“I felt a tender love towards all classical architecture, but a the same time dreamt of loving contemporary architecture as well”. A portrait of Alexander Brodsky.

Until October 2011, in its ongoing exhibition, the Architekturzentrum Wien displays works and a room-sized installation of the Russian artist and architect Alexander Brodsky.

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At the beginning of his career, Alexander Brodsky is part of the “paper-architecture“ movement even though at that point, at the beginning of the eighties, there is no movement in the true sense yet. The notion “paper-architecture” rather expresses a typical limitation to architectural creativity in the Soviet Union of the time: Young architects who would refuse to fit in with the established architecture system would have no means to carry out their projects, and therefore design only for presentation or indeed just for the paper. more »

Edgar Honetschläger tests the boundaries of the possible, always along the limit in order to question the existing standard, the process being as important as the results.

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Vain is the attempt to classify this corpus of ideas into orderly progressions, straight lines, fixed positions, separate stages. Edgar Honetschläger’s work and life do not allow for that. He moves between cultures and working techniques and operates with the diversity and inconsistency of a globalized world. more »

Allyson Mitchell’s activist art is meant to prod and provoke, but it draws you in with warmth, sincerity and just a little faux-fur.

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In Allyson Mitchell’s world, art isn’t precious or formal. In fact, you can touch it, feel it, and sometimes even walk on it. Take off your shoes in her Brooklyn, NY studio at the ISCP→ International Studio & Curatorial Program toe your way across a patchwork quilt of crocheted pot holders, toilet seat covers, blankets and you quickly become part of her signature installation in-progress more »

Warhol, Newman, Wool “Barney is now at another party.“ When exhibitions show artistic developments in a larger context, it is a good thing for every visitor. Such an exhibition can be seen at the moment at Kunsthaus Graz. Under the curatorial direction of Peter Pakesch, the exhibition “Warhol, Wool, Newman” bridges the gap between abstract American expressionism, minimal and pop art, and some of the art of our time. This podcast was realised with the kind support of UNIQUA ArtCercles.

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Abstract American expressionism brought a new image and understanding of space into the world of art. The viewer played a central role here, because the work was no longer possible without his/her presence. In Barnett Newman’s work, this becomes noticeably clear. It positions the viewer as the counterpart and participant in the space of the image and confronts him/her with a physical reality. more »

The American sound artist, Douglas Henderson, studied composition and theory at Princeton University under Milton Babbitt, a pioneer of synthesizers and Pulitzer Prize winner, Elie Yarden, and J.K. Randall, co-editor of the magazine, Perspectives of New Music.
Henderson currently resides in Brooklyn and, after receiving a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service in 2007, in Berlin.

Visible Sound

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Part 2. Playback

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His artistic work has been supported by renowned foundations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Foundation of Contemporary Art New York, and numerous other grants; his list of exhibition activities and performances is as noteworthy as it is international. His compositional work has been presented at countless computer and new music festivals ranging from Seoul to New York. He has collaborated intensely with modern dance choreographers, composing for the likes of Jeremy Nelson, David Zambrano, and Meg Stuart, as well as for numerous dance theatres across Europe and the US. more »

In our age, identity has become something of an obsession. Andy Warhol predicted the perennial pursuit of one’s “15 minutes of fame”, and celebrity status represents the ultimate destination of success. The art world has been far from exempt from this trend: the persona of a well-known artist is often as carefully crafted as his artwork. The cult of personality can reap considerable profits, as the latest record-breaking artworks of Klimt, Picasso, and Pollock will attest to. The elusive nature of creative genius garners a level of worship that makes today’s museum as sacred a place as yesterday’s cathedral.

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One of the most exciting tendencies of art is its ability to constantly upend itself. Styles are meant to be challenged, theories debunked, rules broken. In the end, the role of art is to make us see things differently, and just when we think we have done, shake up our world again.

Just as we read about the latest most expensive painting being sold, or the hottest young art star hitting the scene, a quiet countermovement is taking place. The cult of personality is making way for the quest for anonymity. Art collectives shun what they see as outdated values such as egoism, fame, and recognition. Avoiding limiting designations such as roles or credits, collectives bring the focus back to the work itself, art for art’s sake. 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 »

We live in a visual age. Our pastimes are often dictated by those things we like to observe, in art galleries, at the cinema, at the zoo. In this surveillance-heavy era, our desire to watch often goes unchecked. Cameras dictate our day-to-day existence, we chase after images that fit our expectations and concepts of beauty, of nature, of gaze-worthiness. Our eyes are trained to seek out, capture, and fix on that which has meaning to us and could be potentially shared.

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But are we critical enough of that which we look at and the position from which we look at it? We set definitions for the subject and the object, we break down the constructs of viewing in the hopes that we don’t fall into a pre-manipulated, voyeuristic trap. Men should not objectify women, tourists should seek the unbeaten path, no one should remain in the position of “the other”. It’s rude to stare. more »

The art world is one which takes itself very seriously. Whether it is in the hushed classrooms of art schools where aspiring students dutifully sketch nude models, or in the fancy words of the latest review in the glossy pages of a top art magazine, or in the hallowed, guarded, temperature-controlled halls of a prestigious national museum, fine art is nothing to be laughed at – apparently.

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There was a time when William Anthony wanted to be taken “seriously”. But then came the day when he finally got through to his drawing students. He thought he would demonstrate the classic “don’t”s of figure drawing by incorporating them into one representative form. Then, something interesting happened. They laughed. He had somehow struck a chord. “Learning from mistakes” seemed to have made the greatest impact on his students. more »

At the ripe old age of 35, Francisca Benitez calls herself a “retired architect”. When the Chilean-born artist first arrived in New York ten years earlier, her experience as an architect permanently shaped her view of the city. What she imagined as a creative, intellectually challenging profession, turned out to be an exercise in municipal bureaucracy—much of her work was about interpreting building codes and zoning restrictions, cutting through administrative red tape, and facing the challenges of a complex system of rules, regulations, and protocol.

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All of these obstacles, however, only served to further inform her unique perspective and conception of a sprawling urban landscape. She found that her attention was more and more drawn to those dimensions and spaces around her that may be overlooked, or taken for granted. Informed and inspired by her heroes, Gordon Matta-Clark and Ed Ruscha, she never lost sight of the bigger (or smaller) picture—that the jurisdiction of boundaries, lines, and interactions was a process that was constantly being defined, whether the results followed the modus operandi or not. more »