The curators of the Architekturzentrum Wien, Sonja Pisarik and Ute Waditschatka, make an expedition through the world of post-war architecture in Austria. A retrospective covering 20 years of the projects of the “arbeitsgruppe 4“.

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”We never wanted to overthrow tradition, but rather build on it”. In retrospect, when Wilhelm Holzbauer emphasizes the idea of building on tradition as a central aspect of arbeitsgruppe 4, one becomes aware of the timeframe and circumstances of their development. The post-war period, characterized by financial hardship and the reconstruction of the country, more »

The fact that we carefully inspect the food that we consume is potentially relevant to culture. A civilized person does not simply eat, she dines, provided that she can give significance to the appearance of what she consumes. A meal is prepared in such a way that the colors are preserved: it is decorated and then covered up, then the lid comes off, and voila!—it is presented and celebrated. A sensual feast for the eyes either increasingly whets our appetite, or, especially if the display appears too alive, or too obviously dead, invokes a sudden sense of nausea.

A meal that is visually prepared not only informs us of the quality of the food. This view is also far more accessible on a symbolic level than it would be, for example, through our noses or palates. Our view readily contributes something, it directs our attention to something, it attributes a quality to the food that it previously did not possess. When the food is prepared in a way that makes it visually enticing, then it is also likely that something additional to the food is being served, or brought in front of our eyes to see. Lamb, rabbit, wine, salt, bread: these subjects are obviously not only about meals and consumption. The accessibility of the view to symbolic and narrative aspects of, and not only just to, the object, is also reflected in artistic representations of food, especially in the form of still lifes.

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A pheasant on a small wood inlay table next to a lobster, surrounded by silver bowls full of fresh citrus fruits: potentially edible items are shown here, but it’s probably more about the representation of wealth. For a long time, the representation of edible items was embedded into a religious context and its iconography. As a result, the apple was not only thought of as being a russet, Grafensteiner, or Granny Smith, it also served as a reminder of temptation and its consequences for humanity.

Beautifully presented food arouses the desire to just reach out and grab it: these foods represent wealth, indulgence, and exclusivity—qualities which can also be found in the baroque vanitas still life. But that which looks fresh and fruity at first glance appears old, shriveled, and close to death and decay upon the second view. In the vanitas still life, those who indulge in this feast for the eyes are served their existential just desserts in the end. The ripe fruits are already at the peak of their beauty, but from this point on, they can only go downhill. Distrust of desire, which is fleeting and enticing, comes into the picture – a meal that is served as a reminder of perishability and death.

The representation of food in art does not always have a narrative. The concentration of the still life artists on that which formerly only served as decoration provided them the freedom in other representations to work on an emerging visual language, independent of symbolic statements and narratives. Onions on a sideboard, or a bunch of asparagus - the less meaning the object possessed, the less the artist and art had to serve as ambassadors for matters which had nothing to with painting.

In the presentation of food, the refusal of the artist to be mistreated as ambassadors of something which lies beyond art has been noted. However, the represented meal is more often an indication of the themes of the respective time: its religious messages, its morals, its inequalities. The meal that is presented artistically for the eye is a warning against imprudent assimilation, against thoughtless imbibing. Instead, it demands thoughtfulness and clearly expresses, or hides a criticism of, gender relations, the pursuit of wealth, a bias towards beauty.

Visual treats to be devoured with the eyes: such is the theme of the exhibition called “Augenschmaus: A Feast for the Eyes – Food in Still Life” at Bank Austria Kunstforum. On display are principal works from the representation of food from the sixteenth century to the present, works ranging from Arcimboldo, Aertsen, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Picasso, Braque, to Hirst, Lassnig, and others, gathered from over sixty lenders. The exhibition will run from February 10th to May 30th. In this episode, the expert commentary on Augenschmaus is provided by Heike Eipeldauer, the curator of the exhibition, as well as Christian Petz, one of the best and most awarded chefs in Austria.

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Esra Ersen is interested in the formation of identity and its transformation in different contexts or power structures. Her work “Carousel” shown in the exhibition tanzimat (Augarten Contemporary 21.1.2010 - 16.5.2010) was produced with high school students from Cologne. Ersen asked the students to model Turkish heads out of clay.

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Gulsun Karamustafa is a contemporary artist and film maker from Turkey. In 2009 she was the artist in residence at the Augarten Contemporary in Vienna. For the exhibition tanzimat (Augarten Contemporary 21.1.2010 - 16.5.2010) she produced a new piece entitled “modernity unveiled/interweaving histories”. In the interview with CYA Karamustafa talks about this piece.

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Franz Kapfer is an artist from Austria. His interest lies in patterns of representation.
In his work “Trophies” in exhibition tanzimat (Augarten Contemporary 21.1.2010 - 16.5.2010) he examines cliché representations of Turkish motives in Austrian architecture.

It is an interesting fact that the fez, the iconic Turkish hat that was originally instituted as a “modernizing” symbol for the Ottoman Empire in 1826, was later banned in Turkey in 1925, also as part of a “modernizing” reform. It is also interesting to note that after the invention of synthetic dyes, the main manufacturer of the fez—which up until that point had been colored with native berry juice—was located in Austria, that is, until it was boycotted by Turkey in 1908, as part of yet another reaction to modernization. The “history” of this simple, cliché-ridden object demonstrates the complexity of historical constructs not only of the Ottoman Empire, but within the grand narrative of modernity overall.

As shown through this minor but telling symbolic object, history is not a clear-cut dichotomy of oppositions between “East and West”, the oppressed and emancipated, “natives” and “outsiders”, or “modernized” and “un-modernized”. Instead, history is a series of intersections, clashes, meetings, and interruptions between elements coming from many different directions, a condition that requires us to always keep in mind the agenda, the perspective, the position of every historical narrative. In German, the same word, “Geschichte”, is used for two separate English terms, “story” and “history”—yet another indication that the “story”, the constructed, fictional element, can never be taken out of the “history”.

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In the exhibition, tanzimat, at the Augarten Contemporary, the conflicted symbol of the fez appears in the work, Carousel, by the Turkish artist, Esra Ersen, for which she recruited students at a high school in Cologne (from various backgrounds, including Turkish) to create clay models of Turkish heads, and the work, In the Eyes of a Mute, by the Romanian artist, Viktor Man, which juxtaposes a comic-like drawing of Turks he drew as a child against conceptual pieces addressing the same period in history. We also find these fez-donning depictions of Turks in the work, Trophies, by the Austrian artists, Franz Kapfer, which in this case, are not children’s portrayals, but rather reproductions of trophies that are still displayed in the Spanish Riding School today.

The exhibition, tanzimat, is named for a period of reformation in the Ottoman Empire which occurred from 1839 to 1876, and was notable for its various efforts towards modernization, which included the enhancement of civil liberties and the establishment of technological, financial, and social reforms. The term is not capitalized for the title of the exhibition—as opposed to the term for the historical period—an indication that the original meaning of the word, “arrangement” or “rearrangement”, is even more significant to the exhibition than the historical period. Artists from various Middle European backgrounds, Turkish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Greek, and Austrian, were invited to challenge and confront this process of rearrangement within their own histories. Developed in parallel to the major Prince Eugen of Savoy exhibition at the Lower Belvedere, tanzimat examines the continual reorganization of historical constructs and devices that underscore the neverending project of modernity. (jn)

Since the beginning of 2008, Open Space, the Center for Art Projects, has been in full swing in the Vienna art world with its ambitious program. Open Space’s repertoire of exploring artistic variety and multilayeredness corresponds to its self-conception as an open space for international networking. Under the direction of Gulsen Bal, Open Space has realised a marathon of exhibitions with a density of international participation that is unusual for Vienna.

Last year the art space opened in Lassingleithnerplatz in Taborstreet with an exhibition curated by the Vienna-based artist, Fatih Aydogdu. Aydogdu, who artistically feels at home somewhere between the categories of installation, video, graphic art, and music, and who also had boundary experiences in his life as a geopolitically sensitized migrant, made the boundary signal the conceptual starting point of his interdiscplinary exhibition.

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Ten artists and artist collectives followed the request of the theme of the boundary signal. CastYourArt visited the exhibition at Open Space recording sounds as fields of experimentation and boundary signals beyond the act of speaking and music, as well as artistic positionings emerging from historically political moments in relation to current events. (wh/jn)

Faced with the challenge of representing a recently merged corporate collection comprised of over 60,000 works, curator Walter Guadagnini went back to the basic questions concerning art: Why is art important? What role does it play in society? How does it relate to our everyday life? As the art community becomes ever more global, how can we encompass the vastly diverse range of art that is presented to us?

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The exhibition, “PastPresentFuture”, at the Bank Austria Kunstforum, is an introduction to the UniCredit Group art collection, which now includes the combined collections of all the individual banks that have merged into UniCredit, including UniCredit in Italy, HypoVereinsbank in Germany, and Bank Austria, thereby making it one of the most valuable corporate collections in Europe.

Such a massive task might invite opportunities for grandstanding pricey acquisitions, or showing off pieces from well-known names. However, this exhibition chooses instead to cast a dynamic, multilayered glance at the past, present, and future, and takes advantage of a voluminous, eclectic collection by featuring pieces which create dialogues, reveal unexpected parallels, and take us back to the way art relates to everyday life, its original and fundamental raison d’etre.

Instead of taking a chronological approach, the exhibition is divided into sections that juxtapose pieces from diverse periods into various thematic groups. In representing a collection that encompasses so many periods, genres, mediums, countries, and artists, it is striking how it is the subjects which are covered that bring all these works to a mutual level. Faces, landscapes, objects: whether they are depicted in a 17th century Italian Baroque painting or a 20th century British found-art installation, these pieces still speak to each other as well as to us.

Whether we are looking at the past through the present or from the present toward the future, “every work of art in the moment it is created is contemporary”, says Guadagnini, and by demonstrating how common threads exist between ancient and contemporary works, this collection shows us how the universal and enduring concerns of society, are, and will always be reflected in great and true art. (jn)

The exhibition “PastPresentFuture - Highlights of the UniCredit Group Collection” are on display at the Bank Austria Kunsforum until January 10th, 2010.

In Canada, private funding for the arts has become more important. This is not because there are many wealthy people with philanthropic ambitions in the art sector, but because in Canada, as in other countries, the government has cut down significantly on art funding. An aging but very expensive infrastructure on the one hand, and changing concepts of art and a growing artistic population on the other hand, are circumstances that are putting more strain on public resources. In this context, the private sector plays an important but almost invisible role in the promotion of art in Canada. This circle of art patrons is limited to approximately five to ten financially secure backers.



The DHC Foundation for Contemporary Art is located in the port city quarter of old Montreal, where it operates its own art space. It was founded in 2007 by Phoebe Greenberg, Penny Mancuso, and Tammy Lee. Greenberg is considered to be DHC’s driving force, as well as the financial backer of the foundation. As artist and entrpreneur, she has experience in the field of endowment and as a film producer, as well as possessing the necessary persistence for realizing the foundation. Fifteen years of conviction, planning, and implementation went by until the first exhibition could open.



Audio interview with John Zeppetelli, curotor at the DHC/ART

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Audio interview with John Zeppetelli, curotor at the DHC/ART

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In the meantime, the foundation took on its role in the promotion of contemporary art through exhibitions, education programs, artist discussions, art film presentations, and special projects. The activities of the foundation are no longer limitied to its own premises, the promotion of presentations of works of art in large international art shows is also part of its agenda.
 
Bringing internationally well-known names to Montreal is one of the tasks of foundation. Christian Marclay, Sophie Calle, and Marc Quinn were all featured in solo exhibitions with comprehensive sets of works. This approach to content is a requirement of  the private funding: the possibilities of the art commissions are supplemented by private funds. It therefore became apparent what was lacking, according to the curator John Zeppetelli, especially in terms of contemporary art.  Those members of the Montreal art audience who could previously afford the luxury of flying to New York can now make a free visit to the DHC, right in the old quarter of their own city. (wh)

a ) animals that belong to the emperor, b) embalmed ones, c) tamed ones, d) suckling pigs, e) sirens, f) fabulous ones, g) stray dogs, h) those that are included in this classification, i) those that tremble as if they were mad, j) innumerable ones, k) those that are drawn with the finest camel hair brush, l) and so on, m) those that have broken the water jug, n) those that resemble flies from a distance.

This unusual taxonomy of the organisms from the animal realm, attributed by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges to a Chinese encyclopedia, was the inspiration for the French philosopher Michel Foucault for a book about the connection between our world of words and that of things.

What about this source had inspired Foucault? What exactly had moved him? In the preface of his book, he mentions that the reading of Borges’s enumeration had made him laugh. “This book first arose out of a passage in Borges, out of the laughter that shattered, as I read the passage, all the familiar landmarks of thought – our thought, the thought that bears the stamp of our age and our geography – breaking up all the ordered surfaces and all the planes with which we are accustomed to tame the wild profusion of existing things and continuing long afterwards to disturb and threaten with collapse our age-old definitions between the Same and the Other.”

The laughter may just have sparked an uproar in the philosopher, one which caused a widespread, deep, uncomfortable feeling: that the terms with which we comprehend and keep the world in check – our system of classification that carefully orders the world – is only one among many, perhaps one that is just as impossible and disconcerting as the one in the Borges text.

Effects closely follow what we sense as wrong: the slapstick, the ridiculous, the ill-fitting, provocation, an apparent representation, the perception-changing, the offensive, and therefore, effects closely follow art. It is a characteristic of art that it confronts us with the unexpected, that it threatens the security of our expectations, of what seems normal to us, of what we are used to.

The exhibition, “Sense and Sentiment: Mistakes are closely followed by effects”, investigates the ability of art to unleash those sensations which push the viewer into uncharted and hitherto unimaginable territory. What is sensation? How can I manufacture it? Where does it take place? For the curators Sabeth Buchmann, Eva Maria Stadler, and Kathi Hofer, these questions are posed to the artists. In addition, from a curatorial standpoint, dealing with the phenomenon of sensation brings up questions such as: How do I notice something? How do I approach a painting? What happens to me in this moment? What is acting upon me?

This exhibition is at the Augarten Contemporary, a branch of the Belvedere in Vienna. On this home base, says Eva Maria Stadler, curator of contemporary art at the Belvedere, the museum is working on presenting young and current artists. One result of this effort is “Sense and Sentiment”, a collaboration of the Belvedere with the Academy of the Fine Arts in Vienna. In the course of a semester, positions of sensations and perceptions were investigated, artistically realized, and selected for the exhibition. Works of the students are on view, placed alongside works from well-known contemporary artists such as Constanze Ruhm, Julian Göthe, Heimo Zobernig, and Tony Conrad, as points of reference. The exhibition will run through May 24, 2009. Guided tours are also available and on the weekend of March 28th and 29th, artists and cultural theoreticians will explore sensations and their effects in lectures, films, and music in an event called “Saturday Sensations”. (wh/jn)