The early works of Oswald Oberhuber, born in Meran in 1931, are classified as informal sculpture. The artist has always felt that it was too limiting to develop himself artistically as the representative of a specific style. In the late 1950s, Oberhuber was already turning against an understanding of art oriented toward styles and pursued a theory and practice of permanent change. As an artist, as a teacher and head at the University of Applied Art in Vienna, and as a director of the Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Oberhuber’s work pursues new directions and breaks conventional notions. In the early 1970s, in an Innsbruck hospital, he produced an abstract sculpture out of industrially manufactured exhaust tubes. The art work—which defied the usual conceptions of art—became a nationwide sensation, but then somehow ended up in the hands of a plumber. An artist protest saved the work of art from being divided up and sold off for individual parts.

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For the Belvedere in Vienna, Oberhuber has created a site-specific installation which includes drawings, paintings, and sculptures that are thematically related to Prince Eugen of Savoy, who was the founder of the Belvedere. Thematic exhibitions suit the artist. The thematic approach accommodates his resolution of permanent change: it not only permits artistic movement, but challenges it as well. more »

Maria Lassnig: “Soft as marmalade, marmalade out of blood I’m batted and feel hindered and left locked out from the world of painting.”

“There was a saying, if a boy is born, parents drink a schnapps, but if it is a girl they would only celebrate with water or even less … nothing”, recollects Maria Lassnig in one of her recently numerous interviews

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Born in 1919 she started to scribble her first artworks at a very young age. Once her mother even seeked the help of a fortune teller because her little girl was holding her hands in such a crooked way while drawing, that she looked like a fool. Although her mother was told to support her daughter, her only thought was to get her married to a decent man to keep her out of harm’s way. more »

The author Josef Kleindienst, based in Vienna, writes “audio pictures”, plays, novels, and screenplays. We present an excerpt of “Become a Member”, to get the full version contact us here.

It is an audio picture of a relationship that is formed between three people due to an unexpected event. The ones involved are paralyzed in a moment of shock and unable to escape the situation. They are trapped in this involuntary gathering and struggle with actions and words to regain their fading composure.

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The speakers are Simona Sbaffi, Andreas Patton, Manfred Stella, and Simon Hatzl. Music by Hüseyin Evirgen. Sound by Johannes Kelz. Illustration by Elsa Mährenbach. Text and direction by Josef Kleindienst.

The little superhero, Superrobbie, who looks like a Playmobil figure, appears together with his other little brothers-in-arms in an image that resembles children’s room wallpaper, strewn in cheerful crayon shades. Surrounded by cute little ducklings, little Superrobbie places himself in a scene of contrasting reality, toting a pistol in his hand. Stretched out before him are his dead teachers, who are embodied in a similar Playmobil form. The dark side of the image reveals itself in its title: “Erfurt”.

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Christian Pölzler create his art under the brand name, Heidi Popovic, which may seem cynical at first, but actually isn’t. Through pop poster images, through decorative wallpaper samples, through advertisements that promise us that “everything is OK”, Pölzler salvages forgotten images and maps a modern political apocalypse. more »

The production of “living pictures” has a tradition. They could already be found in the royal victory processions of antiquity and they appeared again in Catholic masses, as well as in ceremonial processions during the Renaissance and the Baroque eras. By the end of the eighteenth century, the art progressed to unmoving, held poses, which became one with the scenery, and were displayed “on stage”. Originating in France and from that point on coined Tableaux Vivants, these embodiments of historical paintings and sculptures found their way into the drawing rooms of the elite and became part of the main repertoire of the theatre and revue world of the nineteenth century.

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The artist Rita Nowak, based in Vienna and London, is carrying on the tradition of the embodiment of living pictures with her held-pose photography. Drawing from historical paintings, she composes living pictures using fellow artists as models thereby bringing the historical works up-to-date. Rather than creating mere reproductions, she investigates the possibilities of interpretation, thereby developing pictures that visualize the past in the present and modern images that are depicted through the visual language of past centuries. more »

The job description for Marten Spangberg encompasses many terms. He got his start as a dance critic, writes on theory, is active as a performer, dance dramaturge, a curator, and a choreographer, and is considered a stage producer in quite a positive sense. Spangberg has been collaborating with the Swedish architect, Lindstrand Tor, since 2004 under the name International Festival.

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Their collaborative work explores perceptions of concepts related to body and space, and has gained international attention. At the present and in the last year, they have been invited to the European Arts Center in Cologne, the PERFORMA 07 in New York, and the Steirischen Herbst 07. For the festival in Graz, they developed “The Theater”, a multi-faceted enterprise which simultaneously describes a venue for stories, characters, and illusions, the performances that take place there, and the actual spatially-adaptable theater that was constructed from freight containers. more »

Ian Fleming, the inventor of the character James Bond, published a book in 1964 which he dedicated to his son, Caspar. The story is about a poor inventor called Karaktakus Pott, who buys an old vehicle for his twin children, which—with a little imagination and inventive skill—he transforms into a marvelous device that can transport them on magical journeys. As the Pott family thereupon embarks on many adventures, the vehicle earns an onomatopoeic name, inspired by the inventor’s constant vacillation between failure and success: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

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When one asks the young Viennese artist, Leo Peschta, for influences on his artistic work from his childhood, he mentions Karaktakus Pott. Innovation, fascination with technology, the defunct compilation of components originally designed to function, the readiness to fail, joy in the undefined—these elements connect the artist with the character from Fleming’s novel. more »