” (shellfish), the young artist combines individual elements by hand and with great precision into original forms that cross the boundaries of art and design. Located in the heart of the “Freihausviertel” gallery scene, harald bichler_rauminhalt displays rare designs by renowned Austrian and international designers of the 20th century, including Roland Rainer, Lilly Reich, Poul Kjærholm, Arne Jacobsen, Pierre Jeanneret and Serge Mouille. In 2013 the gallery launched a collaboration with young designers to develop contemporary objects under the title “edition_rauminhalt.” The resulting design items are shown in regular exhibitions and throw up ways in which the idea of art could be expanded. harald bichler_rauminhalt Schleifmühlgasse 13 1040 Vienna M +43 650 409 98 92 E design@rauminhalt.com www.rauminhalt.com Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 12:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat. 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
EXHIBITION
Annual exhibition of the LENIKUS COLLECTION in the STUDIOS 30 September– 23 November 2014 STUDIOS of the LENIKUS COLLECTION Passage Bauernmarkt 9 / Wildpretmarkt 6 1010 Vienna T +43 1 516 31 0 F + 43 1 516 31 190 E sammlung@sammlunglenikus.at www.sammlunglenikus.at Opening hours: Wed.–Fri. 3:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m., or by appointment: E sammlung@sammlunglenikus.at
Song Song Praterstrasse 11–13 1020 Vienna T +43 1 532 28 58 E info@song.at www.song.at Opening hours: Mon. 1:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Tue.–Fri. 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat. 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Kerstin Engholm Galerie PReSENTATION
Catalog presentation Eva Grubinger – Café Nihilismus Saturday, 22 November 2014 3:00 p.m. Kerstin Engholm Galerie Schleifmühlgasse 3 1040 Vienna T +43 1 585 7337 F +43 1 585 7337 10 E office@kerstinengholm.com www.kerstinengholm.com
Stable Gallery im Palais Brambilla Dr. Markus Swittalek Franz Josefs-Kai 43 1010 Vienna T +43 1 533 97 16 F +43 1 533 97 16 20 E office@moment-home.com www.moment-home.com Opening hours: Arrange appointment for viewing
Opening hours: Tue.-Fri. 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Sat. 12:00 noon–4:00 p.m.
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Special Projects © Kurt Bayer
© Patrick Baumüller, untitled
Station Rose
Galerie Michaela Stock
© Hermann Nitsch, 60th Painting Action, Mike Weiss Gallery New York 2011 Photo: Brooke Eastbur
Gerald Straub
Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman
INSTALLATION | JOUR FIXE
GUIDED TOUR
CONVERSATION
ACTION
Electric Minds
Artist-guided tour through the exhibition “HARDIFIX,” followed by dinner at the restaurant Da Gino e Maria
“Jubilum Panopticum. About Memorable Events” – Performative round-table talk
Hermann Nitsch – 70th Painting Action
Friday, 21 November 2014 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 4:30 p.m. Paradocks
Sunday, 23 November 2014 5:00 p.m. MQ, Electric Avenue After 20 years abroad and projects around the world, visual artist Elisa Rose and composer Gary Danner, the “Pioneers of Digital Culture,” returned to Vienna in 2011. The Station Rose ArtSpace (STR) in the MuseumsQuartier is now the STR's interface of digital and analog art. An obsessive preoccupation with the artists’ own audiovisual work remains in the foreground, but international activities and cooperations have left their mark. In the glass-enclosed Tiny Space, it is mainly about exploring sound and imageries, cross-disciplinary and social opportunities, and digital art. There is “art in progress” in this station of the MQ, located in the center of town and open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. One aim is to materialize procedural performance art, referred to by STR as “New Media Arte Povera / nMAP.” The bunk is characterized by the reduced aesthetic that developed in Frankfurt in response to the economic crisis. Station Rose quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna T + 43 680 553 64 93 E contact@stationrose.com www.stationrose.com Opening hours: Mon.–Sun. 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.
In German and English
In German and English
EXHIBITION
“Patrick Baumüller. HARDIFIX” “For an accurate, climatological reading, the rain gauge must be placed in a suitable location that is representative of the local climate. […] Though simple in principle, the rain gauge is very error-prone in practice.” (transl. of the German Wikipedia entry “Niederschlagsmesser”) The ephemeral nature of news, forecasts and weather forecasts is a significant indicator for the exhibition “HARDIFIX.” Patrick Baumüller sheds light on the frequent errors found in (climate) measurements while addressing basic questions about design and the perception of materials; his search is also focused on finding traces of social and political relationship networks. Baumüller explores how forms of the ephemeral can be turned into a sculptural dialog. For further information, visit: www.galerie-stock.net www.patrickbaumueller.at Galerie Michaela Stock Schleifmühlgasse 18 1040 Vienna T +43 1 920 77 78 M +43 699 1920 77 78 E info@galerie-stock.net www.galerie-stock.net Opening hours: Tue.–Wed. 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Thu.–Fri. 11:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat. 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
What do we commemorate this year, how do we do it and why? 1 year of the highest bid for a work of art? 3 years of South Sudan? 5 years of the nationalization of the Hypo Alpe Adria banking group? 20 years of Schlagernacht? 41 years of the Bahamas? 30 years of Brunei? 60 years of gastarbeiter migrant workers in Austria? 100 years of the Panama and Wiener Neustädter canals? Gerald Straub, applied cultural t heorist and artist, investigates a collage of “memorable events,” analyzing and discussing their im/ possible causes and consequences with invited guest speakers. For details, visit: www.jubilumpanopticum.wordpress.com Paradocks Marxergasse 24 1030 Vienna
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. First, the basis is laid for the Malaktion (Painting Action): the walls and floor of the gallery are covered in large canvases, a selection of paints, color pigments, brushes, sponges and vessels for pouring is prepared. A group of assistants get ready. The “color frenzy” can begin. At the climax of the event on Wednesday, the view through the gallery’s eight windows is truly spectacular. Before the visitors’ eyes, empty canvases turn into works of art. Under the direction of Hermann Nitsch, the assistants stir, pour, paint, splatter, wipe. “In 1959, I came across informal painting (Pollock, Franz Kline, De Kooning, Sam Francis). I realised straight away that these painters wanted the same thing I wanted with my theatre. Nothing but sensually exciting processes were made directly visible here. Nothing was depicted, reproduced anymore. What mattered was the painting process itself, the production process taking place in time.” Hermann Nitsch EXHIBITION
Hermann Nitsch – 70th Painting Action 21 November 2014– February 2015 Opening: Thursday, 20 November 2014, 5:00 p.m.–7:p.m. Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Seilerstätte 7 1010 Vienna T +43 1 512 0840 F +43 1 512 0840 13 E galerie@galeriethoman.com www.galeriethoman.com Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 12:00 noon–6:00 p.m. Sat. 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. or by appointment
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Special Projects
© das weisse haus
© Gillian Wearing
SAMMLUNG VERBUND GUIDED TOUR
Collection director Gabriele Schor gives a tour of the exhibition “my private world”* Wednesday, 19 November 2014 6:00 p.m. In German
Verein der Freunde und Freundinnen der Wiener Kunstschule – Institut für Kunstförderung EXHIBITION
“Unfinished” – guided tour of the school Vienna Art School Opening: Monday, 17 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. Graduates have been documenting the development of their thesis projects in sketchbooks since the beginning of the summer: the chaos of ideas, the emerging order, moments of inspiration and doubt … It takes courage to show what is still unfinished – an important sign of quality in contemporary art.
* Registration is required: T +43 (0) 503 13 50044 or E sammlung@verbund.com
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 7:00 p.m. Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Anatomical Room
“my private world” 30 September 2014 – 28 January 2015 SAMMLUNG VERBUND VERBUND Headquarters Am Hof 6a 1010 Vienna T +43 (0) 503 13 50044 E sammlung@verbund.com www.verbund.com/sammlung Opening hours: Guided art talks every Wednesday, 6:00 p.m.; free of charge, registration is required
AUCTION
Auction to benefit the Vienna Art School Wednesday, 19 November 2014 3:00 p.m. Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Anatomical Room In German
PANEL DISCUSSION
“Unfinished! A Plea for Freedom and Diversity in Training and Education Systems of Art”
In German Verein der Freunde und Freundinnen der Wiener Kunstschule – Institut für Kunstförderung Währinger Strasse 14/7 1090 Vienna T +43 699 181 15 895 E office@institut-kunstfoerderung.at www.institut-kunstfoerderung.at
das weisse haus SALON
EXHIBITION
The exhibition “my private world” brings together 20 artists from three generations who examine the phenomenon of privateness between the intimate and the public. Photography began to focus on private life in the 1960s as an act of revolt against the idealized image of the family sphere in the post-war period. In the 1970s, Peter Hujar and Nan Goldin documented the New York art scene as a world of upheaval. A decade later, Tom Burr examined the significance of space to privateness with his series of public toilets. The youngest generation looks behind the curtain of illusion. Laura Ribero relocates scenes from the daily routine at an upper-class home to a film studio; Iranian photographer Tahmineh Monzavi documents tailors’ workshops in Tehran where wedding dresses are sewn by men, and thereby contrasts a male-dominated world of work with the idealized image of marriage.
EXHIBITION
Austrian Association of Women Artists (VBKÖ)
“Where actually is this Maysedergasse?” 21–23 November 2014 Opening: Thursday, 20 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. The Austrian Association of Women Artists (VBKÖ) has allocated its guest studios to Catharina Bond and Julia Gaisbacher for 2014. With her installations and photographs, Catharina Bond examines social structures, hierarchical systems and traditional values in a witty and critical way. Julia Gaisbacher centers her photographic works on people in private and urban spaces. What marks are left? What changes are visible? When does public space become a stage? As part of their residency in the guest studios provided by the Austrian Association of Women Artists, Bond and Gaisbacher will deal with the history and premises of the VBKÖ. The resulting installations and photographs will be presented during VIENNA ART WEEK. For further information on the artists, visit: http://catharinabond.com www.juliagaisbacher.com Austrian Association of Women Artists (VBKÖ) Maysedergasse 2/28, 4th floor 1010 Vienna M +43 699 170 56 405 E info@vbkoe.org www.vbkoe.org Opening hours during the exhibition: 2:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
“Les Salonnières” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 4:00 p.m. In German
Until the 1920s, literary, musical and philosophical salons were an established part of social and cultural life. Originating in France, the salon – usually hosted by noblewomen, the Salonnières – reached its climax in the 18th century. It was a place where people would meet informally, debate freely, exchange ideas and cultivate young talent. One of the most respected salons of the time, hosted by Madame de Tencin, included Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau among its guests. In the 20th century, Gertrude Stein’s salon in the Rue de Fleurus in Paris was a hub for the literary and artistic avant-garde. In Vienna and New York, salons held by Austrian hostess Alma Mahler-Werfel were attended by Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka among others. das weisse haus will hold its first salon during this year’s VIENNA ART WEEK. Successful women from the cultural sector have been invited with one or two guests each to promote an open exchange between different cultural positions and a critical discourse. Participants: Christiane Krejs, Andrea Löbel et al. das weisse haus Kriehubergasse 24–26, 4th floor 1050 Vienna T +43 1 236 37 75 E buero@dasweissehaus.at www.dasweissehaus.at www.facebook.com/dasweissehaus www.das-weisse-haus.tumblr.com Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 1:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat. 12:00 noon–5:00 p.m.
Vienna Art School Nobilegasse 23 1150 Vienna T +43 676 533 70 27 E wiener@kunstschule.at www.kunstschule.at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Schillerplatz 3 1010 Vienna 103
offspaces
Special Projects
Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF)
© J. J. Kucek
© Gerlinde Thuma, PEGEL, 2012
© JONAS FEFERLE 1.26 m² space, material and form, 2013
ZOOM Children’s Museum
basement
BILDETAGE
WORKSHOP
CONVERSATION
EXHIBITION
“Art for Science”
Art Workshop for children from 6 to 10*
“Jonas Feferle – Orpheus ’14”
Monday, 17 November 2014 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, 22 November 2014 11:00 a.m.
Talk with the artists Maria Hanl, Brigitte Konyen, Klaus Mähring
In German
In German and English
The Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) supports scholarship and research in the life sciences, mathematics, information and communication technologies, cognitive sciences, humanities, social and cultural studies, as well as the university infrastructure in Vienna. WWTF assistance and awards aim to strengthen cuttingedge research; funding is usually given to major scientific projects. Another important institutional focus includes topics related to the interdisciplinary combination of art and the sciences. Recent years have seen a number of clear statements in the area of artistic research, and the “Vienna Impulse Program for the Humanities, Social and Cultural Sciences” (2008–2013) created room for experiments that fall outside of the usual scientific formats. In summer 2014, a young Viennabased artist was commissioned to design the WWTF conference rooms in Schlickgasse. The artworks science and research experts will be seeing at their future meetings will be introduced to the public at a gala presentation event.
“Hands on, minds on, hearts on!” At the ZOOM Studio, children get in touch with art using all senses. They experiment freely to become aware of their own abilities and means of expression and discover their own creative potential. In the Art Studio, directed by the artists Billie Meskens and Stephen Mathewson, children can try out various artistic techniques and materials. Whether they want to paint, think, draw, plan, chat, invent, build or play is entirely up to them. The workshop ends with a real, joint exhibition which all parents and friends are welcome to come and see.
PRESENTATION
Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) Conference Room Schlickgasse 3/1st floor/Top 8 1090 Vienna T +43 1 402 31 43 10 F +43 1 402 31 43 20 E office@wwtf.at www.wwtf.at
* Limited number of participants. Registration is required: T +43 1 524 79 08 ZOOM Kindermuseum MuseumsQuartier Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna T +43 1 524 79 08 F +43 1 524 79 08 1818 E office@kindermuseum.at www.kindermuseum.at
Tuesday, 18 November 2014 7:00 p.m. In German
EXHIBITION
“SALON 69 und Gäste” 15–30 November 2014 2014 marks the tenth anniversary of the autonomous exhibition space of basement. The concept “KO_OP 10 Jahre basement” presents a kind of retrospective reflection on the work of these years. Cooperative projects form a key focus, especially in 2014: exhibitions are being organized as a kind of overview in cooperation with Bulgarian, Munich and Berlin partners, while artists act as curators. The exhibition “SALON 69 und Gäste” not only takes stock of the multifaceted connections and partnerships, but also celebrates the tenth anniversary of the autonomous exhibition space. An impressive show gives evidence of how many Austrian artists have already exhibited their works in the basement program. The works are hung in the Petersburg salon style, an unusual installation strategy for the basement. Works by more than 70 artists serve to show to observers the variety and kind of approach being made towards the exhibition space. Curator: Claudia-Maria Luenig (Austria/Germany) basement Autonomer Ausstellungsraum (Verein Neun Arabesken) Grundsteingasse 8/34–35/2nd courtyard 1160 Vienna M +43 699 192 30 722 E info@basement-wien.at www.basement-wien.at Opening hours: Wed.–Fri. 5:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Sat., Sun. 3:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
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23 November–7 December 2014 Opening: Saturday, 22 November 2014, 6:00 p.m. As part of “Orpheus” Jonas Feferle, whose art focuses on the fields of sculpture and installation, will be presenting his work at BILDETAGE. “ORPHEUS ’14” is the attempt to subvert the current tendency of predetermined art production: since art is produced more and more frequently within the framework of open calls, theme-related funding or group shows, the creative process is either foreseeable or – depending on one’s reputation – missing altogether. This situation often results in the production of innumerable concepts which then find no space, time or money to be realized. In order to challenge these structures, ORPHEUS ’14 has invited three artists including Jonas Feferle to use the BILDETAGE space free of charge as a studio and exhibit their work at the end of their residence. Instead or artistic guidelines, the artists will receive a modest grant. BILDETAGE Association for Contemporary Art Barichgasse 6/1 1030 Vienna M +43 676 356 38 63 E info@bildetage.com www.bildetage.com Opening hours: Thu.–Sat. 5:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
OFFspaces
Alan Cicmak and Mathias Pöschl, Installation views, exhibition VENEER, DI∞G, 2014 © DI∞G
© Karin Maria Pfeifer
DI∞G
flat1
© Constantin Demner
FRIDAY EXIT
Fluc
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
PRESENTATION | CONVERSATION
ART SALON
Alan Cicmak / Mathias Pöschl
“walk a mile in my shoes”
“Fall into Place – Befragung einer kuratorischen Praxis”
“In the Cabinet’s Cubage. A Question of Value”
22–23 November 2014 Opening: Friday, 21 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. In the project DI∞G, Theresa Eipeldauer, Annika Lorenz and Julie Mueller present an exhibition format that is radically restricted to one work per artist and starts a dialog between the artists. Subjective positions are made accessible in a contemporary medium, a blog for example, and are thus archived for the long term. By combining two items every month, twelve artists are presented in a six-month period. This examination is deepened by repeating the exhibition cycle over the following six months. The end product is a publication that offers not just an overview of the artists, but also reflects the various artistic approaches in the context of the dialogs and additional theoretical texts. This November’s artists will be Alan Cicmak, who translates filmic structures into physical space, and Mathias Pöschl, who examines the translation of political symbols into a pop-culture aesthetic. DI∞G Kundmanngasse 13 1030 Vienna M + 43 676 770 35 85 E di8g.it@gmail.com di8g.wordpress.com Opening hours: Sat. and Sun. by appointment: M + 43 676 770 35 85 or di8g.wordpress.com/contact/
19–23 November 2014 Opening: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. The exhibition is part of the annual program organized by Karin M. Pfeifer and Sula Zimmerberger, centered on the topic “System and Order: How the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Can Set Off a Tornado in Texas.” The “butterfly effect” refers to the extreme sensitivity of many complex systems in response to small variations in their initial conditions. The 1998 feature film “Run Lola Run,” for example, shows different alternatives in a relationship story as triggered by small, random changes in the initial phase. Inconspicuous details were enough to change the course of European history: In 1914 Sarajevo Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, landed in his assassin’s line of fire only because his chauffeur had taken a wrong turn. The artistic positions shown here deal with political and media-related systems of order: in an “overmediatized” world, even seemingly trivial things can have unpredictable consequences.
Artist talk
as part of the exhibition “walk a mile in my shoes” Sunday, 23 November 2014 5:00 p.m. flat1 U-Bahn Bogen 6–7 (U6 subway station Gumpendorfer Strasse) 1060 Vienna E flat1@gmx.at www.flat1.at
Friday, 21 November 2014 7:00 p.m. catalog presentation 8:00 p.m. talk with guests In German
FRIDAY EXIT is opening its doors for a catalog presentation and round of talks with experts on contemporary exhibition practice and different concepts of curating. The new catalog gives an overview of various cycles of collective curatorial strategies tried out by FRIDAY EXIT since 2012 in actual exhibitions and events. This retrospective project serves firstly as impetus for rethinking issues that cropped up in the context of collective practice, and secondly as starting point for developing the available options in exhibition organization and for a broadly based discussion on them. FRIDAY EXIT – an open collective of young artists – was initiated in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Guests: Andrea B. Braidt, Cathérine Hug, Andreas Spiegl et al. FRIDAY EXIT is part of xperiment, a cooperation of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and an open collective. FRIDAY EXIT Döblergasse 2 1070 Vienna E fridayexit@akbild.ac.at www.fridayexit.at www.facebook.com/FridayExit
Wednesday, 19 November 2014 9:00 p.m. More than 150 art projects were organized in, at and around the Fluc in the last 12 years. “A cuttingedge Austrian artist collective creates a new kind of civic space,” wrote “Metropolis,” New York. In 1914 Falter Verlag published “FLUC. Tanz die Utopie! Urbaner Aktivismus als gelebtes Experiment in der Wiener Kunst-, Musik- und Clubszene,” a discourse platform on art in times of regional economic policies and urban marketing. As part of the VIENNA ART WEEK an exhibition titled “A Question of Value” (20 November–16 December 2014) is being held in the “Cabinet’s Cubage,” the art salon curated once a month by Ursula Maria Probst and Martin Wagner, with installations and performances by Ulrich Dertschei, Adrienn Kiss, Claudia Märzendorfer, Michail Michailov, Isa Rosenberger, and Duo Wenigerbauer. Isa Rosenberger tackles political upheavals and their social and economic consequences. Michail Michailov deals with different cultural phenomena that influence human behavior and puts a perfectionist society to question. Claudia Märzendorfer appeals to more individual responsibility. Wenigerbauer provoke with anecdotes about their life as artists. Fluc Praterstern 5 1020 Vienna E booking@fluc.at www.fluc.at http://shop.falter.at/liste.php?suchid=2&sucher=fluc
Opening hours during VIENNA ART WEEK: Thu. 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Sat., Sun. 3:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
105
offspaces Jalal Sepehr, Series: Knot, 2011 digital photograh
© Sandro Zanzinger
© Anonymous
Hinterland
mo.ë
k48 – Offensive for Contemporary Perception
CONVERSATION
Artist talk as part of the exhibition “Eyes on Iran” Wednesday, 19 November 2014 7:00 p.m. In English
EXHIBITION
“Eyes on Iran” 5 November 2014– 10 January 2015 Hinterland focuses on contemporary art from Iran. A collaboration with the Silk Road Gallery in Tehran brings Iranian photography to Austria in 2014 for the first time. For “Eyes on Iran,” four Iranian artists have dealt with tales from their country. Jalal Sepehr has chosen to examine the traditional image of his country. His “protagonists” are carpets, which are intrinsic to everyday life: he brings this tradition to mind by pulling it apart and reshaping it to create a new awareness. Shadi Ghadirian shows excerpts from everyday life that only appear “pretty” at first. In her “Miss Butterfly” series she examines the question of transience and beauty. In Persian lyrical poetry, the butterfly represents a beautiful but fleeting moment. Babak Kazemi examines the history of Iran. In his series “Shirin and Farhad” he visualizes the traditional love story and transports it to the present. In his focus on the everyday lives and social conflicts of Iran’s young generation, Tahmineh Monzavi attempts to reveal the “veiled” side of Iranian society. Hinterland Krongasse 20 1050 Vienna T +43 1 581 23 59 E art@hinterland.ag http://art.hinterland.ag
EXHIBITION
“Dimensions Variable” 18–23 November 2014 Opening: “variable dimensions of sound and form – and time” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 7:00 p.m.
Opening hours: 7:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m. on event days 106
“Der finstere Blick (4): Michael Kienzer” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 7:00 p.m. In German
INSTALLATION
mo.ë Thelemangasse 4 1170 Vienna E contact@moe-vienna.org www.moe-vienna.org www.variable.cc
Neuer Kunstverein Wien PERFORMANCES
PROJECTION
In German and English
“Dimensions Variable” is a term mostly used to describe the size of installations that often consist of various media. In science, “dimension” designates the size of a space that accommodates the expansion of all material objects, but, as fundamental structural model, exists only in relation to these. The artistic treatment of space is about exploding its dimensions in order to attain a spatial displacement, or opening of the space, and create spaces that allow scope for thoughts and reflections. All works in the exhibition are united in the attempt to make people aware of this by overstepping boundaries. Only thus can spatial and political dimensions become clear. And only the breaking open of predetermined formats generates the freedom for an idea of the creative work process to emerge. Invited artists: Edward Alderwick, Mirko Bandini, Udo Fon, Peter Fritzenwallner, Liv Fountain, Carola Fuchs, Monsterfrau Lena WickeAengenheyster, Jaysha Obispo (Angular Flux), Maria Pavlova, Gernot Petjak, Sixtus Preiss, Rosi Rehformen, Jeroen van Amelsvoort, et al. Curators: Alexander Felch, Christoph Höschele
Jakob Lena Knebl in cooperation with Markus Hausleitner, The only performances that make it all the way … 2013 Photo: Markus Krottendorfer
“Der finstere Blick (5): Stefano D’Alessio/Martina Menegon/Enrico Zago” Friday, 21 November 2014 7:00 p.m. k48 presents the fourth and fifth part of the performance and installation series “Der finstere Blick” (The Dark View), launched in 2011. The series invites artists to work in a darkroom setting. The non-visual conquering of darkened space enables a more individual, subjective approach to the specially-conceived artworks. A “blind date” with an invisible counterpart. Loss of control as a sensual opportunity? Michael Kienzer, whose works reflect on concepts such as space, time, surface and compression, invites an anonymous panel to a discussion centering on one of the artist’s works. Held in a darkened room, the audience can only guess at the work and panel members discussing it. Stefano D’Alessio/Martina Menegon present staged adaptations related to notions of de-/ reconstruction and translation. “rɒbɔrəs” is an installation developed with Enrico Zago. It uses a reflective, liquid surface as an audiovisual feedback loop that behaves unpredictably as an infinite reflection. Curator: Oliver Hangl k48 – Offensive for Contemporary Perception Kirchengasse 48/Lokal 2 1070 Vienna E k48@olliwood.at www.olliwood.com/k48.html
“Four by Twelve” 18–21 November 2014 12:00 noon on all days www.neuer-kunstverein-wien.at
PANEL DISCUSSION
“Live Performance Revisited” Saturday, 22 November 2014 12:00 noon In English
In its performance series “Four by Twelve,” Neuer Kunstverein will be the first art institution in Vienna to organize and discuss live performances transmitted through livestream video technology. On four days at noon, Bernadette Anzengruber, Carola Dertnig, Ana Hoffner and Jakob Lena Knebl perform online in the Kunstverein. The live-stream stratagem means they can reach a broad-based, global public and still generate direct interaction between performers and recipients. These new options for interaction form a key theme in an exhibition based on this project, which will be rounded off at the end with a discussion at Neuer Kunstverein about the opportunities, challenges and problems. Keynote speaker is Catherine Wood, curator at the Tate Modern in London. Curator: Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein Co-curator: Ilona Braun Neuer Kunstverein Wien Hochhaus, Herrengasse 6–8/floor 14/Top 83 1010 Vienna M +43 664 916 70 16 E office@neuer-kunstverein-wien.at www.neuer-kunstverein-wien.at Opening hours: Tue.–Fri. 5:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
OFFspaces
Lucie Stahl, Press, 2013 Courtesy: Giò Marconi Gallery
Open Systems | quartier21/MQ
© Ernst Logar, 2014
SWDZ
© Thomas Gänszler, Kleid I, 2013
© Karl Salzmann
Ubik Space
wellwellwell
PERFORMANCE | LECTURE
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
PERFORMANCE
Christian Egger, “Apparent Appearance Appeal”
Ernst Logar, “The Defined Space / Non-Public Spaces”
Thomas Gänszler, “The Poetry of Purpose”
Christine Schörkhuber, “tangency” – opening performance of the Klangkunsttage
PANEL DISCUSSION
Berin Gölönü, “Surveillance and self-censorship” Tuesday, 18 November 2014 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. quartier21/MQ, Room D In English
Open Systems publishes a quarterly journal on critical perspectives in art and visual culture, analogous to ARTSLAB, an interdisciplinary online exhibition. The platform is supported by an international advisory board of theorists, cultural producers, curators and artists. In the fall issue of the journal, guest editor Berin Gölönü discusses the question of how models of surveillance and censorship work together to control our actions and curtail freedom of expression in real and virtual, private and public life. In his performance lecture, Christian Egger – ARTSLAB curator of “Gocce di sole nella città degli spettri” – looks at the history and aesthetics of institutional critique. The presentation contains a series of international artworks including video, performance, sculpture and graphic art, with a focus on the area of tension between politics, art and theory. Open Systems – Verein zur Förderung und Vermittlung von Kultur www.openspace-zkp.org quartier21/MQ MuseumsQuartier Wien Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna www.quartier21.at
18–22 November 2014 Opening: Monday, 17 November 2014, 6:30 p.m. In his current work “The Defined Space,” Ernst Logar turns his attention to the ritual and significance of the handshake on social, political and economic levels, noting the space that occurs between the palms of two hands during the hand-shaking ritual. The hand sculptures produced by the artist are subjected to a creative trans formation process and displayed as an installation in the alternative space SWDZ, a former perfumery depot in the Wien-Landstrasse district. “The Defined Space” is then positioned in relation to “Non-Public Spaces,” a work in which the artist interprets the non-public spaces of our global society. SWDZ – So Weit, die Zukunft Gärtnergasse 14 1030 Vienna M +43 660 561 01 65 E projektraum@so-weit-die-zukunft.at www.so-weit-die-zukunft.at Opening hours: Mon.–Sat. 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.
20–30 November 2014 Opening: Wednesday, 19 November 2014, 7:00 p.m. “The topic of how everyday objects can become art was already brought to attention by Marcel Duchamp. But Thomas Gänszler doesn’t work with found objects. Instead, his sculptures only pretend to be basic commodities, imitating the materiality and form of common items. In the same sense as Kant, maybe, who made no distinction between the appearance of a thing and the thing itself. The artist takes the concept of formalism and applies it to the overall conditions of an artistic means of expression. Through his objects, he tries to take into consideration the conditions under which art can become art, at the same time negotiating changes in the assignment of meaning by the observer. Dealing with the blurriness of the medium, and the discussion of the medium as the material per se led to Thomas Gänszler’s spray paintings. Their surface and parameters show elements of both photography and painting. The blurred material is extended to include the medium, which thus ‘represents a hybrid of drawing, photography, and painting,’ states the artist.” Silvie Aigner Ubik Space Linke Wienzeile 72 1060 Vienna M +43 660 40 50 677 E hello@ubikspace.com www.ubikspace.com Opening hours: Thu.–Fri. 5:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Sat. 2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. or call for appointment
Thursday, 20 November 2014 6:00 p.m.
FESTIVAL
Klangkunsttage 20–22 November 2014 The Klangkunsttage, or sound art days, form a nomadic festival that generates temporary spaces for performance practice in order to sound out the transitions and breaks between fine arts, sound as a structure of perception, and music. The three-day festival is held for the second time, in cooperation with wellwellwell. Apart from concerts and performances by local and international sound artists, an exhibition will direct the gaze and ear towards the different processes of sound transformation and how they hint at various concepts of metamorphosis. Lectures and workshops complete the artistic program on discursive and practical levels. They deal with theoretical positions, for example on the relationship between sound art and pop culture, on conceptualism in (new) music, and on other matters, while artists provide an insight into the technical and conceptual backgrounds of analog and digital sound design, instrument building and circuit bending. wellwellwell Mittersteig 2a (on the corner of Grosse Neugasse / Rienösslgasse) 1040 Vienna E office@wellwellwell.at http://wellwellwell.at Opening hours: Fri. 4:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Sat. 12:00 noon–4:00 p.m. or email for an appointment
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Program Overview VIENNA ART WEEK 2014
Mon, 17 Nov 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Guided Tours DOROTHEUM
Previews of the auctions “Modern Art” and “Contemporary Art” 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. Guidance System quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
7:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. Opening Special Project / Kunstraum BERNSTEINER
Exhibition “Julia Bornefeld | SUBLIME” 8:20 p.m. Elevator Pitches quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
“Pecha Kucha Night: Artistic Technology”
“Running Mindmap” 10:30 a.m. Guided Tour Belvedere
Public restoration – progress and status quo 6:00 p.m. Anniversary Tour VIENNA ART WEEK
Anniversary tour with artist Gerald Straub. Point of departure: WWTF
Tue, 18 Nov 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Guided Tours DOROTHEUM
Exhibition “White Flag” Presentation Special Project / WWTF
“Art for Science” 6:30 p.m. Conversation Special Project / Jewish Museum Vienna
A conversation with artist Maya Zack about her installation “The Shabbat Room” Workshop Special Project / House of Photography Vienna
Pinhole photo workshop “Motion and Emotion / Bewegung und Gefühl” Opening Alternative Space / SWDZ
Exhibition Ernst Logar, “The Defined Space / Non-Public Spaces” 7:00 p.m. Opening Special Project / FRANZ JOSEFS KAI 3
Exhibition “A Different Order” – Nandita Raman, Kay Walkowiak Opening | Guided Tour Special Project / Verein der Freunde und Freundinnen der Wiener Kunstschule – Institut für Kunstförderung
Exhibition “Unfinished” – uided tour of the school
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Panel Discussion Wien Museum
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “I AM ME. Mira Lobe and Susi Weigel”
“Ah, wie süß!” – children’s book illustration in a globalized visual world
Guided Tour Special Project / LENIKUS COLLECTION
Opening Zürcher Kantonalbank Österreich AG
Director Angela E. Akbari gives a tour of the LENIKUS COLLECTION’s annual exhibition Opening Galerie Steinek
Exhibition Gudrun Kampl Event Galerie V&V
Previews of the auctions “Modern Art” and “Contemporary Art”
Campaign for applied art “Ringkleider mit Aussicht. Frau trifft auf Herr Kleid. dieHolasek/ derEnenhofer”
10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.
5:30 p.m.
Guidance System quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
“Running Mindmap” Opening Special Project / Lust Gallery
Guided Tour Wien Museum
12:00 noon Performance Alternative Space / Neuer Kunstverein Wien
“Four by Twelve” 3:00 p.m. Guided Tour Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
Guided Tour of the special exhibition “Coaching the Congress Along. Rent-a-Carriages, Pleasure Cruises and Luxury Outfits at the Congress of Vienna 1814/15” 4:00 p.m. Guided Tour Belvedere
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “Looking at Monet – Austrian Artists and the Work of Claude Monet” Presentation Special Project / Porcelain Museum at Augarten
“Cloud of Plates” at Augarten Salon Special Project / das weisse haus
“Les Salonnières” 5:00 p.m. Guided Tour Belvedere
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “Hagenbund – A European Network of Modernism (1900 to 1938)”
Opening of the “8th Young Art Lounge” 7:00 p.m. Lecture Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation
Céline Condorelli, “To supply with the moveable parts of necessity and delight” Concert mumok
Phantom Ghost Conversation Sigmund Freud Museum
Anniversary Tour VIENNA ART WEEK
“Memory versus Utopia”
Anniversary tour with artist Gerald Straub. Point of departure: das weisse haus
Opening Special Project / Galerie Krinzinger
6:00 p.m. Panel Discussion Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
“Searching for Blue in the European Union Flag” GUIDED TOUR KUNST HAUS WIEN
“Lillian Bassman's Fashion Photography,” with curator Brigitte Woischnik and Frans Ankoné Opening Special Project / Kabiljo Inc.
Dejana Kabiljo, FENCES 6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. Panel Discussion BAWAG P.S.K.
“Kunst und Katastrophe” 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Performance | Lecture | Panel Discussion Alternative Space / Open Systems & quartier21/MQ
Christian Egger, “Apparent Appearance Appeal” Berin Gölönü, “Surveillance and self-censorship” 6:30 p.m. Guided Tour MAK
“MAK DESIGN LAB: Art & Design”
Exhibition Thomas Zipp Opening Special Project / Marcello Farabegoli Projects
Exhibition “Takashi Ohno. No more Fukushimas” Opening Special Project / Atelierraum N.E.U.
Exhibition “NO-GO” Conversation Alternative Space / basement
Conversation with the artists Maria Hanl, Brigitte Konyen, Klaus Mähring Projection Alternative Space / k48 – Offensive for Contemporary Perception
“Der finstere Blick (4): Michael Kienzer” Opening Alternative Space / mo.ë
Exhibition “Dimensions Variable” Opening Alternative Space / flat1
Exhibition “walk a mile in my shoes” Opening Galerie Heike Curtze und Petra Seiser
Exhibition Erich Gruber, “Schwerkraftkammer”
Opening Galerie Martin Janda
Exhibition Jakob Kolding
4:30 p.m. Guided Tour 21er Haus
Exhibition Gerold Miller
Peter Weibel and curator Alfred Weidinger give a tour of the exhibition “Peter Weibel. Retrospective 1964–2014”
Opening Galerie Meyer Kainer
Anniversary Tour VIENNA ART WEEK
Exhibition Verena Dengler
Anniversary tour with artist Gerald Straub. Point of departure: Paradocks
Opening Krobath
Opening Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder
Exhibition Manfred Pernice 8:00 p.m. Performance MAK
“MAK NITE Lab: Michael Riedel”
5:00 p.m. Conversation Special Project / Gerald Straub
Performative round-table talk “Jubilum Panopticum. About Memorable Events” 5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
Wed, 19 Nov 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Guided Tours DOROTHEUM
Previews of the auctions “Modern Art” and “Contemporary Art” 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. Guidance System quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
“Running Mindmap” 12:00 noon Performances Alternative Space / Neuer Kunstverein Wien
“Four by Twelve” 3:00 p.m.
Painting Action Special Project / Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman
Hermann Nitsch – 70th Painting Action 5:30 p.m. Guided Tour University of Applied Arts Vienna
Guided tour of the exhibition “Pretty Raw” with Gabriele Rothemann 6:00 p.m. Panel Discussion 21er Haus
“How to work with local art production in a globalized context” Guided Tour Special Project / SAMMLUNG VERBUND
Auction Special Project / Verein der Freunde und Freundinnen der Wiener Kunstschule – Institut für Kunstförderung
Collection director Gabriele Schor gives a tour of the exhibition “my private world”
Auction to benefit the Vienna Art School
Guided Tour | Conversation Special Project / bäckerstrasse4
4:00 p.m. Guided Tour Leopold Museum
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “Alberto Giacometti. Modernist Pioneer” Panel Discussion Special Project / Photon Gallery
“Changing Cultural Landscape” Guided Tour Special Project / Eyes On – Month of Photography Vienna
Managing director Thomas Licek gives a tour of selected exhibitions in the Brotfabrik
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “Specters of the West and Photographic Figments” After the tour: conversation with the artists Biddy Tran and Borjana Ventzislavova Opening Galerie Slavik
Exhibition “Winter Journey” 7:00 p.m. Screening | Conversation Architekturzentrum Wien
“The Competition”
Opening Special Project / IM ERSTEN
Exhibition “Daniel Hafner: angels and demons at play” Opening Special Project / pendantpendant
Exhibition “System prostheses (or our Self-projects)” Guided Tour Special Project / Photoinstitut Bonartes
Curator Monika Faber gives a tour of the exhibition “Format Postkarte” Opening Special Project / Stable Gallery im Palais Brambilla
Exhibition “Katarina Matiasek. Mock Rock” Panel Discussion Special Project / Verein der Freunde und Freundinnen der Wiener Kunstschule – Institut für Kunstförderung
“Unfinished! A Plea for Freedom and Diversity in Training and Education Systems of Art” Conversation Alternative Space / Hinterland
Artist talk as part of the exhibition “Eyes on Iran” Opening Alternative Space / Ubik Space
Exhibition Thomas Gänszler, “The Poetry of Purpose” Opening Knoll Galerie Wien
Exhibition András J. Nagy, photographs 7:30 p.m. Opening 21er Haus
Exhibition “Krüger&Pardeller. Staging Production” 9:00 p.m. Art Salon Alternative Space / Fluc
“In the Cabinet's Cubage. A Question of Value”
Thu, 20 Nov 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Guided Tours DOROTHEUM
Previews of the auctions “Modern Art” and “Contemporary Art”
10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. Guidance System quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
“Running Mindmap” 12:00 noon Performance Alternative Space / Neuer Kunstverein Wien
“Four by Twelve” 2:30 p.m. Guided Tour Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “Martin van Meytens the Younger” 4:00 p.m. Guided Tour Leopold Museum
Museological director Franz Smola gives a tour of the Leopold Collection’s highlights 5:00 p.m. Anniversary Tour VIENNA ART WEEK
Anniversary tour with artist Gerald Straub. Point of departure: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Exhibition Talk MAK
“APPLIED ARTS. NOW – Valentin Ruhry” Guided Gallery Tour The Galleries
Guided Tour with curator Hemma Schmutz. Meeting point: Galerie Martin Janda 5:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Opening Special Project / Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman
Exhibition Hermann Nitsch – 70th Painting Action 6:00 p.m. PANEL DISCUSSION VIENNA ART WEEK
“Curators’ Vision. Five international curators in dialog” Guided Tour Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
Sylvia Ferino, director of the Picture Gallery, gives a tour of the special exhibition “Velázquez” Guided Tour Künstlerhaus
Curator-guided tour through the exhibition “at least 25 moments per second” 109
Program Overview VIENNA ART WEEK 2014
Performance Alternative Space / wellwellwell
Christine Schörkhuber, “tangency” 6:30 p.m. Panel Discussion DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS attorneys
“Collectors and Their Influence on the Art Market” 7:00 p.m. Guided Tour Künstlerhaus
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “Experiment Analog” Conversation mumok
“Pins and Needles” – a conversation with artist Jenni Tischer as part of the exhibition “Pin” Opening Secession
Exhibitions Chto Delat? / Renata Lucas / Peter Bartoš
Party Special Project / Kunstraum Niederoesterreich
Netparty Opening Gallery Aa collections
Exhibition Anne-Sophie Wass Opening Galerie Mezzanin
Exhibition Mandla Reuter 8:00 p.m. Lecture Künstlerhaus
Lecture by Kurt Zein on the old technique of photogravure Performance Special Project / brut im Künstlerhaus
“OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW”
Fri, 21 Nov 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Opening Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Guided Tours DOROTHEUM
Exhibition “Parallel Traces/ Párhuzamos nyomok. Budapest– Vienna 1914–2014”
Previews of the auctions “Modern Art” and “Contemporary Art”
Opening | Performance Special Project / Medienwerkstatt Wien
Guidance System quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
“DOUBLE”
“Running Mindmap”
Opening Special Project / ELISABETH ZEIGT
Exhibition Alois Moosbacher Opening Special Project / Bernhard Cella
Installation “kunstbuchpanorama” Opening Special Project / Song Song
Exhibition “Hillebrand van Kampen. Dutch Interiors” Opening | Performance Special Project / flux23
Exhibition “insider&outsider art” – performance by Evamaria Schaller Opening Special Project / Austrian Association of Women Artists (VBKÖ)
Exhibition “Where actually is this Maysedergasse?” Opening Special Project / brut im Künstlerhaus
Exhibition “OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW”
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10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.
12:00 noon Performance Alternative Space / Neuer Kunstverein Wien
“Four by Twelve” 1:45 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Studio Visits Architekturzentrum Wien
Visits to selected architecture studios 3:00 p.m. Conversation Essl Museum
Curators’ Talk: “The Future of Painting” Guided Tour quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “PCFS: Post-Colonial Flagship Store” Studio Visits Förderateliers des Bundes – Prater Studios
Guided tour with Joana Pichler and curator Maria Christine Holter
Panel Discussion Essl Museum
Curators’ talk: “The Future of Painting” 3:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Presentation Special Project / flux23
Michael Blank presents knives 4:00 p.m. Lecture | Panel Discussion departure
Anne Elizabeth Moore – “A History of Viennese Men’s Fashion and Its Evolution” Guided Tour Wien Museum
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition '“I AM ME. Mira Lobe and Susi Weigel“ 4:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m. Panel Discussion DOROTHEUM
Young art collectors: strategies, concepts, outlook 4:30 p.m. Guided Tour Essl Museum
Curator-guided tour of the exhibition “The Future of Painting” 5:00 p.m. Guided Gallery Tour The Galleries
Guided tour with curator Anne Faucheret. Meeting point: Charim Events Guided Tour Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Vienna
Guided tour with Markus Hofer 6:00 p.m. Conversation Albertina
Joan Punyet Miró in a conversation with Klaus Albrecht Schröder, director of the Albertina Conversation Secession
Chto Delat? in a conversation with Gerald Raunig, philosopher and art theorist Guided Tour Special Project / Galerie Michaela Stock
Artist-guided tour of the exhibition “HARDIFIX”
6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. Panel Discussion DOROTHEUM
Visions for Vienna as an art location. Perspectives and chances 6:30 p.m. Guided Tour Special Project / harald bichler_rauminhalt
Tour of the exhibition “Schalentiere” with Konrad Fiedel 7:00 p.m. Anniversary Tour VIENNA ART WEEK
Anniversary tour with artist Gerald Straub. Point of departure: k48 Dance Performance Special Project / pendantpendant
Kollektiv Sisyphos Performance Special Project / Kunsthalle Exnergasse
As part of the exhibition “With Small Words” Opening Alternative Space / DI∞G
Exhibition Alan Cicmak / Mathias Pöschl Presentation | Conversation Alternative Space / Friday Exit
“Fall into Place – Befragung einer kuratorischen Praxis” Installation Alternative Space / k48 – Offensive for Contemporary Perception
“Der finstere Blick (5): Stefano D’Alessio/Martina Menegon/ Enrico Zago” 8:00 p.m. Performance Special Project / brut im Künstlerhaus
“OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW” 8:30 p.m. Conversation Austrian Film Museum
“Starry Night: Markopoulos and the Temenos”
Sat, 22 Nov Open Studio Day 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Guided Tours DOROTHEUM
Previews of the auctions “Modern Art” and “Contemporary Art”
10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Matinee Special Project / Nitsch Foundation
Breakfast matinée with Hermann Nitsch as part of the exhibition “Action Painting on Paper” 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. Guidance System quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
“Running Mindmap” 11:00 a.m. Guided Gallery Tour The Galleries
Guided tour with curator Georgia Holz. Meeting point: Charim Events Guided Tour Secession
Artist Renata Lucas gives a tour of her exhibition Studio Visits VIENNA ART WEEK
Visit to the studios of Galerie Hilger’s AiR program with cultural journalist Alexandra Matzner Workshop Special Project / ZOOM Children’s Museum
Art workshop for children 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Workshop | Discussion Special Project / flux23
Laura Popplow, “drawing things together. codedesign for public space” 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Guided Tour departure
“VIENNA ART WEEK 2014 – departure tour” 12:00 noon
1:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Open Studio Day & Artist Talks VIENNA ART WEEK
1:00 p.m. Anniversary Tour VIENNA ART WEEK
Anniversary tour with artist Gerald Straub. Point of departure: Studio Tintzl Flunger Studio Visits VIENNA ART WEEK
Visit to the AiR studios of Krinzinger Projekte with cultural journalist Alexandra Matzner Presentation Special Project / EIKON
Portfolio presentation: Orit Ishay 2:00 p.m. Open Studio Day: Open Talk VIENNA ART WEEK
Curator Franz Thalmair in a conversation with Sofie Thorsen Guided Gallery Tour The Galleries
Curator-guided tour; meeting point: Galerie Heike Curtze und Petra Seiser Studio Visits VIENNA ART WEEK
Visit to the AiR studios of quartier 21/MuseumsQuartier with art historian Lucas Cuturi Guided Tour KÖR – Kunst im öffentlichen Raum
“Auf nach Aspern” – art expeditions along the U2 subway line with Erich Bernard and Franziska Leeb 3:00 p.m. Conversation VIENNA ART WEEK & Galerie Krobath
Panel Discussion Alternative Space / Neuer Kunstverein Wien
Curator Ursula Maria Probst in conversation with an art collector
“Live Performance Revisited”
Studio Visits VIENNA ART WEEK
Studio Visits VIENNA ART WEEK
Visit to the AiR studios of das weisse haus with art historian Lucas Cuturi Guided Gallery Tour The Galleries
Guided tour with curator Petra Noll. Meeting point: Galerie Raum mit Licht
Visit to the VBKÖ’s AiR studios with cultural journalist Alexandra Matzner Studio Visits BMUKK Federal Studios Wattgasse
Guided tour with curator Maria Christine Holter Guided Tour Special Project / AnzenbergerGallery
Rare, self-published and signed photography books
Conversation Galerie V&V
Artist talk / closing event 3:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Come Together Special Project / flux23
Portrait meeting 4:00 p.m. Open Studio Day: Open Talk VIENNA ART WEEK
Curator Mario Codognato in a conversation with Lena Lapschina Studio Visits VIENNA ART WEEK
Visit to the AiR studios of the LENIKUS COLLECTION with art historian Lucas Cuturi Presentation Special Project / Galerie Hilger NEXT
Catalog presentation Oliver Dorfer 5:00 p.m. Studio Visits VIENNA ART WEEK
Visit to the AiR studios of Kunst halle Exnergasse with cultural journalist Alexandra Matzner Studio Visits BMUKK Federal Studios Westbahnstrasse
Guided tour with curator Maria Christine Holter Opening Special Project / Kro Art Contemporary
Exhibition “Let’s Go – The Big Vacation Boom” 6:00 p.m. Open Studio Day: Open Talk VIENNA ART WEEK
Curator Daniela Zyman in a conversation with John Gerrard Opening Alternative Space / BILDETAGE
Exhibition “Jonas Feferle – Orpheus ’14” 7:00 p.m. Sound Performance Special Project / pendantpendant
Sound environment as installation 7:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. Opening quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
“Jesus Christ Super Sale II” 8:00 p.m. Performance Special Project / brut im Künstlerhaus
8:30 p.m. Screening | Conversation Austrian Film Museum
“Kinder. Wie die Zeit vergeht” After the screening: What is the present? Thomas Heise in a conversation with Constantin Wulff time: www.franzjosefskai3.com Lecture Special Project / FRANZ JOSEFS KAI 3
Lecture by philosopher Arno Böhler
Sun, 23 Nov 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. Guidance System quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien
“Running Mindmap” 10:30 a.m. Food Performance Special Project / pendantpendant
Tabling 11:00 a.m. Guided Tour MAK
“MAK DESIGN SALON #03 – Robert Stadler. Back in 5 min” 2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. Guided Tours DOROTHEUM
Previews of the auctions “Modern Art” and “Contemporary Art” 2:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Come Together Special Project / flux23
Art and kids 5:00 p.m. Installation | Jour Fixe Special Project / Station Rose
Electric Minds Artist Talk Alternative Space / flat1
As part of the exhibition “walk a mile in my shoes” Game Night quartier21/MuseumsQuartier Wien & eSeL REZEPTION
“Art & Games feat. Jörg Piringer” 6:00 p.m. Performance | Lecture Alternative Space / Open Systems
Christian Egger, “Apparent Appearance Appeal”
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