Gertrud and Dieter Bogner began collecting in the late 1970s, after inheriting Schloss Buchberg, which is located in Kamptal in Lower Austria. The castle was set up over several centuries during the Renaissance with numerous extensions. Those who wander through the many rooms, courts, towers, corridors, and exterior spaces, located on several levels, feel as though they are wandering through a village, or getting lost in an enormous house. The sheer variety and sizes of the spaces raised the question to the new owners of how they could be sensibly utilized. More than thirty years ago, it was decided that the building would be used for contemporary art, at which time Gertraud and Dieter Bogner also began collecting art. This podcast was realised with the kind support of UNIQUA ArtCercles.

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In the meantime, the castle was christened Kunstraum Buchberg, and, in contrast to other art spaces, has been housing permanently integrated, site-specific art since 1983. The arrangement of the collection was geared at first towards the geometrical-constructivist field, but then Monika Brandmaier took it in a more conceptual-associative direction when the collectors realized that each attempt towards an all-encompassing designation of its collection encountered disapproval from the participating artists. more »

Most of his sound installations are not recorded. They would not function on loudspeakers or headphones, says Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag, because his compositions typically use the entire body as an acoustic reception space. It can be good that the sound does not penetrate the through the eardrum, but instead, for example, through the soles of the feet - for those who would stand on their own loudspeakers. Sonntag’s artistic achievements involve interfaces between the human body, technical media systems, and sound-mediated space perceptions. For example, in one project, he plunges a randomly vibrating column into the earth, whose upper edge serves as ground-level manhole. Those who step on the manhole can sense the depth of the earth with their bodies through the oscillations of the manhole, as well as experience space in a different, nonvisual way.

The Architecure of Sound

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The Essence of Electricity

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Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag was born in 1965. He studied trombone under Heinz Fadle at the University of Music Lübeck, then he studied eight different subjects, ranging from art history to philosophy, in Oldenburg. Since then, he has taught at universities in Istanbul, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Oldenburg, and Darmstadt. more »

Sculptures and installations of the artist Thomas Baumann possess the quality of being alive. Usually, they are moving. They de-form, they make noises, they move their observers: emotionally, in terms of their beliefs, through the challenge to participate even physically. Movement, says the artist, is a language of our time. We understand it and feel addressed by it on different levels.

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Thomas Baumann’s produces his work from mechanical, technological, and electronic materials. The units of construction have their own aesthetic, and do not remain hidden behind the façades of design. In this way, the sculptures retain the quality of being mechanically engineered works of art which create the effect of being the siblings of those machines that are used in the production lines of industrial manufacturing. more »

The openness of her parents — to both traditional Islamic positions as well as the value system of the recent secularly oriented republic — was passed on to the children. Their upbringing allowed for independent thinking and provided the incentive to take autonomous positions. Füsun Onur studied with Hadi Bara at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, who broke with the tradition of sculpture in the form of official monuments in the fifties. A five-year postgraduate degree in the USA followed, after which she returned to Istanbul, where she has been continuing her artistic work in Kuzguncuk.

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Füsun Onur has played an important role in the development of modern Turkish art, possessing the power not only to invent her own view of things beyond reality, but also to create the space for such a world. Füsun Onur, among other artists, is responsible for avant-garde currents making their way into the primarily traditionally-oriented art enterprise of Turkey in the early 70s. Her independent approach not only strengthened other modern artists at this time, but she also continues to affect and inspire recent generations of Turkish artists. more »

In the art world, one thing leads to another—this is the principle by which Hans Knoll began his career as an art dealer, which remains his guiding principle up until today. Knoll began in the early 80s with a space, a weekly dinner among friends, artists, and accompanying guests, and the possibilities that arose from this set-up led to exhibitions, performances, and music. These events were at the time more along the lines of occasions for bonding. However, they eventually turned into serious gallery events and the subsequent realization that one must expand beyond Vienna in order to truly develop in the art world.

Hans Knoll - Art as a Form of Mediation, Interview Part 1

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Hans Knoll - Art as a Form of Mediation, Interview Part 2

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Hans Knoll - Art as a Form of Mediation, Interview Part 3

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Hans Knoll - Art as a Form of Mediation, Interview Part 4

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In the first half of the 1980s, the young art dealer was already getting involved with the art world in Hungary. He founded an artists’ co-op in Budapest as a kind of communist counterpart to his gallery and thereby set himself apart in the art world from the surrounding East European countries. more »