http://www.castyourart.com/ Art moves people. CastYourArt offers podcasts for people fascinated by art. The weekly published video- and audio-episodes are windows to the world of art: its ideas, institutions, and actors, its economics, contradictions, and its ups and downs. Kunst bewegt Menschen. In wöchentlich erscheinenden Podcastepisoden und Beiträgen schafft CastYourArt Zugang zur Welt der Kunst, zu ihren Gedankenräumen und Ideen, zu Institutionen und Akteuren, zu Wirtschaftlichkeit, Widersprüchlichkeit, Scheitern und Erfolg. de-de ℗ & © CastYourArt, Vienna 2008 - 2011 office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/castyourart.png http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/ CastYourArt offers podcasts for people fascinated by art. CastYourArt.com no no cast your art, Kunst, art, Künstler, artist, festival, museum, Galerie, gallery, exhibition, atelier, Ausstellung CastYourArt offers podcasts for people fascinated by art. CastYourArt office@castyourart.com CastYourArt offers podcasts for people fascinated by art. The weekly published video- and audio-episodes are windows to the world of art: its ideas, institutions, and actors, its economics, contradictions, and its ups and downs. Kunst bewegt Menschen. In wöchentlich erscheinenden Podcastepisoden und Beiträgen schafft CastYourArt Zugang zur Welt der Kunst, zu ihren Gedankenräumen und Ideen, zu Institutionen und Akteuren, zu Wirtschaftlichkeit, Widersprüchlichkeit, Scheitern und Erfolg. http://www.castyourart.com Libidinally charged works of the last 3 decades by Herbert Brandl are presented by Florian Steininger and Ingried Brugger in the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien. An artist-portrait. 09:40 Charging pictures until they (almost) burst. The images constantly seduce the gaze, captivate it and invite the viewer to transcend the pictorial surface, look behind it in order to discover the spaces opening up within their –our- interior. Brandl does not start his work on the basis of reality in order to abstract from it, he rather develops a pictorial grammar of perception –feelings or thoughts- and avails himself of the musical vocabulary of colour and of the personal expressive panache as trademark. However, he counterbalances and controls this approach by the structure of his composition and a certain irony. He systematically measures the contrast between emotion ands reflection. Problems related to the perception of space are dealt with, depth without the rivalry of perspective and illusion but nevertheless within the vocabulary of abstraction. He completes the meaningful content with his associations to other contemporary or traditional pictorial languages All this without denying the character of his imagery, the surfaces painted by vigorous strokes, the texture, the masterful chromatic induction permitting him to create art like primitive man, who creates a radically sensual material world with his own hands. In Brandls pictures forceful fillings and dense strokes contrast with a smooth blurriness reminding a veiling, evoking a sense of lightness and transparency and conveying the presence of other layers of light and colour within the deeper realms of the image. Some of the works constitute quasi pictorial texts, formed by the artist through a network of textures and surfaces, and enriched by the incision of the brush into the ductile material, leaving enigmatic messages. In spite of their informalism, the images act like symbolic approximations to the landscape. Shades of grey and yellow protruding into dark spaces remind of nocturnal landscapes, blazing red specks bring volcanic eruptions to mind, apparent fissures evoke aerial photographs of rivers or cartographic images. The transparencies and veilings behave like a sunblind, letting traces of other colours shine through as if they were hints to an opening of a parallel world. Two elements, the abstract and the representational coexist on the same canvas and do not interpenetrate; each one keeps its relative, not absolute, autonomy in order to make way for the ambiguous play of he visual suspense. This incongruence and the contradiction existing between the elements is intentional - and necessary to generate and animate their relationship. These correlations operate in a symbolic and libidinal way within the images, as well as other formal contents which interact and can be combined as a visual or interpretative antithesis. On this level the enormous energetic charge, dense and luminous, comes to the fore. The perspective of the retained libidinous energies is a reference to a remote affinity of Brandl’s Art to certain traditions of Chinese painting and some recurrent approaches of contemporary western interpretation of Japanese art, based on the influences of informal art, the material and the dense textures. A kind of imaginary regression to a cultural nakedness emerges, a disrobement of symbolic contexts – in order not to simply imagine a naked corporeality that invites us to identify ourselves with the work through the intimity of our own nakjed body. It is ultimately a question of controlling the drives, avoiding them to overflow, containing them to the point where the whole arrangement is on the verge of exploding. Subtly, almost imperceptibly, we are relieved of hidden repressions. (ca) no no Bank Austria Kunstforum, Fine Arts, Florian Steininger, Graz, Herbert Brandl, Informel, Ingried Brugger, Neoexpressionism, Neue Wilde, Sculpture, Vienna CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/172_brandl_en.mp4 172_brandl_en.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Mit der Ausstellung „PHANTOMAK“ präsentiert der Künstler Tomak erstmals eine Skulpturenreihe der Öffentlichkeit. CastYourArt hat den Künstler zum Skulpturenprojekt interviewt. 07:48 „So vervollständigt sich also mein Werk durch die Skulptur.“ (TOMAK) Mit der Ausstellung „PHANTOMAK“ werden ab 4. Februar 2012 an der Technischen Universität Wien erstmals Skulpturen des Künstlers TOMAK der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert. Es handelt es sich bei den Skulpturen der Serie PHANTOMAK um elf individuelle, in einem aufwändigen technischen Verfahren produzierte Büsten des Künstlers – Wood Jackson, Rotpeter, Height, Headquarters … Die Skulpturenreihe PHANTOMAK entstand im Laufe der vergangenen eineinhalb Jahre. Verwirklicht wurden die Arbeiten in enger Zusammenarbeit mit der Technischen Universität Wien (Institut für Kunst und Gestaltung – Dreidimensionales Gestalten und Modellbau), dem deutschen Unternehmen Rampf Tooling sowie einer österreichischen Privatstiftung. Für die organisatorische Leitung des Projektes zeichnet CastYourArt verantwortlich. Die Skulpturenreihe Phantomak besteht aus elf Büsten des Künstlers TOMAK. Für die Verwirklichung der Büsten wurde der Künstler auf der Technischen Universität Wien (Institut für Kunst und Gestaltung – Dreidimensionales Gestalten und Modellbau) mittels eines Lasers gescannt und ein digitales 3D Modell angefertigt. Auf Basis des Werkstoffs Polyurethan des Unternehmens Rampf Tooling wurden Rohformen der Büsten gegossen und anschließend auf Basis der 3D – Daten elf identische Büsten durch einen Industrieroboter ausgefräst. Pro Büste wurden rund hundert Stunden reine Fräszeit aufgewendet. Im Anschluss an die Fräsung wurden sämtliche Büsten durch den Künstler individualisiert. “Ich habe aus elf identischen Büsten Variationen gemacht, sie zerstört, wieder auf gebaut, bemalt, zerschnitten, angezündet und mit Metallapplikationen ergänzt.” So entstanden Kunstwerke, die jene Handschrift des Künstlers TOMAK tragen, wie man sie aus seinem zeichnerischen und malerischen Werk kennt. (wh) no no Tomak, Phantomak, Skulptur, bildende Kunst, Ausstellung, Wien, Technische Universität Wien CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/173_phantomak.mp4 173_phantomak http://www.castyourart.com Die beiden Gründerinnen des Slow Fashion Awards Barbara Irma Denk und Lisa Niedermayr zum Slow Fashion Gedanken und diesjährigen Thema "Nighties and Linen" im Interview. 03:55 Im Januar geht der Slow Fashion Award 2012 der Agentur Slow Fashion - Agentur für nachhaltiges Design in Berlin während der Fashion Week an den Start. Der Slow Fashion Award ist der erste Modebewerb zur Bewusstmachung und Veröffentlichung ökologischer Strategien in der Textilwirtschaft. Ziel des Slow Fashion Award ist es, durch die Auszeichnung von herausragendem Design mehr Raum für qualitativ hochwertige, angenehme und fair produzierte Designs und Mode zu schaffen. Das Thema "Nighties and Linen" bietet sich an, über Nachhaltigkeit und ökologische Faktoren in der Modeproduktion nachzudenken. Wir verbringen einen großen Teil unseres Lebens schlafend, eingehüllt in Stoffe, die in direktem Kontakt mit unserer Haut stehen. Wie diese Stoffe produziert und verarbeitet wurden, aus welchen Ausgangsmaterial sie bestehen, welche ästhetisch sinnlichen Qualitäten sie haben, das sind Fragen, die mit diesem Award thematisiert werden. (wh)(ca) no no Mode, Fashion, Slow Fashion Award, Nighties, Linen, Bettwäsche, Nachtwäsche, Fashion Week, Berlin, Wien, Recycling, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/171_slowfashion_ig.mp4 171_slowfashion_ig.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com The building of the Vienna Secession is regarded as the structural manifestation of the ideas of the artist union around Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser and others. A feature about this historical and contemporary venue of the arts. 03:29 Today the Vienna Secession, the union of Austrian artists, is the oldest independent exhibition centre dedicated to contemporary art worldwide. The building designed by the architect Joseph Maria Olbrich is regarded as the structural manifestation of the ideas of this artist’s union around Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Carl Moll, Josef Hoffmann, Olbrich and others, whose members refused the conservative approach to art of the Künstlerhaus association at the turn of the century. To confront the fin de siècle with a holistic art whose vitality would have its effect down to the ordinary everyday life! By means of the Secession building, this claim would obtain an actual location, in order to present art in a space-oriented and comprehensive way, within a synthesis of architecture, painting, sculpture, graphic art and decoration. The artistic approach with the building as its symbol still draws attention and now as then, the usage of the building causes excitement. On of the most celebrated exhibitions was dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven in 1902, a main work of which being the Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt. On this 34-meter mural painting, the artist focused on Beethoven’s 9th symphony. The painting addresses mankind’s pursuit of happiness in various stages. Because of its explicit eroticism, Klimt’s work provoked admiration as well as severe criticism. At the time the Beethoven Frieze was situated in the left side aisle of the Secession’s main hall and was eventually removed in 1903. Today it is back in the Secession and installed in a specifically created room in the basement floor of the building. With its spatial arrangement, the architecture of the Vienna Secession has remained relevant in our time. Its functionality and aesthetic peculiarity therefore offer ideal conditions for contemporary arts and exhibition activities. Thus, in accordance with the phrase carved above its entrance, to every age its art and to art its freedom, today the Vienna Secession accomplishes an internationally oriented program, presenting current artistic forms of expression in single and thematic exhibitions. CastYourArt has created a feature about this historical and contemporary venue of the arts, giving an insight into the building, its architecture and history as well as its activities in contemporary art. (wh)(ca) no no Secession, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Carl Moll, Fin de Siècle, Art Nouveau, painting, architecture, skulpture, contemporary art, architecture, Vienna CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/167_secession.mp4 167_secession.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com His advice to students is to be patient, because architecture takes time – and to observe, because it is the only way to discover. 07:58 Glenn Murcutt - architecture for place He has no employees, no assistants, no website or E-mail address. Ever since Glenn Murcutt opened his own office in Sydney in 1969, he works alone. He states that he wants to free himself from the pressure of being responsible for staff. If necessary he cooperates with other architects, like his wife Wendy Levin. In the last 40 years, more than 500 buildings have been constructed, all in Australia, almost exclusively residential buildings and besides a few exceptions, designed, planned and implemented under his supervision. The current exhibition in the AzW, conceived by the Architecture Foundation Australia, focuses on constructed private residential houses, on the basis of which the position and ideas of Glenn Murcutt can be comprehended in the most concise manner. Large-sized plans, design sketches and implementation plans with handwritten remarks illustrate his work, besides a video with himself. He usually develops his projects on 4 to 5 sketches on paper in A2 format, without a computer, in pencil drawing. The construction companies who work with him already know his mode of operation and do not need many instructions. The exhibition offers an interesting insight into known and less known projects. Except for traditional construction modes, Murcutt indicates Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto as influences, besides the longhouses of New Guinea he had seen in his early childhood. Later he was inspired by traditional Greek buildings, by the contact with the “regionalists” Craig Elwood and Jose Antonio Coderch and not least by Australian aboriginal culture, with its ethic of respect for the environment. The building materials of his portfolio are manifold – metal, stone, brick, wood and concrete are usually joined in his buildings. These are often structured like long simple pavilions, differing from each other by the way the windows, roofs, and shady- as well as cooling elements are integrated into the structure. In all his buildings he tries to keep the energy demand to a minimum and to adapt the form to the climatic conditions. He often draws the comparison to a yacht, which is adapted by to the changing elements by the owners when sailing. Most architects construct as the state of the art of technology permits. This is not Glenn Murcutt’s approach. The feasibility of doing something does not per se legitimize the project. The basic necessities of mankind remain the same; new problems have not to be invented in order to solve them, but the existing ones should be tackled instead. For Murcutt, architecture should be a response and not an imposition. He does not accept too many contracts, and projects can take up to 5 years. He interviews his clients, takes personal interest in them, wants to know how they think, what they read, eat, and what kind of art they like. The houses are like tailor-made suits; they live with their owners and are adaptable to the stages in their lives. Murcutt pays close attention to the movements of the sun and moon, the seasons and the landscape. He designs his buildings to adjust them to the movements of light and the wind. Many of his buildings do not have an air condition. The give the impression of open galleries, they remind of Farnsworth house by Mies van der Rohe, although with the pragmatism of a shepherd’s hut. “He is an innovative architectural technician who is capable of turning his sensitivity to the environment and to locality into forthright, totally honest, non-showy works of art." (Pritzker Prize Jury)(ca) no no Glenn Murcutt, Australia, sustainability, pavilion, tradition, aboriginal, architecture, Mies van der Rohe, climate, landscape, light, Pritzker Prize. CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/169_murcutt.mp4 169_murcutt.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com He has embraced tradition in order to forget it again: wood as a challenge and possibility of failure. An artist-portrait of the sculptor Aron Demetz 08:03 Aron Demetz - Dialogue with life Aron Demetz eliminates the classical dichotomy of „original vs. effigy”, and instead addresses an interaction: man has a position in the natural space that surrounds him, is formed by it and in turn has an effect on it; this is not a static interaction but rather a continuous, living process. Man and his body become protagonist and theatre of the action at the same time, within the relationship between the single object and its location within space. Demetz’ examination of space demonstrates that the figures enter into a dialogue about the possibilities of the location with the viewer. Knowledge of the preconditions demanded by wood as a working material is of decisive importance in this approach: its physical nature influences its treatment; additionally a further means is applied: the charring of the surfaces. The power of the elements is being celebrated in coming to be as well as in passing away, furthermore the twofold effect of energies are highlighted: once in growth and then in the fire as a procedure of dematerialisation. Here we are confronted with a deep understanding of the elementary vitality of the wood. By his preoccupation with wood and his profound artistic exploration of this material Demetz has his place within contemporary art, even though he perceives himself as an outsider. He uses the tree in its various forms of appearance as structure and source of insight. For his figure he uses the chainsaw and the axe, the finer work is done with mallet and chisel. His preliminary studies in figurine format document the precision with which he handles his tools. Demetz brings us back to the woods and to a time when it was perceived as a sentient, living being. He is an artist who masters his craft as well as the principles of anatomy and its proportions; he produces small figurines of cedar wood as a preparation. With their animate appearance, they seem to return the gaze of the viewer. This feeling is reinforced by the fact that Demetz does not overwork his material and avoids shaping the surface in a too pleasing manner – he conveys a feeling for the vulnerability of the matter. Demetz does not fear highlighting the mortality and to confront physical limitations, in contrast to any slick aestheticism. Availing himself of the element of fire, he shapes the surfaces of the sculptures in an intensive, almost ritualistic procedure. The process of this charring profoundly transforms the perception of the figure: a warm, familiar vegetal material turns into something mineral on its surface. The black of the surface requires a different way of seeing, it alters perception. It alludes to the process of growth and decay, and to death. If man-made effigies should be the only means to confront the reality of ones own physical limitations, in opposition to prototypes manipulated by aesthetics of the advertising industry, Demetz does it with his original material and formal vocabulary. Within his figurative approach his genuine truth of the world is mirrored. Rather than mere bodies, he displays bodiliness. Even though he is neither too reduced nor cautious in his formal language, walking a fine line he manages to convey a feeling of inner fragility and subtlety without becoming sentimental. He is also able to show wit without becoming ridiculous. Demetz liberates his figures from everything that would turn them into individuals, and carves out a clear, vivid humanity that has a real and unembellished sensual feel to it. (ca) yes no Aron Demetz, South Tyrol, Groeden, woiod carving, sculpture, figurative, resin, charring, cedarwood, elements, materiality, corporality, chainsaw. CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Sun, 6 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/170_demetz.mp4 170_demetz.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com In my paintings, there are improbable, not impossible things - Fernando Botero's work is on view at Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna. 07:51 Fernando Botero - Inhabiting Paintings “When you start a painting, it is outside of you. By the time you finish, you are already inhabiting it.” The history of art belongs to those who have learned to see differently; those who have made visible what is hidden. The artist envisages the object, and presents it in a form which allows for immediate recognition of the message. The energy and emotion that flow into the picture become an intuitive experience, as occurs with the erotic friction between reality and art in Fernando Botero’s oeuvre. He shows edible painting, the still lifes and their fruits being juicy and appetizing. However, a huge yellow pear with a wiggling worm in it gives an almost menacing impression, while the sweetness of the colours and the iconic stiffness of the portrayed figures can have an unsettling effect on the viewer. The current exhibition on the Bank Austria Kunstforum is structured by topics, from nudes to still lifes, bullfights (of which Botero is an expert) to portraits and paraphrases on the old masters. The artist had studied the masters of the early renaissance and spanish baroque painting in Spain and Italy. In the Prado he discovered Goya, Velazquez and Rubens, he had already been inspired by Picasso as a youngster. A total of 70 painting are on display in the show, the pictures depicting the atrocities committed by US-Soldiers in the notorious Abu Graib prison have been donated by Botero to the University of Berkeley in San Francisco. Perhaps they will inspire artists in this formerly Mexican US-state to follow the path of the political artists Rivera, Orozco or Siqueiros. Botero’s imagery is not based on direct observation of the model but on his inner experience of reality, and the intensity of his memory. The figures are not only a result of a visual act by Botero - also gustatory, acoustic, tactile and olfactory perceptions of the artist have been integrated and are transmitted to us via colours, surfaces, forms and every single detail. The seemingly tasteless vivid colours and the folkloristic character of the motives are mitigated by an austere composition and a soberly structured geometry. By means of this quasi architectural clarity, he opens up a world he has appropriated and created for himself. The province of Colombia has conquered the world of art history. He is the man who takes his tale seriously and makes us laugh with it, but the comedy’s droll camouflage can transform itself into something threatening and tragic. A „popular“taste, with excesses and strong contrasts nourishes the expansion of the figures’ forms; within an atmosphere of altarpieces, Botero places his voluminous marionettes at will. An innocently proud demeanour lies on the facial expressions of his figures in the group portraits of rural Colombia; they have the appearance of enlarged toys. The dissymmetry and spatial improbabilities are nevertheless governed by an internal logic of this distorted world, and accepted by the viewer. The visual pragmatism and the intentionally crude humour are conspicuous; the almost mischievous innocence of the naïve, presenting itself on a first image level, lures us into a plenty of traps and deceits. The accumulation of precise details and winking motives captivate and delight us, the manipulations of the skilled narrator convey a sense of authenticity - in spite of all the virtuosity. His art reveals images that are different from the merely visible, they mutate into a perceivable loophole in reality, from which Botero’s chubby figures lean out and come out to us. The exaggeration has turned us into accomplices in a game in which we play along euphorically. We happily move into this dream scenario – just to find us within a nightmare where the cheerful becomes abysmal. (ca) yes no Botero, Colombia, magical realism, volume, folklore, Paris, Prado, old masters, grotesque, still life, bullfight, Vienna, Bank Austria Kunstforum CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/168_botero.mp4 168_botero.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Whoever wants to make hear has to involve others into the process of creation of sounds. 24:37 Thomas Wagensommerer - Of Making Hear. The media artist and composer Thomas Wagensommerer studied digital media technology, philosophy and transdisciplinary art. His compositional works are positioned at the interfaces between man and machine – a field of activity which is in rapid transformation, due to permanent technological change and the fundamental deepening of the relationship between man and technology. As a media artist, Thomas Wagensommerer explores the sound faculty of electronic instruments (the existence of sounds produced by it) as well as the possibilities of sound design in the era of the Web 2.0. At the same time, the artist constantly reflects on the composition process and aims for an expansion of our conception of what we call hearing. In his conception, Thomas Wagensommerer says, his work is less about making the audience listen to a message but rather an intent to disclose the process of hearing through his endeavour. Silence as well as the use, the eligibility and the adequacy of sound, its sculptural character and composability, are realms of testing not only for himself, the artist and composer. Whoever wants to make hear has to include others into the process of creating sounds, and have it experienced and understood as an positive activity. Thus, besides solo works and a number of co-operations, there are mainly performative compositions and installations involving the audience to be found in the oeuvre of the artist born in 1987. Max Kickinger met the artist and composer in Vienna and produced this feature for CastYourArt. (wh) no no media art, installation, sound, electroacoustic, tone, composer, composition, performance, space, sculpture, Vienna CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/166_wagensommerer.mp3 166_wagensommerer.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Together with Maria Lassnig he is considered the originator of Informal Art in Austria. 09:42 Arnulf Rainer – the veiling He visited André Breton, the writer and theoretical head of surrealism in Paris – this was the moment he turned away from surrealism. Together with Maria Lassnig, he is considered the originator of informal painting in Austria, his works are on display in the main museums on the entire globe. The road to success has at times been stony, tells Rainer, whose first solo exhibition took place in the St. Stephan gallery of Monsignore Otto Mauer in 1955. The beginning of his overpaintings for instance were not based upon any philosophical concepts, but were simply a consequence of his lack of money to buy new canvasses. Instead, the artist resorted to painted canvasses - pictures from the flea market. They were cheaper to buy. The artist has never been indifferent to the canvas he used. This is why, from the outset, he used to communicate with the original works he overpainted – no matter if it was a painting from the flea market, the work of a colleague, facsimiles of famous predecessors or photographs of himself. In a way, says the artist, he got married to the underlying work in this symbiotic task, and always showing respect for it. A sensitivity which was painfully absent, felt the artist and professor at the academy of fine arts in Vienna, when an unknown person broke into his office in a night time burglary, destroying important paintings there. As a response to this incident and due to the lack of support by the academy regarding the investigation, he decided to retire in 1995. He has not entered the academy ever since. The disrespect was offending. The celebrated over-paintings of his own photographic portraits, the “Face Farces” and “Body Poses” he started in the late fifties, nevertheless demonstrate that he is able to convey esprit and irony. This examination of himself has its origin in the fact that his facial expression takes on a life of its own, when he is immersed in his work – as can be observed on musicians at times. He noticed this one day and took the decision to experiment with his own physical expressivity. On a personal level, the overpainting of his own image on photographs led him to be more casual about himself; artistically he aimed to accentuate essential traits and dynamics of a picture with a few strokes. His artistic approach is absorbed, intuitive, and quick. Usually the artist works on several pictures simultaneously. As he says, the line where painting ceases to strengthen and gets weaker itself is a very thin one, and by working only for brief periods at a time on the pictures, he avoids overstepping this line. There have been phases where his over-paintings were more extensive, exposing only very few distinctive areas of the underlying surface. The accentuations he carries out are not aimed at unambiguous clarity, but rather at opening up the space of codifications. Art has nothing to explain, nor is it an enigma to be solved – as such it would lose its charm at once. Art has to stimulate and keep open, says Rainer, and as Karl Kraus put it: An artist is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer. (wh/ca) no no Arnulf Rainer, Maria Lassnig, Informel, Surrealism, Vienna, fine arts, overpainting, André Breton, Paris, Academy of fine arts, Body Poses, Face Farces, St. Stephan gallery, Otto Mauer CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 9 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/159_rainer.mp4 159_rainer.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com EVA und ADELE - über SALZBURG 00:45 EVA und ADELE - über SALZBURG Vom 23. Juli bis zum 30. Oktober 2011 zeigt das Museum der Moderne Salzburg in der Ausstellung „Rollenbilder – Rollenspiele“ Arbeiten rund um die künstlerische Inszenierung des Selbst. CastYourArt hat anlässlich der Ausstellung mit dem Berliner Künstlerpaar EVA und ADELE den Kurzfilm EVA und ADELE über SALZBURG gedreht. Der Film wird in der Ausstellung zu sehen sein, einen Ausschnitt daraus haben wir für Sie online gestellt. Rollenbilder - Rollenspiele Die Maskerade und ihre Inszenierung fordern die Akteure heraus. Doch die Aufführung ist längst nicht mehr auf Bühne und Scheinwerferlicht beschränkt. Sie hat sich aus der Enge der Theater, Schauspielhäuser, Kinos, Fernsehsendungen und Magazine befreit und ist hinausgetreten ins wirkliche Leben. In dieser Befreiung ist das Schauspiel zum Rollenspiel mutiert. Dessen Akteure sind wir. Je durchlässiger die Grenzen zwischen der Welt der Aufführungsorte und jener des Alltags sind, desto schwieriger ist es, das Rollenspiel zu bändigen. Die Möglichkeiten der Demaskierung des Selbst haben in den letzten Jahrzehnten stark gelitten. Authentizität ist hyperreal geworden und die Unverfälschtheit selbst ein Spiel, das hoch im Kurs steht. Wir tauschen Rollen, ununterbrochen, und suchen starke Rollenvorbilder. Solche die Bestand haben. Solche mit Potential für eine Nachspielzeit. Die Ausstellung „Rollenbilder – Rollenspiele“ im MdM Salzburg zeigt anhand von Fotografien, Grafiken, Videoarbeiten und Installationen Kunst unter den Vorzeichen des Rollenbildentwurfs und der Rollenspielerprobung. Angefangen bei den Tableaux vivants des 19. Jahrhunderts über die im Kontext der Genderdiskussion aufkommenden Identitätsentwürfe zeitgenössischer Kunst bis hin zu den Selbstaufführungen als Künstler und lebendes Kunstwerk wird die Geschichte der Inszenierung in der Kunst sichtbar gemacht. Zu sehen sind in der von Toni Stooss, Esther Ruelfs und Veit Ziegelmaier kuratierten Ausstellung unter anderem Arbeiten von Marina Abramovic, Candice Breitz, Marcel Duchamp, Cindy Sherman, David LaChapelle sowie Andy Warhol. (wh) no no EVA and ADELE, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Rollenspiele, Rollenbilder CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/eva_adele.mp4 eva_adele.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com I felt a tender love towards all classical architecture, but a the same time dreamt of loving contemporary architecture as well - Alexander Brodsky. 07:44 Alexander Brodsky - It still amazes me that I became an architect 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. 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. This kind of architectural existence only begins to form a movement when first signs of openness become perceptible in the Soviet Union. Suddenly young architects receive permission to participate in architecture competitions abroad, primarily in Japan. As the architect tells, the competitions were of a conceptual nature as well, the contributions however received more public attention and awards. This paved the way for “paper-architecture” as a movement. For the architect, the dissolution of the Soviet Union marks the beginning of an era of travelling abroad. He exhibits in the Netherlands, Germany and other European countries. He lives in New York for four years. On his return in 1994, he finds that his home country, to which he still feels strongly connected, has changed. It is the moment when Alexander Brodsky begins to design architecture to be actually constructed. As a constructing architect, Brodsky also refuses to conform to the Russian architectural mainstream of the new era - architecture as accomplice of a housing boom, completely changing cities, -architecture as expression of economical megalomania. These approaches are alien to him. In fact, on his quest for a different Russian identity he rather develops a “radically authentic personal position, exemplary for the western here and now as well.” The reviews, the opinions of colleagues, as well as the attention of the public indicate that his architectural and artistic panache beyond pretentiousness receives wide approval in the western world. His works are shown in artistic contexts, in biennales and exhibitions. He is invited to work artistically in locations frequented by hundreds of thousands daily, such as the underground railways of St. Petersburg and New York. And he builds: houses, restaurants, apartments, pavilions, cafes… His works are of high aesthetic and visual quality – works of art to be actually utilized- and often they convey a thoughtfulness, a time factor of fugaciousness, of a recovery of objects, and of a historicity often absent in an architecture trapped within the scope of technical capabilities. His pavilion, assembled out of ice cubes that melts in spring and is built on a frozen lake becomes an allegory of disappearance, with everything around flourishing economically. A club restaurant built by him in Moscow has the spatial proportions of a Soviet-era council flat, its walls consisting entirely of window frames from local waste sites. Thus he creates space for entertainment and exuberance, embedded within a space of the rejected and the refused. Whenever he is designing contemporary works he is concerned with ruins of bygone times, with things passing by – due to the fact that he is unable to understand modern architecture: “ I felt …a tender love for all classical architecture but at the same time dreamt of loving contemporary architecture as well” he says, and: “in the end I succeeded”.(wh) no no Alexander Brodsky, Architekturzentrum Wien, art, architecture, Russia, Soviet Union, paper architecture, Moscow, New York, Venice Biennale, Ilya Utkin CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/165_brodsky.mp4 165_brodsky.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Rather than expressing something directly, the force of artistic expressivity lies within manifesting the getting-to-talk within the work itself. 06:55 Alexander Steinwendtner - Random. Clean Cuts. „I will now reveal the secret: I am talking about an important artist“ (Christian Ludwig Attersee) Random. Clean Cuts. The works of the new series by the artist Alexander Steinwendtner contain an essential and fascinating quality of human endeavour, referred to as making art: precise artistic expression arises stems from an artistic attunement, not quite definable and therefore not attainable in an exact manner. In other words, the artist is able to specify what falls to him and that art is not simply mastered, but in fact created. Quality, says Alexander Steinwendtner, arises from a time that he is somewhat unable to define. Therefore the artistic agenda is to venture into the undefined, in order to reach the concept. In the exhibition „Random. Clean cuts.“, CastYourArt presents a series of new works by the Salzburg-based artist Alexander Steinwendtner. The works, paintings and objects are composed of wooden panels painted with varnish and oil, into which the artist applies precise sections – Clean Cuts. Due to the rigorous geometry generated by the placement of the cuts, the works display a fascinating spatial depth and a plasticity reminding of sculptures. Alexander Steinwendtner completed his artistic education at the University for applied arts in Vienna. He was a pupil at the master class far painting, tapestry and animation film under the guidance of Christian Ludwig Attersee. His works have been on display in various solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the US. Alexander Steinwendtner lives in Salzburg and works in Adnet, in the former forge of a marble quarry. no no Alexander Steinwendtner, Christian Ludwig Attersee, figurative, abstract, Readymade, painting, sculpture, Salzburg, fine arts, exhibition, language, materiality, University of Applied Arts, art, stone, marble, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/162_steinwendtner.mp4 162_steinwendtner.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Polanszky shows that perceptions do not simply happen within us, but in fact are performed by us – producing reciprocal dynamics. 07:46 Rudolf Polanszky: Models for Trans-aggregate Structures “The human being forgets that it was him who produced the images in order to use them to find his bearings. He is unable to decipher them anymore and from then on lives in function of his own images: imagination has turned into hallucination.” (Vilem Flusser) Polanszky’s works resemble a language und avail themselves of a sequence or composition of signs and symbols, but without directly reverting to concepts and without giving a direction to the relationship between cause and effect, leaving open which one is cause and which one effect. Reality as a principle is replaced by the performance of reality, including our capacities and mechanisms of representation and interpretation. For Polanszky his art is a research technique for an inquiry into human nature, by exploring the boundaries of potentialities and possible action without determining goals and purposes – hence the disarrangement, the aleatoric connections, or, amounting to the same, contingency and exception, pure turbulence becoming poetry. Within us, the transformation of the fictional into the real is being triggered, from the moment of the works’ creation up to the present, within a space that becomes physically tangible. The narration continues, but Polanszky adds a moment of void, a blank space. In this way the reception turns into a subjective experience by producing a meaning, the viewer becoming a co-author of this narrative. The fiction is continued within reality, and a reconstruction of the cognitive experience is being made possible. The relationship between the illusory space of painting and the physical presence of sculpture in Polanszky’s oeuvre, this fortunate uncertainty oscillating between experiment and mastery, between structure and chaos, conveys a presence that is neither defined by one nor the other. The bricolage of dismantling and reassembling, generating works “in potentiality” which are in a constant process of transformation, the fragmented time, surfaces and images: In all his fragmented oeuvre, Polanszky seems ultimately to investigate on painting and its language, time and again exploring its formal means. At this point, interpretation or rather translation of the intention becomes fundamental: the reception and spontaneous interpretation of a work of art reveals itself to silent lecture or a mute inner vision. Not individual features, but the entirety of the composition connects to the recipient – by the immediacy of an unrepeatable experience of a nameless aura, continuing to keep its secret and its mysteriousness. As far as the artist remains the subject, we are but mere visitors of his artistic universe and find out that our cognition is illusory: we stand before an existential emptiness, devoid of transcendence. After this experience of despair and the acceptance of the inevitable doom, we find ourselves in a state of an exhausted presence of mind – perhaps, with some luck, a deafening silence surges in our mind. No intellect exists without representation; even the blind man visualizes his world in images. Our intellect cannot grasp anything that does not appear before our inner eye, “we only see what we view” (Merleau-Ponty) The gaze learns while looking, by permanently carrying out comparisons in order to find himself in what he sees – every depiction, every image must therefore remain provisional. The eye and the intellect are accomplices in the depiction of the seen, while inescapably remaining bound to our earthliness and corporeality. We have no other choice but to resort to our eye and intellect in order to attain at least a partial truth – but when this happens and eye-intellect succeeds in catching a glimpse of reality, the veil is brutally ripped off and the idyll destroyed. no no Rudolf Polanszky, actionismus, transformation, interpretation, reality, performance, semiology, reception, symbol, sign, image, narration, conception CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 30 May 2011 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/157_polanszky.mp4 157_polanszky.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Between mythical creatures and human forms, between dream and nightmare, we find ourselves in a world where life crawls and insects swarm: Welcome to the land of the Blue Hour. 09:56 Jan Fabre - Home Fabre: in the realm of the Blue Hour Jan Fabre is an artist we can safely describe as a multidisciplinary all-rounder. He is a painter, graphic artist, stage director, choreographer, lighting designer, author and editor – drawing from all fields of creativity: Arts, sciences, philosophy, literature, religion…nothing escapes him. As first living artist and as a conclusion of his trilogy (2006 in Antwerp, 2008 in the Louvre), the exhibition in the picture gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna will display 26 works of his series “The Blue Hour”. They are distributed in the premises of the picture gallery until August 28, showing the collection of paintings in a new perspective. Fabre reflects on the old master’s works as well as on the history of painting, and on the meaning of the museum as an institution. The exhibition deals with the evolution of drawing as a means of expression and the question what a drawing is, what its surface actually is. The works of the series have been produced with blue BIC-ballpoint pens, they revolve around the topics of metamorphosis and rebirth, and they are drawn, or hatched on paper, canvas, a large silk drapery or three-dimensional objects. In the halls and chambers of the picture gallery, Fabre enters into a dialogue with the collections’ masterpieces; he reacts to Rubens, the Italian masters, German painting, and the Dutch, especially to Brueghel. According to him, the great paintings evolved from first sketches, his pictures are therefore something like the “reverse side of the old masters”. His transcending subject is the blue hour. A tribute to his great-grandfather, the entomologist and writer Jean-Henri Fabre, who coined the term in his writings, describing the transitory phase of dawn, where the nocturnal animals calm down and the birds are not yet singing – a mystical moment of silence and transformation, between dream and consciousness: this is the realm where his oeuvre comes from, says Fabre. He still sees in himself the sleepless child, imagining strange creatures in the cracks of the room’s ceiling. As he says, the gesture of drawing and the rhythm of its movement put him into a state of trance-like concentration, in which he conjures up his visual worlds and gives them their form. On display between, above, under, and even instead of the collections masterpieces, the works of Fabre -loans from public and private collections from all over the world- enter into a fascinating relationship between the contemporary and the historical, the transient and the permanent. In addition to this, there are sculptures of the artist on display in the entrance hall and on the roof (visible from the park), as a further contrast between modernity and history. In all his artistic endeavours, in fine arts as well as in performing arts, Fabre creates intriguing visual associations, the combination of opposites generating surprising insights – we could describe it as the art of the oxymoron. “Nowhere is the original vulnerability, sensibility, and fear of a personality that is constantly hiding, deeply emotional, enthusiastic, impulsive, unsettled, and passionate as visible as in the gigantic graphical oeuvre of Jan Fabre, where the empathetic ability of deep, revering, spontaneous, unlimited ability of admiring the enigmatic and where the complete, uncompromising, excessive commitment to the secret of the haunting unknowability of the world is so immediate, so touching and so unconcealed. This exaggeratedness defines the entire poetic domain, from the artistic methodology to the narration, from the intensity of the psychological-emotional involvement to the auratic connotations - intensifying our thirst for adventure and our ability to project, with their poetic allusions to enigmatic events and contexts, to mysterious correlations of human and animal creatures, organic and inorganic formations, and rational and irrational occurrences.” (Lóránd Hegyi) (ca) no no Jan Fabre, Jasper Sharp Antwerp, Louvre, Performance, Drawing, Insects, dream, Dawn, Kunsthistorisches Museum, ballpoint pen, Bic-Art, Metamorphosis, Poetry, nightmare CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/160_fabre.mp3 160_fabre.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Between mythical creatures and human forms, between dream and nightmare, we find ourselves in a world where life crawls and insects swarm: Welcome to the land of the Blue Hour. 07:52 Jan Fabre - Home Fabre: in the realm of the Blue Hour Jan Fabre is an artist we can safely describe as a multidisciplinary all-rounder. He is a painter, graphic artist, stage director, choreographer, lighting designer, author and editor – drawing from all fields of creativity: Arts, sciences, philosophy, literature, religion…nothing escapes him. As first living artist and as a conclusion of his trilogy (2006 in Antwerp, 2008 in the Louvre), the exhibition in the picture gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna will display 26 works of his series “The Blue Hour”. They are distributed in the premises of the picture gallery until August 28, showing the collection of paintings in a new perspective. Fabre reflects on the old master’s works as well as on the history of painting, and on the meaning of the museum as an institution. The exhibition deals with the evolution of drawing as a means of expression and the question what a drawing is, what its surface actually is. The works of the series have been produced with blue BIC-ballpoint pens, they revolve around the topics of metamorphosis and rebirth, and they are drawn, or hatched on paper, canvas, a large silk drapery or three-dimensional objects. In the halls and chambers of the picture gallery, Fabre enters into a dialogue with the collections’ masterpieces; he reacts to Rubens, the Italian masters, German painting, and the Dutch, especially to Brueghel. According to him, the great paintings evolved from first sketches, his pictures are therefore something like the “reverse side of the old masters”. His transcending subject is the blue hour. A tribute to his great-grandfather, the entomologist and writer Jean-Henri Fabre, who coined the term in his writings, describing the transitory phase of dawn, where the nocturnal animals calm down and the birds are not yet singing – a mystical moment of silence and transformation, between dream and consciousness: this is the realm where his oeuvre comes from, says Fabre. He still sees in himself the sleepless child, imagining strange creatures in the cracks of the room’s ceiling. As he says, the gesture of drawing and the rhythm of its movement put him into a state of trance-like concentration, in which he conjures up his visual worlds and gives them their form. On display between, above, under, and even instead of the collections masterpieces, the works of Fabre -loans from public and private collections from all over the world- enter into a fascinating relationship between the contemporary and the historical, the transient and the permanent. In addition to this, there are sculptures of the artist on display in the entrance hall and on the roof (visible from the park), as a further contrast between modernity and history. In all his artistic endeavours, in fine arts as well as in performing arts, Fabre creates intriguing visual associations, the combination of opposites generating surprising insights – we could describe it as the art of the oxymoron. “Nowhere is the original vulnerability, sensibility, and fear of a personality that is constantly hiding, deeply emotional, enthusiastic, impulsive, unsettled, and passionate as visible as in the gigantic graphical oeuvre of Jan Fabre, where the empathetic ability of deep, revering, spontaneous, unlimited ability of admiring the enigmatic and where the complete, uncompromising, excessive commitment to the secret of the haunting unknowability of the world is so immediate, so touching and so unconcealed. This exaggeratedness defines the entire poetic domain, from the artistic methodology to the narration, from the intensity of the psychological-emotional involvement to the auratic connotations - intensifying our thirst for adventure and our ability to project, with their poetic allusions to enigmatic events and contexts, to mysterious correlations of human and animal creatures, organic and inorganic formations, and rational and irrational occurrences.” (Lóránd Hegyi) (ca) no no Fabre, Antwerp, Louvre, Performance, dance, Theatre, drawing, Insects, dream, Dawn, Kunsthistorisches Museum, ballpoint pen, Bic-Art, Metamorphosis, Poetry, nightmare CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/160_fabre.mp4 160_fabre.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com For the seventh time, Viennafair takes place from May 12th to May 15th, with a focus on Central and Eastern European art. 01:50 Viennafair 2011 – This Year CEE-Focus Lastingly Strengthened With 47 registrations from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe this CEE´s focus is the largest so far in the history of the “VIENNAFAIR”, including this year such significant positions as the Riga Gallery from Latvia, Plan B and Ivan from Romania, lokal_30 from Poland or Tulips and Roses from Lithuania as well as Skuc and P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E from Slovenia. With Gisich from St. Petersburg,GMG and paperworks from Moscow, the Russian scene shows again a strong presence in Vienna after a long while. With a total of five galleries, amongst these acb and Raday, Hungary is again strongly represented as in previous years. New this year are the Newman Popiashvili Gallery from Georgia and Tengri Umai Gallery from Kazakhstan. Also for the first time in Vienna (present with artists- streichen weil eh klar) are the Jiri Svestka Gallery from Prague, Art Radionica Lazareti and Contemporary Croatian Photography from Croatia. no no Viennafair, Hedwig Saxenhuber, 2011, Georg Schöllhammer, Reeds, Vienna, Art Fair, Eastern Europe CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 12 May 2011 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/153_viennafair_2011.mp4 153_viennafair_2011.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com For the seventh time, Viennafair takes place from May 12th to May 15th, with a focus on Central and Eastern European art. 24:14 Viennafair 2011 – This Year CEE-Focus Lastingly Strengthened With 47 registrations from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe this CEE´s focus is the largest so far in the history of the “VIENNAFAIR”, including this year such significant positions as the Riga Gallery from Latvia, Plan B and Ivan from Romania, lokal_30 from Poland or Tulips and Roses from Lithuania as well as Skuc and P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E from Slovenia. With Gisich from St. Petersburg,GMG and paperworks from Moscow, the Russian scene shows again a strong presence in Vienna after a long while. With a total of five galleries, amongst these acb and Raday, Hungary is again strongly represented as in previous years. New this year are the Newman Popiashvili Gallery from Georgia and Tengri Umai Gallery from Kazakhstan. Also for the first time in Vienna (present with artists- streichen weil eh klar) are the Jiri Svestka Gallery from Prague, Art Radionica Lazareti and Contemporary Croatian Photography from Croatia. no no Viennafair, Hedwig Saxenhuber, 2011, Georg Schöllhammer, Reeds, Vienna, Art Fair, Eastern Europe CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/153_viennafair_2011.mp3 153_viennafair_2011.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com The 1960ies: a fantastic modern in the MUSA Vienna reveals the spirit of a decade marked by radical upheaval, along the way the entire who’s who of Austrian art is displayed. 08:37 The 1960s - Fantastic Modernism „The 1960ies: a fantastic modern“ in the MUSA Vienna reveals the spirit of a decade marked by radical upheaval, along the way the entire who’s who of Austrian art is displayed. Not only in politics, also in the domain of the arts the 1960ies were a decade of worldwide upheaval, the radical changes can also be retraced in the Austrian art scene of that period. At the beginning of the decade, art became in many cases more political and provocative in its statements, drawing on subjects in between the realities of the mundane and the artistic. The convergence of high culture and popular culture has its beginnings in these movements, followed by a fundamental challenge to the previous notion of art. The subject matters of the paintings of that era often take on daily life; they reflect the reality of the period, promoting and depicting cultural changes. The exhibition offers an interesting extract of these very varied developments from 1960 to 1969. Up to now the MUSA has purchased approx. 4300 works of art dated from 1960 to 1969, from more than 780 artists. For Bernhard Denscher, head of Vienna department of culture, the MUSA is “a display window for the city’s art”. Due to limited space only 130 works of art are on display in the exhibition. „All in all, the exhibition stock of the 1960 turns out to be very heterogeneous, with works of very varied importance, nevertheless illustrating the spirit of the time” say the curators of the exhibition, Berthold Ecker and Wolfgang Hilger. The curators of the exhibition succeeded in reproducing the atmosphere of an era. By displaying different positions about radicalism and adaptation, about revolution and establishment, ambivalences and contradictions become perceptible as ingredients of art. Unorthodox, provocative behaviour, shock and irritation of familiar customs, breaking taboos and the end of prudish attitudes constituted the counterculture of those times. In the 1960ies, the Viennese actionists provoked with their performances, radically challenging mainstream approaches to the concept of the human body. Preconceived notions shaped by the taboos and religion of Austrian post-war society were parodied and confronted with alternatives. The means of confrontation between the established mainstream and its criticism were often interactive and blasphemous; in the act of public painting the dimension of time gained new significance, taking precedence over the material. Action painting became an integral part of Viennese Actionism and aesthetic experience took precedence over distant contemplation. For Günter Brus, Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch, Rudolf Schwarzkogler and Adolf Frohner, confrontation with “informel” painting which seized tendencies of pre-war abstract expressionism was crucial, as much as the performances of the Vienna Group with its experimental forms of recitation. Another group of artists appeared in 1968 under the catchword of „Wirklichkeiten“ (realities) which was -besides the performance “art and revolution” by the actionists- in the curators’ opinion the most significant event of the decade. Their common traits were, among others, that they painted colourfully, not abstract, and would not adhere to the rules of perspective and bodily proportions. In the current exhibition the original group of „Wirklichkeiten“ is extended to a larger circle, in order to demonstrate that it is not a group distinguished by a clearly defined style but rather represents significant protagonists of an art which embodies the feeling of the 1960ies. Regarding the selection of artworks for this show, preference was given to objects which exemplify the new tendencies of the 1960ies in a symptomatic manner. This was inevitable because the proportion of historically significant pieces was larger than in the preceding decade. (ca) no no Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, Russia, Ukraine, sea, Romanticism, Realism, water, Saint Petersburg academy of arts, J.M.W. Turner, Bank Austria Kunstforum, exhibition, Vienna, painting CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/155_60er_musa.mp4 155_60er_musa.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Aivazovsky is regarded as the master of seascapes. In his lifetime he dedicated himself to this motif as a metaphor for life, of desire as well as the struggle between nature and culture. 09:10 Aivazovsky – A Russian fairytale As legend has it, he died in his studio with a brush in his hand, 111 years ago. In his exceptionally long life he actually left only this one painting unfinished, out of the estimated 6000 he painted. In his lifetime his works were already marvelled at, admired, venerated – and purchased. He is regarded as the most successful Russian Romanticist of the 19th century. However, in European art history his name seems almost forgotten. We are referring to Ivan Konstantinovitch Aivazovsky, a painter who was capable like no other to bring light, air and water onto the canvas in a most realistic manner. Aivazovsky was born 1817 in Feodosia, a small seaport on the Black Sea as a child of Armenian refugees. As a small boy at first he displayed his artistic talent on the walls of his neighbourhood, making do with the charcoal of a samovar. After successful studies in Saint Petersburg he went on study trips throughout Europe. From the outset, his oeuvre was met with enthusiasm. On of his admirers was the English Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner. Turner called his views of Naples the work of a genius. Just like Turner, Aivazovsky did not paint outdoors but after sketches he made in his studio. These sketches often did not consist of more than a few outlines; he recalled most of the content from his memory. Considering this fact, the accuracy of his city views of Constantinople, Venice or Naples is even more astounding. Not only did he depict architecture in a remarkably realistic way but also images of moonlit landscapes or sunrises, some of which he had not even witnessed. Reportedly Aivazovsky had an encounter with a contemporary at the Biarritz coast. It had been a foggy day and Aivazovsky inquired about the course of the sun. On the following day, Aivazovsky painted the surf of Biarritz with a few strokes, in three different light moods. This pragmatism must have had an almost provocative effect on many a romanticist contemporary of his time. In his case, the suggestion of a personal sensory perception emerges virtually as a readily available recipe. However, the impact of his paintings is not due merely to his imagination, but essentially originates from the pictorial itself. His rapid working methods and the very thin layers of paint allowed for smooth shadings, creating an almost aquatic transparency and an atmosphere illuminated by a special light. Their visual magnetism and luminosity appeared so uncanny to the visitors of the Paris Salon that they inspected the reverse sides of the paintings for possible light sources. Ayvazovsky was an exceptional personality of his time, not only in the artistic sense. He used his wealth for charitable purposes and his creative power for modernizing efforts in his hometown Feodosia. Today he is an integral part of Russian history and has his place in all schoolbooks. For the first time, the Bank Austria Kunstforum shows a retrospective of the artist outside of Russia and the Ukraine. There are fifty representative paintings on display, among them main works from the Aivazovsky Museum in Feodosia and the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg that have never been shown abroad. (ko/ca) no no Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, Russia, Ukraine, sea, Romanticism, Realism, water, Saint Petersburg academy of arts, J.M.W. Turner, Bank Austria Kunstforum, exhibition, Vienna, painting CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/152_aiwasowski.mp4 152_aiwasowski.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com It is almost impossible to breathe and move within the linguistical system in which we are embedded. Art brings new movement into our consciousness. A portrait. 06:34 Art Sets Our Consciousness in Motion. Inci Eviner, born 1956 in Polatli, to the southwest of Ankara, completed her artistic education at the national academy of fine arts and the Mimar Sinan University. Inci Eviner’s international career took off in the mid-1990ies. In individual exhibitions and during residencies her work was displayed in Paris, New York, Rotterdam, Bellagio and Tokyo, by reputed galleries and institutions, furthermore she participated in numerous group exhibitions around the globe. Currently the artist resides and works in Istanbul, where she holds a professorship for combined art at the Yildiz University. Inci Eviner uses varied techniques. Watercolor painting, charcoal and Indian ink drawings, photography and collage predominate in her early work, at a later stage she also worked with acrylic painting, digital printing and video animation. The drawings, paintings, prints and animations are works of art in their own right; nevertheless in some exhibitions the artist uses them as elements adding up to a new, larger piece. In the process, entire walls become one single picture, the advantage of the wall being that they do not have a frame forcing the artist to limit the image. As the artist says, the images should in fact go beyond and outwards, like a virus spreading and transmitting the work into everyday life, infecting it with her art. The principal topic of her works is the middle-class woman and the imagery which takes this woman as its subject matter. What it means to be a woman, which duties she is assigned, what constitutes her beauty and which gestures are appropriate, what makes her desirable, in which context or way of life her peers are regarded; such and other information is conveyed by the imagery flooding our existence nowadays through media. The assumption of the artist is that this torrent of images makes it very difficult, if not impossible for us to develop images of our own, or to dissociate ourselves from strong images. “It is possible for a woman being at the center of ideological rhetoric and the social structure to position herself as a subject?” asks Inci Eviner. “I believe in the necessity to transgress the limits of representation and to undermine iconography and myth”. It is therefore the agenda of the artist to disclose how we enact the social roles we absorbed unconsciously, and to search for an imagery of her own. In the light of this orientation we can regard her work as political as well as feminist. Even if Inci Eviner seeks to disembed herself from the conventional imagery of everyday life, her pictures do not highlight the self-perception of a woman being the artist herself, as is the case with Frida Kahlo for example, but they operate with the corpus of femininity (or of the outsider), be it as a social, cultural, historical or political one. “I want to discover women within all their representations and at the end of my work there has to be new space for alternatives”, says the artist in the interview. In order to achieve her artistic goal she starts with sketches. She just draws in her sketchbook and does not proceed consciously. An outline being drawn is totally abstract and eventually mutates into something unknown to her at the outset; only in a second more distant stage of work it can be read by her and matures into an idea. As Inci Eviner says, a fresh start is what she needs for the work of producing pictures, because she herself is full of images and it is very difficult to generate an image of her own. She has to learn to avoid and bypass the commonplace images stored within her, therefore the lines in her sketchbook with which she begins her work are very helpful. For her, drawing, she says, is something very much alive, something necessary, like opening the windows – thus with a few words she not only characterized the beginning but also the origin of her art. (wh/ca) yes no Inci Eviner, Istanbul, Turkey, fine art, Malerei, Video, Animation, Feminism, Role, Harem, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/146_eviner.mp4 146_eviner.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Audio Interview with Karlheinz Essl about his Sound Installation in the exhibition of Kucsko in Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna. 12:02 Karlheinz Essl - Proper Ties. Karlheinz Essl was asked by Guido Kucsko to make a Sound Installation to Kucsko's visual intervention in Bank Austria Kunstforum - tresor. In this interview the composer and interpreter talks about his collaboration with Guido Kucsko and other artists as well as copyright and Intellectual Property. (es) no no Kucsko, Karlheinz Essl, bank austria, kunstforum, intellectual property, IP, vienna, vault, memories, skip a rule, law, safety deposits, ready made CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 2 Feb 2011 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/148_karlheinz.mp3 148_karlheinz.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Audio Interview with Kucsko about Intellectual Property and his exhibition in Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna. 14:55 Kucsko - Double coated IP capsule The vault of the Bank Austria Kunstforum is a room full of references and allusions, with its own history and charisma, a chamber of wonders, whose architecture, with its safe deposits boxes inseparably built-in as a part of the concrete, its impenetrable reinforced concrete walls, their double protective layers and its access control corridor, makes it "ready made", just waiting to be filled as a vessel for ideas. Does that make it "art"? (kucsko) no no Kucsko, Karlheinz Essl, bank austria, kunstforum, intellectual property, IP, vienna, vault, memories, skip a rule, law, safety deposits, ready made CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/148_kucsko.mp3 148_kucsko.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com This project of Kucsko in cooperation with Karlheinz ESSL at the vault of Bank Austria Kunstforum uses the space as ready made questioning issue of Intellectual Property. 08:48 Double coated IP capsule The vault of the Bank Austria Kunstforum is a room full of references and allusions, with its own history and charisma, a chamber of wonders, whose architecture, with its safe deposits boxes inseparably built-in as a part of the concrete, its impenetrable reinforced concrete walls, their double protective layers and its access control corridor, makes it "ready made", just waiting to be filled as a vessel for ideas. Does that make it "art"? (kucsko) no no Guido Kucsko, Karlheinz Essl, bank austria, kunstforum, intellectual property, IP, vienna, vault, memories, skip a rule, law, safety deposits, ready made CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/148_kucsko.mp4 148_kucsko.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com By means of drawings and photography Birgit Jürgenssen develops surreal and subversive counter-concepts to female gender stereotypes of the 1970ies, with a sprinkling of humor and poetry. 09:06 “Come on now, Miss Jürgenssen.” In cooperation with Verbund, the Bank Austria Kunstforum has the first posthumous retrospective of Birgit Jürgenssen on display, with 250 works of art of different media. In drawings, watercolors, Polaroids, photograms, objects, performances and videos, Jürgenssen explores the scope of female identity constructions and the gender roles in her immediate sociocultural environment. After her premature death in 2003 more than 3000 works are being reviewed in the custody of the Viennese art dealer Hubert Winter. Only a smaller part of them is accessible at this point. In 1968 she started studying graphic art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna – at this time she heard about political action in the media rather than being involved herself. In this respect the beginnings of her artistic work coincides with the heyday of feminist avant-garde and represents the essential starting point of her oeuvre. Nevertheless she was not someone to perform in the front line. The work of Birgit Jürgenssen is more cautious, calmer, more poetic and characterized by the technical strength of her drawing. Subtly she scrutinizes typically feminine gender stereotypes in a surreal and subversive manner. Her works evoke thought and sensual comprehension at the same time, precisely not to be encountered in this combination within the conceptual art of the 1970 avant-garde. She said she was too shy for performance art. Jürgenssen operated privately; her counterpart was a photographic camera with a self-timer. At her time, which is not so long ago, our society actually believed the a woman could reach her full potential at best when at her home, tame and innocuous, performing her domestic chores. “Now now, Mrs. Jürgenssen, why wear yourself out carrying these heavy lithographic stones, you are going to get married soon anyway!” is what she got to hear during her studies. However, in her drawings the lap cat mutates into a predatory man-animal combination. Subtly Jürgenssen goes on the feminine counterattack. Her means are the deconstruction of ordinary figures of speech and literal illustration of set phrases. In all fairness she includes the male, be it as a wimp, or as a being with unfinished limbs, but also as a partner in relationships; she highlights that patriarchal structures are not simply forced upon women, but are rather embraced and internalized by both sexes equally. She wanted to escape her bourgeois upbringing and the limitedness she sensed in it. In one of her key works of 1976, her respectably dressed body is pressing against a glass panel, representing an almost invisible boundary to the outside world, titled “I want to get out of here!” The object “housewife-kitchen apron” of 1975 is a three-dimensional stove being virtually incorporated into the woman. Birgit Jürgenssens imagery is more akin to the literary classic „Alice in Wonderland“beloved by her, rather than to an orthodox feminism: shoes and beautiful dresses were not at all outside of her range. She was taken to shoes in particular. A cornucopia of images unfolds in this series of works; where her delight in the fetish and her exploration of it are equally obvious and do not necessarily have to contradict each other. Jürgenssens examination of female identity is an itinerary, ranging from rebellion to self-affirmation, from the sensual and erotic to concealment as the director of the Verbund collection, Gabriele Schor, describes in an interview. “The gender specific identity originates in the space that humans create for themselves in order to exist in it”, Jürgenssen notes in a letter and on a plate of 1995 she only professes I AM. (ko/ca) yes no Birgit Jürgenssen, Feminism, surreal, Verbund collection, Gabriele Schor, Heike Eipeldauer, Kunstforum Bank Austria, Hubert Winter Gallery, Photography, Drawing, Identity, Gender stereotype, Shoes CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/147_juergenssen.mp4 147_juergenssen.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com His fleeting works are based on an idea of the transitory and question the notions that define sculpture: permanence, tradition, historical memory... all are essential to the traditional notion of sculpture. 05:01 Erwin Wurm at Fernwaerme Wien. Wien Energie Fernwärme added selected works by Erwin Wurm to its collection Erwin Wurm is one of the most important contemporary Austrian artists; his works have been exhibited in eminent international art fairs. The “one minute sculptures” he has been producing since the late 1990ies belong to his most famous works. These “sculptures” exist for a minute and are performed either by the spectators or the artist himself, involving elements and actions that are often comical: Balancing objects on their heads or having pens stuck between the toes, in postures impossible to maintain for a longer time. The classical properties of a sculpture are thus presented in a new, grotesque and parodic manner. These ephemeral episodes are documented by video and photography. Rather than an object on a pedestal, sculptures are a corpus of open operating instructions for Worm. Video and photography are a means of the sculpture and the sculpture itself an object of utility. The producing of sculptures with the participation of the spectator to be photographed is a means to transgress boundaries. These short-lived works are based on the idea on the transitory and play on the notions defining sculpture: permanency, tradition, and historical memory... all essential to the traditional notion of sculpture. From the outset he is interested in the conception of sculpture, in what it is, in what it means. By converging it with objects of utility he approaches it to everyday life and reflects on volume, weight, balance and form beyond the pedestal. By means of distortion in some sculptures and absurd situations in some photographs he punctures the screen of our world view in order to reach a new dimension of reality. Humor is also a way of expressing things in his work and to remove some of the solemnity of artworks, even though the reception of such humor can vary enormously from culture to culture. He creates pieces that are not bound to the physical reality of the three dimensions, but to an imaginary reality arising from the feelings, thoughts and the effects of social conditions. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas said that „every work of art is a sculpture, a statue where time has been frozen“. Because of their depiction of the three dimensions the limits of the picture are tangent to the sculpture. On one hand Wurm’s photographs are still hanged on the wall and their object character is evident, on the other hand his photographs are protocols of transitory sculptures, as in this case - actions. It is however the thought and not the deed that is at the origin of Wurm’s works, to analyze the concept of continuity of the piece, the perception initial point of time is to be found at where the artistic form ends. The objects switch their function and the spectators change their mindset and their direction. The senses are put to the test and the visitor vacillates between perplexity and laughter. A parallel world is being created in which the artist’s questions approximate the questions of philosophy. Where are we? Who are we, and why? Where is the restroom? In the end the philosopher as well as the artist is doomed to failure in the search, even if they both have their own truth. Wurm’s oeuvre is apparently defined by certain concepts which are not set out in isolation, but have to be examined in their combination, quasi as cause and effect. The dynamics between form and matter, the potentialities of the material, the relation between sculpture and non-sculptural object, the body as medium and the notion of transformation. These sculptural concepts almost always appear in Erwin Wurm's varied works, although he intends to take them to the boundary of their meaning and questions the most essential category that defines sculpture as artistic form of expression: its own durability. (ca) no no Erwin Wurm, Sculpture, performance, video, photography, Installation, Humour, one minute sculpture, Fernwärme, Wien Energie CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/143_wurm.mp4 143_wurm.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com As a former location of princely representation the province gallery, founded with the collections Czernin and Schönborn-Buchheim, illustrates an essential part of Salzburg’s history. 06:23 Die Residenzgalerie - Museum alter Meister. As a former location of princely representation the province gallery, founded with the collections Czernin and Schönborn-Buchheim, illustrates an essential part of Salzburg’s history. CastYourArt talked to Dr. Roswitha Juffinger who has been head of the Residenzgalerie Salzburg for 25 years, about her ambitious plans. The reopening of the Lange Galerie in September 2009 marked the beginning of the implementation of an ambitious museum concept, planned to be finished by 2013: To reconstitute a connection of the premises of the dome square within the interior of the adjacent buildings as well, and to create accessibility between the residence, the dome, the Lange Galerie, the Wallistrakt until the Franziskanerkirche – all with the purpose to reconstruct the unity of secular and ecclesiastic building, interiors and collections dissolved after the first world war, and to reconstitute the connection between the histories of building and of political domination: The Residenzgalerie of today was founded in 1923 with the purpose to provide an exclusive and first-class museum to the Salzburg festival. Up to the year of 1803 Salzburg had been a prince-archbishopric. In 1124 a residence for the bishop was constructed in the eastern wing of the residence which subsequently has been renewed, renovated and remodeled for representation. Until 1918 the Habsburg dynasty used the premises as representational building. The newly founded museum should then function as a replacement of the archiepiscopal collection lost in the Napoleonic wars. If nothing else one reason for the new founding was the promotion of tourism. The museum however did not possess a single exhibit of its own at the time of its establishment. It was set up exclusively with loan collections. Until its closure after 1938 the museum had acquired approximately 30 pieces. Until then it had not been able to live up to the expectations placed on it. During the 2nd world war the arts dealer Friedrich Welz was sent to France in order to purchase French art of the 19th century. Great parts of the French works of art were restituted to France by the American occupying power through the Central Collecting point in Munich. Nevertheless, overall 150 works of the collection established by Friedrich Welz during the 2nd world war have been incorporated into the Residenzgalerie Salzburg museum, reopened in 1952. In the years between 1956 and 1994 a significant part of the formerly private collection of Johann Rudolf Czernin was purchased by the federal state of Salzburg for the Residenzgalerie. Two more exhibits were donated to the province by the collector. Today, main works of the Czernin collection are found in the most prominent museums of the world. In 1983 the Residenzgalerie transfered the entire collection of 20. Century exhibits to the newly founded Rupertinum and thus became a small but extremely important collection of European baroque art with further focal points of 17th century Dutch painting and 19th century Austrian painting. At the reopening of the Liechtenstein Museum, under the label „private Art Collections“, a fusion of collections was undertaken which had their origins in the cultural patronage of the aristocracy or private collector’s activities – among them the Residenzgalerie Salzburg with its stock of the Czernin collection and the picture gallery of the Vienna academy of fine arts with the paintings transferred from the collection of count Lemberg. The initiative has the goal of mutual support e.g. by lending works without any fees and has led to an increase in publicity for the individual collections as well as to a revival of interest for baroque painting. (bl/ca) no no Residenz, Johann Rudolf Czernin, Friedrich Welz, Salzburg, Franz Anton Harrach, Liechtenstein collection, archbishop, Habsburg, Salzburg festival, tradition, Landesgalerie CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/141_residenz.mp4 141_residenz.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Hollerer makes conceptual extractions from urban space – yet there is no way of a back transfer as he abstracts to signs and thinks in and with the exhibition space. 07:19 Clemens Hollerer - The Beauty of the Beast. The broken symmetries to be found on construction sites are Clemens Hollerers source of inspiration - the states of transition, the destruction, chaos, mistakes and surprises, but also the clear structures, patterns and colors. By using objects made of construction material Hollerer shifts the focal points of attention within a given space. The spaces he is confronted with inspire him, with his quasi narrative sculptures he designs a peculiar orientation system for the perception of the exhibition space. His method of operation is an analogy to a scanning of the architectural particularities, a gauging of their specific conditions and their identification. The building-site aesthetics call technical constructions to mind, but remain opaque to any intents of interpretation or assignment of a defined functionality. The visible structure of the interior space and its surfaces is partly emphasized by his artistic intervention; the objects within the room confront the viewer with the dimensionality of the space itself but also with the sheer material of the existing building structure. The works appear like assemblages and with their assembly technique, the flat materials like the wooden planks on the smooth wall surface and floor insinuate a three-dimensional form, and they seem to be announcing something. Hollerer’s ability to combine the components in unusual ways within the exhibition space, to charge them with additional tension, or to leave them within open processes, surprisingly brings forth the intrinsic poetry of the used elements. The installations do not impose themselves but neither do they allow for any withdrawal, they occupy the space in their distinct way. They are at the same time heavy and fragile, monumental and ephemeral, very physical, playful, deliberately trashy – and humane, in proportion or appearance. Whatever is built, carpentered, and painted by Hollerer has a presence but does not exaggerate, seems strange but not threatening. His non-mannerist style and his directness give the impression that he has just designed his piece on the spot. As he claims, he attaches great importance to spontaneous ideas – he distrusts long planning in advance and lets the space take its effect on him. The presence of his objects, so compelling to the viewer, are the outcome of a staged skepticism, towards the material as well as towards the objects themselves, even though his pieces always display a high level of craftsmanship and precision. This craftsmanship is owed to his acknowledged fondness of the material on the one hand, but probably also to a consistent mindset that does not have a direct receiver but is rather vectored against itself – together with the appeal of a sarcastic sense of humor this accounts for the touching quality of his work. Many of his works have their origin in an immediate reaction to the environment of their presentation and ultimately they are removed, destroyed and recycled at the end of the exhibition. At this point a political message could be deduced, but actually the installations act as sculptures, even if they contain obvious references to the structures of society and their problematic emissions. Hollerer’s exuberant lust for functionality, paired with the question about the justification of art, leads us to his reality. Accomplished and implemented, the pieces are objects of art that are indeed prototypes, insinuating a reality that proves imaginary under closer scrutiny. (ca) no no Clemens Hollerer, space, installation, material, wood panel, construction, assemblage, structure, object, PinchukArtCentre, Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Antwerp, Art dans la Cité, Paris CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/137_hollerer.mp4 137_hollerer.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Das Bild trägt immer einen kurzfristigen emotionalen Sieg über das geschriebene Recht davon. Ein Gespräch mit dem Künstler und Juristen Michael Maier. 06:29 Kunst und Recht - Michael Maier. CastYourArt hat in Kooperation mit der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz anlässlich der Ausstellung 'Bilder von Recht und Gerechtigkeit' eine Pilotserie mit fünf Expertenstatements zu Kunst und Recht produziert. Für den fünften Beitrag der Pilotserie haben wir den Juristen und Künstler Michael Maier interviewt. Sein Einstieg in die Thematik Kunst und Recht: Über die künstlerische Darstellung des Rechts und die Möglichkeit eines unserer Zeit entsprechenden Sachsenspiegels. no no Kunst, Recht, Moral, Religion, Graz, Karl Franzens Universität CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/145_5_maier.mp4 145_5_maier.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Im vierten Beitrag der Pilotserie Prof. Joseph Marko bespricht ausgehend von Ambrogio Lorenzettis Renaissance Freskenzyklus Grundfragen der "good governance" oder wie es bei Lorenzetti hieß: des „buon governo“. 09:37 Kunst und Recht - Joseph Marko. Teaser Nr 4 CastYourArt hat in Kooperation mit der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz anlässlich der Ausstellung 'Bilder von Recht und Gerechtigkeit' eine Pilotserie mit fünf Expertenstatements zu Kunst und Recht produziert. Für den vierten Beitrag der Pilotserie haben wir Prof. Dr. Joseph Marko von der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz interviewt. Sein Einstieg in die Thematik Kunst und Recht: Ausgehend von Ambrogio Lorenzettis Renaissance Freskenzyklus im Rathaus von Sienna bespricht der Rechtsexperte Grundfragen der "good governance" oder wie es bei Lorenzetti hieß: des „buon governo“. no no Kunst, Recht, Moral, Religion, Graz, Karl Franzens Universität CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/145_4_marko.mp4 145_4_marko.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Für den dritten Beitrag der Pilotserie haben wir Prof. Dr. Peter Strasser, Philosoph mit Schwerpunkt Recht, Moral und Gerechtigkeit interviewt. Sein Einstieg ins Thema: Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von Kunst, Moral, Religion und Recht. 06:57 Teaser Nr 3. Kunst und Recht - Peter Strasser CastYourArt hat in Kooperation mit der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz anlässlich der Ausstellung ‘Bilder von Recht und Gerechtigkeit’ eine Pilotserie mit fünf Expertenstatements zu Kunst und Recht produziert. Für den dritten Beitrag der Pilotserie haben wir Prof. Dr. Peter Strasser vor die Kamera gebeten. Peter Strasser ist Professor am Institut für Rechtsphilosophie, Rechtssoziologie und Rechtsinformatik der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz. Der Philosoph arbeitet vor allem zu Spannungsfeldern zwischen Recht, Moral und Gerechtigkeit. Sein Einstieg in die Thematik Kunst und Recht: Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von Kunst, Moral, Religion und Recht. no no Kunst, Recht, Moral, Religion, Graz, Karl Franzens Universität CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/145_3_strasser.mp4 145_3_strasser.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Für den zweiten Beitrag der Pilotserie haben wir Anwalt Dr. Andreas Cwitkovits interviewt. Sein Einstieg ins Thema: Überlegungen zur Restitution und Provenienzforschung im Bereich der Kunst. 05:57 Teaser Nr 2. Kunst und Recht - Andreas Cwitkovits CastYourArt hat in Kooperation mit der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz anlässlich der Ausstellung 'Bilder von Recht und Gerechtigkeit' eine Pilotserie mit fünf Expertenstatements zu Kunst und Recht produziert. Für den zweiten Beitrag der Pilotserie haben wir den Anwalt Dr. Andreas Cwitkovits vor die Kamera gebeten. Dr. Andreas Cwitkovits ist spezialisiert auf Kunstrestitution und Führung von Schiedsverfahren, rechtliche Betreuung von Kunst- und Kulturprojekten, Beratung von Kunstschaffenden und Erben, Vertragsgestaltung und Prozessführung in den Bereichen geistiges Eigentum und Kunsthandel. Sein Einstieg in die Thematik: Überlegungen zur Restitution und Provenienzforschung im Bereich der Kunst. no no Kunst, Recht, Wien, Restitution, Andreas Cwitkovits CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/145_2_cwitkovits.mp4 145_2_cwitkovits.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Für den ersten Beitrag der Pilotserie haben wir Ass.-Prof. Dr. Armin Stolz interviewt. Sein Einstieg in die Thematik: Überlegungen zum "verrechtlichten" Künstler. 05:33 Teaser Nr 1. Kunst und Recht - Armin Stolz CastYourArt hat in Kooperation mit der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz anlässlich der Ausstellung 'Bilder von Recht und Gerechtigkeit' eine Pilotserie mit Expertenstatements zu Kunst und Recht produziert. Die fünf Pilotbeiträge informieren und zeigen unterschiedliche Einstiegsmöglichkeiten in die Thematik Kunst und Recht auf. Für die Zukunft ist eine Serie mit Beiträgen in Vorbereitung, mit der wir das Spektrum der Zusammenhänge von Kunst und Recht detaillierter durchmessen. Wie setzt sich Recht mit Kunst und Kunst mit Recht auseinander? Wie berühren sich diese beiden Bereiche in historischer, ethischer, ökonomischer, sozialer, politischer, ... Hinsicht und welche Herausforderungen ergeben sich dadurch? Mit welchen Rechtsfragen sind Kunstinstitutionen, Künstler, Käufer konfrontiert? Zu solchen und weitere Themen bitten wir Experten vors Mikrofon wenn es heißt 'Kunst und Recht'. (wh) no no Graz, Karl Franzens Universität Graz, Kunst, Recht CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Fri, 12 Nov 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/145_1_stolz.mp4 145_1_stolz.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Fritz Panzer relieves objects of his immediate reality of their significations and shows them in their half present - half absent nature. 05:33 Fritz Panzer - the Walk-in Drawing The chair and the chair: If you place a wire object by Fritz Panzer next to its „real“ model it seems to be from a different world. What ? The wire object or its model? That is very hard to say at the moment of viewing. We have two objects in front of us, which do not complete nor exclude each other, who are „no more or not yet the Other“ (Roland Barthes) Within the descriptiveness of the tangible and its inconceivability, words like brown, hard, smooth, and such as mysterious, odd, neutral are in opposition to each other, and while one would be ready to attribute the qualities mysterious, odd, neutral just as well to a chair of our immediate real world, the linguistic transfer in the opposite direction must fail: the artist has relieved the object of adjectives i.e. additions, and liberated it of the weight of certain meanings. As we thus forfeit a language, the things themselves in turn “enter the melancholy of their own collapse” (Roland Barthes). In the 1970ies Fritz Panzer created sculptures that were replicas of furniture and objects on a scale of one to one. At that time the artist already concerned himself with objects of his surrounding reality and detached the bed, kitchen table, sideboard, hardwood floors of their usability and draws our attention to their peculiarity, form, their sculptural quality. The gaze on these now unfunctional, self-sufficient things is becoming emptied, drained, seeing is becoming cognition without recognition, pure vision. Unpretentiously, they present themselves such as they are and irritatingly, we have to discover that the things have an existence of their own, even the more so, the less they let themselves be handled, controlled, designated by us. With the cardboard sculptures the artist examined the objects focusing on their volume, in his drawings -drawing being another central means of expression in Fritz Panzers artistic work besides painting- it is their shape. He follows outlines that can be seen and outlines “that are only visible, but not there” (Hans-Joachim Müller), he duplicates, erases them, deletes them halfway and thus shows the objects in their present-absent nature. By the extension of the drawing into three dimensions, the creation of the „walk-in drawing“, our impression is reinforced to be dealing with objects dwelling an intermediate world. New spaces come into being, in which the artist makes an escalator, scooter, stepladder or desk grow out of the world and likewise into it, holding them poised between visibility and invisibility. The psychoanalyst Georg Gröller characterizes Fritz Panzers work as „progressive practice of renunciation, as work on the disentanglement from the passions of the ego with all its purposes, intentions and meanings, as constantly renewed intent to merge with the mere being of the object by identification and to suspend the separation into which the experience of loss and the resulting formation of the wish presentation have introduced us in the first place”. The issue at hand is renunciation, a „Non-will-to-possess“, where “desire still irrigates the Non-will-to-possess by this perilous movement” (Barthes) and at the same time implies a wantless oblivion of speech. In other words: „ For the notion of non-will-to-possess to be able to break with the system of the Image-repertoire, I must manage…to let myself drop somewhere outside of language, into the inert, and in a sense, quite simply, to sit down“ (Barthes) On what ? On the chair of course. (sh/ca) no no Fritz Panzer, painting, drawing, sculpture, wire object, cardboard sculpture, Roland Barthes, Georg Gröller, Hans-Joachim Müller, furniture, tridimensionality, line, outline CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 8 Nov 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/050_panzer.mp4 050_panzer.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com It is often said that an every portrait is a self-portrait of the painter in a sense and every painter is painting himself - Baldingers portraits show the presence of the absent. 05:33 Peter Baldinger - interface How to produce a portrait, are there any certain possibilities of concretion or is it the mere flow of speculations? Every human constructs himself with words, by what he says and what he says about himself. The self-narrative of a human is all we have to assemble him as a whole. The individual attains his existence through his self-description, namely when he claims the copyright on his history and image. Within the configuration of identity we have to forge our own self or to try so, for better or for worse. Things happen, contingencies, by means of which we have to create our ego and we are constantly at it, with more or less success. Even though Peter Baldinger's imagery is full of disappearing identities in the process of drifting off, the intent of communicating with the viewer permeates his work. The subjects are defaced; they are masked and hidden bodies, but nevertheless expressing themselves. Nothing is being said but everything is told. There is nothing but the presence which tells everything. The body does not exist as place or refuge guaranteeing the idea of the self, but the opposite, the place where the self is challenged or made to disappear. The identity and the values being regarded as constitutive for the body and appearance of the human being are reconstructed and its boundaries transcended, transformed and re-established; the reflective and slick surfaces in Baldinger’s work refer us to the imaginary, to Lacan’s mirror stage. Something meant to remain veiled is becoming manifest, as a reflection on the pictures’ surface, where the Other, the alter ego is inscribed. The psyche, experimenting with itself, dissolves into its parts and turns out to be nothing, an indifferent surface, a silhouette without a story or text. We are encountering mere shapes, refusing any dialogue or contact with the viewer. Baldinger asks what is to be found behind the appearance. His way of veiling and distorting the portrayed is the intent to approximate the essence of the person, by omission of a conventional feature of the portrait - the recognizable face. The negation of pictorial consistency and constancy allows him to disengage himself of the outward appearance. The emptiness within which existence is constructed becomes the accident generating the image. At this point something emerges - the faces, portraits of friends, strangers, people. Within the tradition of painting, the portrait is a genre involving an emblematic, symbolic function: Expressing the social status of the person. Baldinger however alludes to the person’s core by disguise, distortion and digression. Within this gesture of erasure and defamiliarization where the presence is seemingly disintegrated, he still preserves traits referring to the person. Without historical context a picture can mean anything, when we see the face of a person we never know what he/she thinks, except when the context of the facial expression is explained, as in a caption. The ambiguity surrounding the picture is transformed into information by means of a text. Subjectivity is lost, man has nothing left to interpret, and reality is spoon-fed to him in form of seemingly real images. Visual information does no more incite reflection, as everything can be illustrated with pictures. In Baldinger's work the stability of the image is distorted, the habits of the gaze mocked, the conventions of the classical portrait avoided. Individuality is a mere simulation, in a processual image where the human face is on the verge of disappearance - just at the boundaries of recognizability, where multiple possibilities of interpretation emerge. In this very moment of contradiction the process of portrayal is under scrutiny. (ca) no no Peter Baldinger, Portrait, Identity, Distortion, Individual, Self, Subject, face, Existence, body CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/144_baldinger_en.mp4 144_baldinger_en.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Platz da! Consensus or conflict? The exhibition in AzW has a definite answer: both 08:11 European Urban Space - Consensus or Conflict? The production of space is a central aspect of capitalist economy. The urbanist development has reached great importance within the dynamics of capital accumulation. Be it the privatization of areas, the new forms of mobile communication, the changes in urban space, or the disappearance of the café as agora of political life and debates, the confrontation of ideas in public space is getting increasingly scarce. In order to decode the new usages of public space, the exhibition “Platz da!” delivers an analysis of the relation public-private that is constitutive for the form and sense of public spaces in contemporary cities. After the religious wars the public sphere was limited to politics, as opposed to the private sphere. Based on the modern idea of the state as a neutral entity, religion was no more a public matter but a private one, belonging to privacy. The political and ethical neutrality of the public realm was characterized in a way that one can only behave as a public person in public, meaning that one could not shower, cook or urinate on the sidewalk. This has changed radically in recent times. The development in communication technologies has converted the private into public, down to the most intimate details. This invasion of the public into the private permeates all spheres of life. In this area of conflict between public and private, the public must be preserved as instrument of common welfare and the private as the refuge of intimacy. In order to exist, even the private needs the public, i.e. the recognition of the private nature of certain things by the others, as well as the transformation of the subjects into public individuals when they appear as citizens taking decisions. Currently we are witnessing a rebirth of individualism, which requires a revision of the role of the state as warrantor of the freedoms and rights of the subjects forming the social totality. The withdrawal of the nation state and new tendencies in politics imply a greater participation of civil society, but this participation depends on the ability to organize and articulate a consensus. What does it mean to reach a consensus, to negotiate the use of public space, to determine it in the first place? The establishment of consensus relies on the acknowledgement of alterity and the necessity of finding a “commonplace” on which to base human coexistence. In a world where new technologies alter the notions of time and space and dissolve the boundaries between intimacy and publicity, the relationship with otherness is transformed. This mutation in the relationship with the other also modifies the sense of public space. Will it be able to retain its function as social glue and place for debate? The exhibition approximates the topic of contemporary constitution of urban spaces from various angles: conception - how urban realities are conceived and produced, consensus - how stakeholders make their input, coordination - how these new realities are organized. “Platz da!” avoids the simplistic categorization of stakeholders, especially the classification as inhabitants, designers and deciders. These categories would be doubly disappointing: on one hand they would leave aside the economic stakeholders and on the other hand the variations resulting from changing situations. A distance emerges, between the spheres of reflection about the policy to pursue (public debate) and the transformation of this debate into collective decisions: urbanization and its corresponding form of public administration entail the paradoxical effect of obscuring the decisionmaking processes’ transparency. Should public space then advocate conflict or consensus? The answer is: both, as consensus without difference would be meaningless. The ideal public space is a space of perpetual conflict and its methods of resolution, as well as the initiation of new conflicts. (ca) no no Public space, urban planning, civil society, commons, architecture, administration, exclusion, urban development, debate, public, private, AzW CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/142_platzda.mp4 142_platzda.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com In his dream scenarios, Komet has the role of the stage director. 06:24 KOMET - director of nightmares Who are these strange creatures inhabiting that world, these chimeras standing around in this weird manner? They appear to be characters out of a dream, their expression seems to hold the key to some secret, and some truth strives to reveal itself. His expressive forms tug at the eyes, even though they do not manifestly intend to, with their sober colors and sketchy outlines they stubbornly calls themselves to mind again and again. Komet’s work seems to be swollen with meaning and yet inscrutable and apparently much too personal to lend themselves to interpretation, his characters too complex, his allegories too mysterious. Thence they are unsettling like a dream of which one tries to make sense during the day after. The puzzling world of the unconscious looms large; although the tendency is realistic a mood of significance and psychological atmosphere prevails in the images. The works display such a sense of surface, composition, colors that the integrity of the thoughts and feelings behind them can be felt without doubt and not challenged. All his creations are full of symbols which are evidently in a carefully balanced relationship with each other, as if they were parts of a sentence. If the unconscious is really constituted like a language, Komet masters its grammar. Rather than declaring or making statements, he suggests; as he indulges in this coded vein, he pulls the viewer and his regard into a world of hints and challenges him to decode the incomprehensible. There is directness in his imagery suggesting the allegory to be somehow obvious in any case, demanding the viewer to participate and to comprehend the narrative - yet like in the dream the meaning is persistently withheld, defying interpretation at every new effort. The peculiar and unmistakably personal use of color is also part of the impression. Komet prefers grey, black, dark colors and fantastic atmospheres. Other colors only serve to intensify the feeling of loss, of the uncanny and the painful. At first the levitating acrobatics come to the fore which the artist has in mind when he casts the characters of his paintings. The wearisome and painful vision of his figures characterizes Komet’s portrayal; they seem to be acting lethargically, matching the apparently polluted air in which they exist. They stay rigid; the scenes content themselves with the narrow repertoire of string puppets. The background seems to be distorted in the eerie pictures, and the characters do not normally sit, stand or walk, they float, like in baroque painting. Also the influence of Pompeiian art is noticeable in his choice of subjects, his design of figures and composition. He has studied it thoroughly. Komet does not make sketches; he tentatively feels his way forward into the picture and synthesizes his ideas as he paints, on site. He refers to dreams and to an obviously formidable visual memory, providing him with new combinations time and again. He strategically avails himself of his own foreignness as source of energy and thus generates images that elude any causal nexus; eventually the mental interconnections are put in order and the characters fit into the composition, but not until they are actually on the canvas. Leaps of proportion are generated, which conflate near and far without consideration of the relation between foreground and background. Komet does not at all engage in the opposition between abstract and figurative painting. His work unites both qualities in one style; at the end his works are abstract, on the basis of the figurative. His picture is to tell us something, wants to tell us something - and still makes its statement in silence. It is a language that initially seems to be simple and yet makes its impact through its mysteriousness. (ca) no no Komet, Turkish, abstract, figurative, strange, darkness, painter, poetry, expressionism, symbol, dream. CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 29 Sep 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/122_komet.mp4 122_komet.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Finely balanced, almost weightlessly, the pencil seems to find its place in the center of the image, it de-picts simultaneously time itself. A Portrait of Peter Fritzenwallner. 06:21 Peter Fritzenwallner - Things on the Move Finely balanced, almost weightlessly, the pencil seems to find its place in the center of the image, it de-picts simultaneously time itself, the time elapsed during the movement. Flow, chance intervention, to all these he added the structure...ease and gravity, imbalance and equilibrium, arrest our attention and along the way the most precious is being consumed: time. Usually art appears in the shape of a finished object, in order to be consumed by the viewer, with his drawing machine Fritzenwallner manages to include the observer into the artistic endeavour as active participant, he becomes a user able to produce abstract works of art by mechanical means, where no piece is alike the other. Contrasting what the pencil and the apparatus / user create naturally, permits to elucidate the nature of one and the other in a more defined manner. Wood and metal pieces are the artists material of choice for his pieces, oscillating between playful humour and ominous aggressiveness, they provide a ironic spoof of the production mode of the art industry, Fritzenwallners artistic approach is movement being made experienced visually and acoustically. In his work he presents more than subjects or objects, but rather reality or its manifestations, as sound or movement, be it mechanically or in the perception, to the point of moving the viewer / participant physically. He proposes an expansion of aesthetic experience by the artificial, where the role of meaning is twofold: in form and function, or aesthetics and pragmatics, where meaning is not founded within the object and is being constantly re-negotiated in the relationship between the object and its user. He questions our right to a "meaning", as if it were an expression that in itself does not provoke challenging the prerequisites of its usage. Fritzenwallners objects have no source in reality; they consist of momentum and themes, enabled through the manipulation of artificial objects. He offers us the triumph of his creative will in a world where reality is no more a point of reference. Sense, meaning becomes a strategic concept existing pragmatically, in the interface between art and its use. Its value is defined by operational rather than semantic concerns, without ethical imperatives or an inner sense as point of reference. The dialectic between assimilation of the material to the idea and the adjustment of the idea to the material is the background of his art. His idea and the product that emerges in the course of the intervention, evolve each until they merge in the eye and mind of the viewer, even causing the original idea to disappear. The arrangement of forms in a work by Fritzenwallner is always provisional, every piece moves in a constantly renewed relation to the others, by virtue of which the possibilities of the object are determined by parameters like equilibrium and its distribution, the length of circuits, the weight of components - this organised capriciousness offers a spoof on mechanics where modes of operation never exactly produce the expected results. The visual subtlety contrasts with the simplicity of the machinery and the familiarity of the object from everyday life. Processes, activity, change is everywhere, objects that demand intervention, to be used. The distance between art and viewers diminishes. Meaning is made accessible in the use of the objects, the artwork is completed only by its usage and a certain intimacy between the work and user is being generated. (ca) no no Peter Fritzenwallner, time, mechanics, cinetics, drawing, machine, videoart, assemblage, constellation, structure, participation, fine arts, University for Applied Arts, Vienna CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/116_fritzenwallner.mp4 116_fritzenwallner.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com "The First Hit of PHANTOMAK: The Ear Problem. No Problem." Masquerade, demasquerade, illusion, delusion, covering, decovering, position, superposition. CastYourArt presents the first series of works of the PHANTOMAK project by TOMAK and Alek Kawka . 08:07 PHANTOMAK - The First Hit. "The First Hit of PHANTOMAK: The Ear Problem. No Problem." Masquerade, demasquerade, illusion, delusion, covering, decovering, position, superposition, appearance, constellation. CastYourArt presents the first series of works of the PHANTOMAK project by TOMAK (painting, collage, grafic) and Alek Kawka (photography). Exhibition September 14 until October 8, 2010 | Mo-Fr | 12p.m. - 5p.m. PHANTOMAK: For CastYourArt, TOMAK creates the sculpture series PHANTOMAK. 10 individual busts (PHANTOMAK, Hard Licker, Night Rider, ...), TOMAK’s head, scanned in 3D, cut out by a milling robot of the Vienna University of Technology at the Institute of Art and Design, and processed by the artist. Objects at the limits of the possible. TOMAK: „When I heard that the ear poses the biggest challenge for technicians as well as for computers and robots, due to its shape and its way of growing out of the head, it suddenly dawned on me. For a long time, the ear has had a recurrent leading role in my artistic endeavors. Therefore I concluded that a special series of artworks should be made dealing with the “ear-problem”. The First Hit of PHANTOMAK: As a first step towards the „heads“, the ears were created as prototypes. Paralleling the various working processes leading to the ear as an object, the artist produces drawings. In this way a series containing 20 works comes into being, in which TOMAK dissects the project PHANTOMAK and literally shows us cutouts. The ear problem becomes an exhibition on its own: „The Ear Problem. No Problem. “ Alek Kawka: The artist Alek Kawka accompanies the project PHANTOMAK with her photographs. For the exhibition „The Ear Problem. No Problem“, she reflects upon the creation of the sculpture series PHANTOMAK with photographs of her own that undergo a special treatment. Due to the used processing technique, the photographs acquire a spatial dimension, in analogy to TOMAK’s first big leap into the realm of sculpture. (wh/t/ca) yes no Tomak, Alek Kawka, Colage, Art Design, Phantomak, Technical University Vienna, Photography, Exhibition CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 9 Sep 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/135_phantomak.mp4 135_phantomak.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Irene Andessner resuscitates the Tableau vivant with “Art Protectors” in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 06:49 Irene Andessner-Art Protectors Art Protectors is a two-piece tableau vivant Irene Andessner staged in the Kunsthistorisches Museum after the model of Dutch regent’s portraits. Two paintings of Jan de Brays of 1667 are the initial source. They show the administrative council of the leper-, pestilence and insane asylum, the directors and patrons administering and supporting it. In her contemporary reinterpretation of the subject, Andessner replaces the staff of both paintings by patrons of the arts: collectors, gallerists, a museum director, a curator. »A person is never himself, he is always a mask.« (Achille Bonito Oliva). Thereby the mask serves as an instrument of de-/construction of identity. Depending on culture and usage, the mask has various connotations. The face acts as boundary between within and without, between self and other, between displaying and hiding of affects and emotions. The regent’s portraits of the first half of the 17th century in particular possess a very formal composition. A lot of emphasis was placed on the details depicting the social status of the portrayed. Reenacting these individual representations constitute the focus of Irene Andessner’s work. In the process the artist casts herself in different parts - in this case as the sponsored. In the mid 1800s an understanding of the social function of art had already started to develop. In France, art-interested citizens and pundits accomplished access to the royal art collections. Consequently a collection of paintings was installed in the Palais de Luxembourg of Paris. This collection was later relocated to the Louvre. At this time in Vienna, parts of the Imperial collection were already accessible to the public in today’s chamber of the ecclesiastical treasury in Hofburg palace. However, towards the end of the 18th century first criticism concerning this cultural policy under state control arose. Art disengaged itself more and more of the courtly environment and its representational tasks. More and more citizens commissioned, collected and received art and became patrons and promoters. By means of these patrons a self-confident citizenry developed and civic values were introduced into society. The first representation of a tableau vivant is documented in 1761, when a painting of Jean-Baptiste Greuze was re-enacted as part of a play at the Paris theatre. The term Tableau vivant is traceable since 1818. Tableaux vivants reflect and interpret works of art. If their initial purpose was to resurrect bygone eras by eliminating the historical distance, in Andessner’s work they serve as critical metaphors. Andessner goes beyond reproducing the original model. The images are stripped down to the essential by changing props, costumes etc. therefore revealing their connection to the present. Nowadays the visiting of galleries and museums as well as collecting art is popular worldwide like never before. The questions of influence, of the power of collectors, the social, political, economical and cultural contexts of collecting, but also of the social responsibility and relevance of art are evidently crucial. CastYourArt takes the opportunity of the preparations for Art Protectors to interview not only the artist, but also the general director of the KHM Sabine Haag, as well as Karl Schütz, head of the KHM picture gallery and the participating collectors about this controversial issue. (bl/ca) no no Irene Sndessner, Tableau Vivant, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Sammler, an de Bray, Tableau vivant, regent’s portraits, Dutch Group Portraits CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 7 Sep 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/139_andessner.mp4 139_andessner.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Frida Kahlo’s work oscillates between self stylizing and radical authenticity, relentlessly facing the question of her female identity and at the same time touching the search for identity of an entire nation. 08:43 Frida Kahlo PAIN-ting When André Breton, during a visit to Mexico in 1938, thought having discovered the surrealist counterpart to the European avant-garde of his time in Frida Kahlo’s work, she briskly deemed her own painting anything but an escape. “I never painted dreams. What I painted was my reality.” To this, the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes stated in one of his essays: “Frida Kahlo reminds us permanently that the matter used by the French surrealists to make a system was always everyday reality in Latin America, part of the cultural stream, a spontaneous fusion of myth and actuality, dream and waking, reason and fantasy.” Surrealism was marked by a revolutionary anarchistic conception of art and searched for a new unburdened reality within the unconscious. In the Mexico of the 1920ies everything was about renovation as well, as the longstanding dictatorship had finally found an end after the Mexican revolution. However, reflections on concepts of art theory were not Frida Kahlo’s most pressing concern. She had created her own important world, which was neither defined academically nor politically. After a serious bus accident she discovered painting for herself and used it to overcome the loneliness overwhelming her at times, caused by consequential health damages. At the beginning she mostly painted her family, her friends and acquaintances, often giving away her paintings in order not to be forgotten. After she gradually began to ascertain herself as an artist in her own right by the end of the 1930ies, she produced a series of self-portraits that represent the highlights of her painting today. There we see Frida Kahlo as an unassuming, if lightly flirtatious but always proud character, protecting herself with traditional Mexican attributes as it were. Even her most intimate experiences would not be spared from her self-assertion. She consequently painted the miscarriage she had suffered in the form of a votive image, as well as a woman injured by stab wounds in a world of machismo and the absence of women’s rights. Frida Kahlo is the first female painter in art history who radically focused on subjects of femininity. Nevertheless, the partially perturbing contents of her works were not really meant to shock but rather to depict, to remember, to appreciate and to place matters into the center of attention that were until then private and only attributed to women. But they are also subjects coming from a world that does not equate death with taboo, and which would call a self-confident shorthaired girl “la pelona”, baldheaded. As she once noted in her diary, Frida had in fact two accidents: “One happened when I got run over by a streetcar, the other is Diego.” At the age of 19 she married Diego Rivera, already famous for his large-sized mural paintings; he would become her lifelong companion despite a short separation due to his countless affairs. She subscribed to his communist ideology and through him soon found contacts to the avant-garde of the time as well as to friends and sponsors, so cherished by her throughout her life. By consistently dressing up in traditional Mexican costumes and abundantly wearing handmade regional jewelry she attained a magical and iconic charisma, rather compared to a circus performer by children in the streets of New York. Never over-zealous, always with humor and some self-mockery, she painted until the end of her 47 years of life, at the end hallucinating and under the influence of alcohol, as her last pictures indicate that were rediscovered only recently. Her conscience of death also found expression in the still lifes of her last creative years. Overripe fruit and hints at decaying fruit pulp are combined with little hidden anecdotes. There are even traceably encrypted self-portraits to be discovered in two coconuts: Frida, weeping, and Diego, superior and withdrawn. (ko/ca) no no Frida Kahlo, painting, drawing, retrospective, BACA Kunstforum, Vienna, Mexican, Art CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/140_kahlo.mp4 140_kahlo.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Dealing with art institutions as well as private collectors requires the insurer UNIQA to secure value, promote culture, and bring people together. 06:14 Among its many branches within the insurance field, UNIQA is active within the the art insurance sector. Dealing with art institutions as well as private collectors requires the insurer to secure value, promote culture, and bring people together. The enterprise is therefore not just limited to providing insurance benefits, it also offers knowledge, contacts, and support, in order to make it possible for art and the art world to develop. We at CastYourArt have found in UNIQA a business partner whose commitment has made a number of our podcast episodes possible. In the following episode, we spoke with Konstantin Klien, CEO of UNIQA, and Petra Eibel, the director of art insurance department at UNIQA, two important representatives of the UNIQA art sector, in order to get their views on their company's position, philosophy, services, and identity. no no Artinsurance, UNIQA, Vienna, Maria Lassnig, Andy Warhol, Saliera, Kunsthaus Graz CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/132_uniqa_aug2010.mp4 132_uniqa_aug2010.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com As a sign of our solidarity within the fight against HIV and the social exclusion of HIV positive people. A flash mob, initiated by the Viennese Museum Belvedere - we filmed at Kiss@Belvedere ... 03:30 As a sign of our solidarity within the fight against HIV and the social exclusion of HIV positive people. A flash mob, initiated by the Viennese Museum Belvedere - we filmed at Kiss@Belvedere ... no no Museum, Belvedere, Gustav Klimt, Kiss Vienna, Flash Mob, HIV, Solidarity CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/138_kiss.mp4 138_kiss.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Kontakt is the Erste Bank group’s collection of contemporary Eastern European art. But there is more to it…it allows new insights and a deeper understanding of current trends 06:25 Kontakt. The name says it all The art collection of the Erste Bank group focuses on contemporary art of Central and Eastern Europe, at which media like film and video were included from the beginning. Due to a lack of structures to back up production and networking, in the post-socialist states there was less exchange between the artists than there was with the international art world. In the collection, development trajectories of specific practices in central and Eastern Europe’s art production are traced and their significance on an international level studied, in order to recover a part of the cultural memory and to create bonds between previously unconnected art scenes. A change of perspective is achieved regarding the reception of contemporary eastern European art produced within local contexts, an art in which the historical and political changes of recent history are reflected in manifold ways - but also the transformation of the “West” taking place simultaneously, that has generated new positions of art in the light of current historical developments. The aim of the artists is to transmit a message relevant to all of us, beyond being a mere product of consumption. It is not only a question of forms of expression but also about means of transmission - in order to tackle political, social and economic issues that would rather be kept under the rug by ruling powers. The paradigm of subversion and the necessity to restitute their voice to the subjects is defended, as well by practices of popularization and democratization of means of (art) production and the subsequent exhibitions. These dynamics of creativity are not orientated towards competition on a market but towards subversion, therefore they represent an important antidote to the institutions of art business. Currently the dividing line is not along questions of technology, critical reflection does not demand for democratization of the media but of the contents. The production of art and critical reflection avails itself of media as iconographic database, in order to generate texts and subtexts where the citation is left aside in favor of the implicit meanings and their variations. As soon as two objects or contents are viewed together, a new unity of preexisting elements is established as if through contagion, in which fragments of content recombine themselves within a new correlation - like words of a sentence. The artists create, every one in his or her unique manner, new contexts that establish a connection between work and viewer, in a perpetual game of experimentation. Since the end of the metanarrative and of mythologies the rules are not binding anymore, and the artists liberated of their historical burden to “produce objects that enslave us” (Guy Debord). No more is it necessary to find ultimate truths, neither questions nor solutions, no more is it about the individual against the rest of the world, nor does the end justify the means; indeed the incessant vortex of images forces individualism to reconstitute itself - within the process and not the outcomes. In their selection and analysis the works convey something which was ostensibly absent beforehand: a hidden pattern of power structures and their representations. Nowadays the critical artist is like a kind of virus, deconstructing the original text in order to upturn it into smaller individual results. The ultimate political goals have been transformed into social events on a small scale - personal documentations about human beings and their era.(ca) no no Collection, 1970ies, 1960ies, Eastern European art, video, transformation, post-socialist, conceptual, performance, Erste Bank, Kontakt, Eastern Europe CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/130_kontakt.mp4 130_kontakt.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Edgar Hontschlaeger 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. 06:25 Edgar Honetschlaeger - to the limits Vain is the attempt to classify this corpus of ideas into orderly progressions, straight lines, fixed positions, separate stages. Edgar Honetschlaeger’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. We find ourselves before a buried treasure, like an archeological site, where we would cause damage to the traces and clues by digging. The deposits and sediments that would be removed are traces of the artist’s self; in all layers we can feel the spiritual circling movement, a search for identity, a certain physicalness. 
 To try to disentangle the system of analogies permeating his oeuvre, the symbolic dimensions, the circular movement, the sensuality, the social reflection about eternity, the mechanisms of identity and concealment governing the body, this effort is ultimately doomed to fail. In the course of time, the irresistible vocation to construct text and to generate narrative produces surprisingly consistent structures - where one either joins the other or it does not. A dense network of references comes into being, embedded in a network of discourses, within which the elements do not make sense without the others, where the processual character of the work becomes more and more evident, an open work without completion and finality. From the outset his artistic endeavor consists in narrating, storytelling, a narrative patchwork, with absurd, epic, comical stories. These fragmentary tales touch on the sources of mythology; derive from popular stories, current news, political affairs, persons and objects of his surroundings. From this viewpoint it seems that his work as a whole obeys a double functional principle of an almost linguistical kind: articulation and integration, assembly and fusion, syntax and poetics. The compression of meaning he carries out in his artistic figures has its original impulse in a mental activity that can be interpreted as decipherment. The signs generate what we can not help doing: thinking. He discloses metaphorical realms of autonomy and creates cultural spaces, geographically, imaginarily, socially with an open and thus autonomous temporality. He works with narrative sequences which can be full of contradictions at times. Sometimes he reveals himself as object; on the other hand he is the subjectivity creating them. His visual art is characterized by the effort to reach an existence outside of themselves, independent of the artist and the recipient. He uses exterior areas and architecture, experiments with space and the friction between two-dimensionality and tri-dimensionality, a coordinated interaction between architecture, drawing and painting occurs. Drawing constitutes an important means within his work, as a result of his consistent examination of two-dimensionality. Within the sequences, the second and third dimension are interchanged quoted or merged. Honetschlaeger has made himself independent from the belief in perfection as well as its opposite. The one focal point of perspective does indeed exist, but only in close connection with all possible constellations of focal points. The objects of daily use that surround us, tools, artifacts, attire, they all hold a peculiar fascination for him. They tell us of universal issues and at the same time of certain eras, cultures and ways to understand the world. Finally they tell us of their ownership’s fugacity, how they and we have different existences that intersect and meet temporarily in time and space. We are nothing but circumstances. (ca) no no Honetschlaeger, Japan, New York, drawing, painting, 2D, 3D, video, film, Milk, drawing, painting, Tokyo, Schuwerk, Chairs CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 7 Jul 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/120_honetschlaeger.mp4 120_honetschlaeger.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Brigitte Kowanz challenges us to question things, perception processes become cognition processes. 07:47 Brigitte Kowanz - Now I See In the exhibition Now I See, the MUMOK in Vienna shows yet another retrospective of an internationally renowned Austrian artist. On display there is an overview of Brigitte Kowanz’ oeuvre, with a focus on recent years. "We are in a constant process of translation" ascertains Kowanz. "Perception is translation. Language is translation." Kowanz concerns herself with phenomena eluding conscious perception. In this respect she was influenced by Paul Virilio, who dealt with The Aesthetics of Disappearance of “stable” images. Internet and television enable us to be at several locations simultaneously. Virilio describes “picture-tube and display screen where shadows move, representing the phantoms of a society in dissolution” and declares that the simulation of reality replaces the immediate perception of reality. Jean Baudrillard also refers to the mediated reality of the world. In his theory of simulation he argues that reality is created artificially from the outset, so there could be no reference to a relation between a subject and the world. In fact, reality is a priori supposed to be the product of a determined ideology. The media and writing constitute the coordinates of our information society. Yet cognition is more than vision. In the works of Kowanz, processes of perception become processes of cognition. The function of light corresponds to the function of language; they both serve as filters through which things are perceived. At the same time, light as well as language are basic prerequisites for perception and render it possible in the first place. The exhibition displays interventions in architectural space from 1984 until today. Light as basic principle of all being is the medium and the subject of the artists’ earlier oeuvre as well. Only later the question of semantics becomes the focus of her attention. With the involvement of language, the artist now produces works full of poetry as well as analytically precise definitions. The titles, among them Lumen and Lux, already refer to light by themselves. In the neon light works, light itself generates the words and sentences. Form and content coincide, the utterance undergoing a tautological reduplication, such as in Volumen and Outshine. Morse code signs are also used to form words and phrases dealing with light as a phenomenon - Light Is What We See. In contrast there are light installations to be seen which emulate the artist’s handwriting, and where legibility is eclipsed by the calligraphic effect. For Kowanz, the mirror is another instrument of reflection about phenomena like perception or observation, as well as the subject-object problem. Reflecting foils spread the Morse code message over the entire space (Point of View), while language is condensed into networks in the tridimensional mirror cubes, and barely legible. The highlight of the show is a hall of mirrors that requires a conscience of the perception process from the viewer, and assigns him the task of questioning his self perception. By means of light it becomes possible to visualize the experience of space as well as the experience of time (Lichtgeschwindigkeit SEK/4M). Besides verbal pronouncements, architecture is also a carrier of the general discourse, and is as such semantically determined from the outset. Kowanz, who is most notably known for her projects in public space internationally, transforms spaces by means of light, thus referring to their structure which is contingent but always immanent to their significance. The current exhibition also includes two interventions of the artist in public space. While the façade of the MUMOK is being measured and the results displayed on the exterior of the building, the second work on the UNIQA tower, Now I see, deals with the fugacity of language and light. (bl/ca) no no Light, media art, architecture, mirror, neon, Jean Baudrillard, discourse, Paul Virilio, perception, space, Uniqa, coding, observation, writing, language CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/136_kowanz.mp4 136_kowanz.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Artist portrait Hermann Nitsch. The fact that the world exists is primary for me. The art of celebrating existence. 09:27 Hermann Nitsch - "The Passion is the Reverse Image of the Orgiastic" "I like not your festivals: I have found there too many actors, and the spectators also often behaved like actors" (Nietzsche, Zarathustra) As social beings we are forced to restrain ourselves and to civilize our behaviour. Education means for the most part to accustom ourselves to the social space designed to optimize productivity. During this individual and collective effort to adapt, parts of us that are not suitable for everyday life are being pushed into the background. We establish ethical, moral and aesthetic taboos and channel our tamed wildness through idealized passion. Psychoanalysis calls this process projection. "The passion", Nitsch wrote, "is the reverse image of the orgiastic". Christian religion - taking advantage of the repression and projection mechanisms in the passion of Christ and its idealized reproduction in order to underscore its own credibility - and Nitsch with his "Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries", both respond to the same fact of mans alienation from his existence. This explains the resemblance of Nitsch's staging with liturgical ceremonies and also its perception as a threat by the Catholic Church and its representatives: a person who has undergone the Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries, who has dealt with all aspects of his own self, could no more be receptive to the idealizing of his own repressed side within the other, to the projection that creates faith. Nitsch’s work has Nietzschean features, "Ye flee from yourselves unto your neighbour and would fain make a virtue thereof; but I see through your ‘unselfishness’”. (Nietzsche, Zarathustra) The self-examination and the breaking of taboos are considered to be characteristics of Viennese actionism, to which Hermann Nitsch is to be included as an important exponent, besides Günter Brus, Otto Mühl and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. Their actionist art, counting on action and experience, tried to break the shackles of conservative religious post-war society characterized by the silencing of the past. In order for Nitsch’s theatre action to work out in the sense of an actionist self-confrontation of man, in his staging there are not merely actors playing their roles and spectators admiring the performance. Whoever is present, participates, is involved with all his senses and experiences himself in a real situation. Nitsch's Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries and his painting performances are designed as escape valves of civilization, as older societies established in the myth of Dionysos and its dismemberment rituals. In modern times such social extraterritories organized as collective hiatus have become unusual and are but practiced individually. As (painting) action experienced by artist and participating audience together, his art strikes a chord in deeper layers of collective being - or as Jung, appreciated very much by Nitsch, puts it: the archetypical of our existence. The path leading Nitsch to theater was marked by actionist painting working with materiality; squirting, smearing, mixing, dispersing painting. He claims to have come upon using blood through the very intensive colour red, in combination with his interest for mysticism and it rituals. It was only a step from blood and his actionist approach to painting, to the materials of his theatre of Orgies and Mysteries. His painting originates in action; it bears witness to ecstasy in the way a room in which a festivity took place still gives account of it. In times between his performances he paints in his studio - also alone - or he composes, an art which fascinates him since long time ago. Up to now he has composed nine symphonies. Here also he privileges real staging to playing. “My music”, says the artist “has its origin in screaming, in intensive agitation, in a state availing itself of preverbal utterances.” (wh/ca) yes no action, archetype, Carl Gustav Jung, catholicism, ecstas, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hermann Nitsch, liturgy, music, mystics, orgy, painting, passion, religion, Dionysos, Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries, Viennese actionism, Zarathustra CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 8 Jun 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/121_nitsch.mp4 121_nitsch.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com "Small is the new big" interview with Jessica Bradley owner of the Jessica Bradley Art Projects. > 09:58 Contemporary Art in Toronto - Finding The Right Mix. There has been much debate over whether a national style, philosophical outlook, or unified and cohesive culture exists or ever has existed within Canada. The country is large geographically, with many distinct regions, and its population is diverse and made up of varying national and ethnic backgrounds. Like every other cultural activity taking place in the country, Contemporary art is influenced and shaped by the vast distances and different identities that separate Halifax from Vancouver and Montreal from Toronto. In Europe, museums and art galleries are relatively close to each other, thus giving a chance to private collectors, curators and art critics to travel to visit exhibitions in other countries, write about foreign artists or buy their artworks. Canadian artists can’t really count on collectors or gallerists from other national urban centres, let alone international buyers, to come and look at their work in the city where they exhibit. Since there are very few important collecting families in the country and the collecting practice itself is fairly young, the most renown Canadian artists, such as Jeff Wall, Michael Snow or Stan Douglas, have to exhibit in New-York or in Europe to sell their work. And the lesser-known artists have to rely almost exclusively on local buyers to survive. Creative isolation, lack of exposure, difficulties to export their works of art beyond their region’s borders; many artists of the Great White North struggle to make ends meet. But in that sense, they are no different than most artists in any other country, especially those living outside of the big Contemporary art markets. And if the differences in the national cultural identities might be seen as barriers when it comes to establish a solid and organized art community across a territory as vast as Canada, it can also be a proof of the uniqueness of the artists and the richness of their work, no matter where they live. Nevertheless, many artists choose to leave their hometowns and move to urban centres to pursue their careers. And the number one destination in Canada is Toronto. Toronto has been the financial centre of Canada for decades. But in the past years, it has also become the cultural centre, taking the title away from Montreal. Some would argue that it has to do with the 1980 Referendum on the separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada, when many Anglophone artists and writers are believed to have fled the city in fear of losing their cultural identity. Some would beg to differ. But in any case, Toronto is where the money is. Not only there are more museums and galleries but there is also a larger number of collectors interested in acquiring Contemporary works of art than anywhere else in the country. Aside from the public funding from the Federal government, there are other public projects that can help artists selling their artworks. For example, there is a city programme that requires of the developers to invest 1% of their budget to finance projects of public art that will be exhibited in their buildings. Although Toronto is one of the biggest and most exciting art centres in North America, the cosmopolitan city has not yet been able to find its own identity and its place in the international Contemporary art scene. We asked curators Ben Portis at the Art Gallery of Ontario and David Liss at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary, gallerists Jessica Bradley and Olga Korper, both working with local and international artists, and private and public art consultant Fela Grunwald, to talk about the development of Toronto’s contemporary art scene and the challenges the art community faces. (jfl) no no City of Toronto, Contemporary Art Toronto, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Ben Portis, Art Gallery of Ontario, David Liss, MOCCA Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Olga Korper Gallery, Fela Grundwald, The Power Plant CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Fri, 4 Jun 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/066_5_toronto.mp3 066_5_toronto.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Fela Grunwald, an art consultant, and Olga Korper, a gallery owner, believe that to sell art you have to invest yourself personally, to have an emotional connection to the artworks. > 09:58 Contemporary Art in Toronto - Finding The Right Mix. There has been much debate over whether a national style, philosophical outlook, or unified and cohesive culture exists or ever has existed within Canada. The country is large geographically, with many distinct regions, and its population is diverse and made up of varying national and ethnic backgrounds. Like every other cultural activity taking place in the country, Contemporary art is influenced and shaped by the vast distances and different identities that separate Halifax from Vancouver and Montreal from Toronto. In Europe, museums and art galleries are relatively close to each other, thus giving a chance to private collectors, curators and art critics to travel to visit exhibitions in other countries, write about foreign artists or buy their artworks. Canadian artists can’t really count on collectors or gallerists from other national urban centres, let alone international buyers, to come and look at their work in the city where they exhibit. Since there are very few important collecting families in the country and the collecting practice itself is fairly young, the most renown Canadian artists, such as Jeff Wall, Michael Snow or Stan Douglas, have to exhibit in New-York or in Europe to sell their work. And the lesser-known artists have to rely almost exclusively on local buyers to survive. Creative isolation, lack of exposure, difficulties to export their works of art beyond their region’s borders; many artists of the Great White North struggle to make ends meet. But in that sense, they are no different than most artists in any other country, especially those living outside of the big Contemporary art markets. And if the differences in the national cultural identities might be seen as barriers when it comes to establish a solid and organized art community across a territory as vast as Canada, it can also be a proof of the uniqueness of the artists and the richness of their work, no matter where they live. Nevertheless, many artists choose to leave their hometowns and move to urban centres to pursue their careers. And the number one destination in Canada is Toronto. Toronto has been the financial centre of Canada for decades. But in the past years, it has also become the cultural centre, taking the title away from Montreal. Some would argue that it has to do with the 1980 Referendum on the separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada, when many Anglophone artists and writers are believed to have fled the city in fear of losing their cultural identity. Some would beg to differ. But in any case, Toronto is where the money is. Not only there are more museums and galleries but there is also a larger number of collectors interested in acquiring Contemporary works of art than anywhere else in the country. Aside from the public funding from the Federal government, there are other public projects that can help artists selling their artworks. For example, there is a city programme that requires of the developers to invest 1% of their budget to finance projects of public art that will be exhibited in their buildings. Although Toronto is one of the biggest and most exciting art centres in North America, the cosmopolitan city has not yet been able to find its own identity and its place in the international Contemporary art scene. We asked curators Ben Portis at the Art Gallery of Ontario and David Liss at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary, gallerists Jessica Bradley and Olga Korper, both working with local and international artists, and private and public art consultant Fela Grunwald, to talk about the development of Toronto’s contemporary art scene and the challenges the art community faces. (jfl) no no City of Toronto, Contemporary Art Toronto, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Ben Portis, Art Gallery of Ontario, David Liss, MOCCA Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Olga Korper Gallery, Fela Grundwald, The Power Plant CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 2 Jun 2010 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/066_4_toronto.mp3 066_4_toronto.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Ben Portis, an Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario talks about the new AGO and what makes art a fascinating field to be in. > 14:05 Contemporary Art in Toronto - Finding The Right Mix. There has been much debate over whether a national style, philosophical outlook, or unified and cohesive culture exists or ever has existed within Canada. The country is large geographically, with many distinct regions, and its population is diverse and made up of varying national and ethnic backgrounds. Like every other cultural activity taking place in the country, Contemporary art is influenced and shaped by the vast distances and different identities that separate Halifax from Vancouver and Montreal from Toronto. In Europe, museums and art galleries are relatively close to each other, thus giving a chance to private collectors, curators and art critics to travel to visit exhibitions in other countries, write about foreign artists or buy their artworks. Canadian artists can’t really count on collectors or gallerists from other national urban centres, let alone international buyers, to come and look at their work in the city where they exhibit. Since there are very few important collecting families in the country and the collecting practice itself is fairly young, the most renown Canadian artists, such as Jeff Wall, Michael Snow or Stan Douglas, have to exhibit in New-York or in Europe to sell their work. And the lesser-known artists have to rely almost exclusively on local buyers to survive. Creative isolation, lack of exposure, difficulties to export their works of art beyond their region’s borders; many artists of the Great White North struggle to make ends meet. But in that sense, they are no different than most artists in any other country, especially those living outside of the big Contemporary art markets. And if the differences in the national cultural identities might be seen as barriers when it comes to establish a solid and organized art community across a territory as vast as Canada, it can also be a proof of the uniqueness of the artists and the richness of their work, no matter where they live. Nevertheless, many artists choose to leave their hometowns and move to urban centres to pursue their careers. And the number one destination in Canada is Toronto. Toronto has been the financial centre of Canada for decades. But in the past years, it has also become the cultural centre, taking the title away from Montreal. Some would argue that it has to do with the 1980 Referendum on the separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada, when many Anglophone artists and writers are believed to have fled the city in fear of losing their cultural identity. Some would beg to differ. But in any case, Toronto is where the money is. Not only there are more museums and galleries but there is also a larger number of collectors interested in acquiring Contemporary works of art than anywhere else in the country. Aside from the public funding from the Federal government, there are other public projects that can help artists selling their artworks. For example, there is a city programme that requires of the developers to invest 1% of their budget to finance projects of public art that will be exhibited in their buildings. Although Toronto is one of the biggest and most exciting art centres in North America, the cosmopolitan city has not yet been able to find its own identity and its place in the international Contemporary art scene. We asked curators Ben Portis at the Art Gallery of Ontario and David Liss at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary, gallerists Jessica Bradley and Olga Korper, both working with local and international artists, and private and public art consultant Fela Grunwald, to talk about the development of Toronto’s contemporary art scene and the challenges the art community faces. (jfl) no no City of Toronto, Contemporary Art Toronto, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Ben Portis, Art Gallery of Ontario, David Liss, MOCCA Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Olga Korper Gallery, Fela Grundwald, The Power Plant CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 1 Jun 2010 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/066_3_toronto.mp3 066_3_toronto.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com David Liss is the Artistic Director and Curator of the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art in Toronto.> 11:34 Contemporary Art in Toronto - Interview with David Liss. There has been much debate over whether a national style, philosophical outlook, or unified and cohesive culture exists or ever has existed within Canada. The country is large geographically, with many distinct regions, and its population is diverse and made up of varying national and ethnic backgrounds. Like every other cultural activity taking place in the country, Contemporary art is influenced and shaped by the vast distances and different identities that separate Halifax from Vancouver and Montreal from Toronto. In Europe, museums and art galleries are relatively close to each other, thus giving a chance to private collectors, curators and art critics to travel to visit exhibitions in other countries, write about foreign artists or buy their artworks. Canadian artists can’t really count on collectors or gallerists from other national urban centres, let alone international buyers, to come and look at their work in the city where they exhibit. Since there are very few important collecting families in the country and the collecting practice itself is fairly young, the most renown Canadian artists, such as Jeff Wall, Michael Snow or Stan Douglas, have to exhibit in New-York or in Europe to sell their work. And the lesser-known artists have to rely almost exclusively on local buyers to survive. Creative isolation, lack of exposure, difficulties to export their works of art beyond their region’s borders; many artists of the Great White North struggle to make ends meet. But in that sense, they are no different than most artists in any other country, especially those living outside of the big Contemporary art markets. And if the differences in the national cultural identities might be seen as barriers when it comes to establish a solid and organized art community across a territory as vast as Canada, it can also be a proof of the uniqueness of the artists and the richness of their work, no matter where they live. Nevertheless, many artists choose to leave their hometowns and move to urban centres to pursue their careers. And the number one destination in Canada is Toronto. Toronto has been the financial centre of Canada for decades. But in the past years, it has also become the cultural centre, taking the title away from Montreal. Some would argue that it has to do with the 1980 Referendum on the separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada, when many Anglophone artists and writers are believed to have fled the city in fear of losing their cultural identity. Some would beg to differ. But in any case, Toronto is where the money is. Not only there are more museums and galleries but there is also a larger number of collectors interested in acquiring Contemporary works of art than anywhere else in the country. Aside from the public funding from the Federal government, there are other public projects that can help artists selling their artworks. For example, there is a city programme that requires of the developers to invest 1% of their budget to finance projects of public art that will be exhibited in their buildings. Although Toronto is one of the biggest and most exciting art centres in North America, the cosmopolitan city has not yet been able to find its own identity and its place in the international Contemporary art scene. We asked curators Ben Portis at the Art Gallery of Ontario and David Liss at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary, gallerists Jessica Bradley and Olga Korper, both working with local and international artists, and private and public art consultant Fela Grunwald, to talk about the development of Toronto’s contemporary art scene and the challenges the art community faces. (jfl) no no City of Toronto, Contemporary Art Toronto, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Ben Portis, Art Gallery of Ontario, David Liss, MOCCA Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Olga Korper Gallery, Fela Grundwald, The Power Plant CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 1 Jun 2010 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/066_2_toronto.mp3 066_2_toronto.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Toronto might be one of the biggest and most exciting art centres in North America but the cosmopolitan city has not yet been able to find its own identity and its place in the international Contemporary Art scene.> 10:40 Contemporary Art in Toronto - Finding The Right Mix. There has been much debate over whether a national style, philosophical outlook, or unified and cohesive culture exists or ever has existed within Canada. The country is large geographically, with many distinct regions, and its population is diverse and made up of varying national and ethnic backgrounds. Like every other cultural activity taking place in the country, Contemporary art is influenced and shaped by the vast distances and different identities that separate Halifax from Vancouver and Montreal from Toronto. In Europe, museums and art galleries are relatively close to each other, thus giving a chance to private collectors, curators and art critics to travel to visit exhibitions in other countries, write about foreign artists or buy their artworks. Canadian artists can’t really count on collectors or gallerists from other national urban centres, let alone international buyers, to come and look at their work in the city where they exhibit. Since there are very few important collecting families in the country and the collecting practice itself is fairly young, the most renown Canadian artists, such as Jeff Wall, Michael Snow or Stan Douglas, have to exhibit in New-York or in Europe to sell their work. And the lesser-known artists have to rely almost exclusively on local buyers to survive. Creative isolation, lack of exposure, difficulties to export their works of art beyond their region’s borders; many artists of the Great White North struggle to make ends meet. But in that sense, they are no different than most artists in any other country, especially those living outside of the big Contemporary art markets. And if the differences in the national cultural identities might be seen as barriers when it comes to establish a solid and organized art community across a territory as vast as Canada, it can also be a proof of the uniqueness of the artists and the richness of their work, no matter where they live. Nevertheless, many artists choose to leave their hometowns and move to urban centres to pursue their careers. And the number one destination in Canada is Toronto. Toronto has been the financial centre of Canada for decades. But in the past years, it has also become the cultural centre, taking the title away from Montreal. Some would argue that it has to do with the 1980 Referendum on the separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada, when many Anglophone artists and writers are believed to have fled the city in fear of losing their cultural identity. Some would beg to differ. But in any case, Toronto is where the money is. Not only there are more museums and galleries but there is also a larger number of collectors interested in acquiring Contemporary works of art than anywhere else in the country. Aside from the public funding from the Federal government, there are other public projects that can help artists selling their artworks. For example, there is a city programme that requires of the developers to invest 1% of their budget to finance projects of public art that will be exhibited in their buildings. Although Toronto is one of the biggest and most exciting art centres in North America, the cosmopolitan city has not yet been able to find its own identity and its place in the international Contemporary art scene. We asked curators Ben Portis at the Art Gallery of Ontario and David Liss at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary, gallerists Jessica Bradley and Olga Korper, both working with local and international artists, and private and public art consultant Fela Grunwald, to talk about the development of Toronto’s contemporary art scene and the challenges the art community faces. (jfl) no no City of Toronto, Contemporary Art Toronto, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Ben Portis, Art Gallery of Ontario, David Liss, MOCCA Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Olga Korper Gallery, Fela Grundwald, The Power Plant CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 31 May 2010 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/066_1_toronto.mp3 066_1_toronto.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com The Museum on call, the city of Vienna’s contemporary art collection is currently showing the exhibition Raum_Körper Einsatz, a representative overview on the formal vocabulary of Austrian postwar art. 06:20 MUSA - The City as Art Lover The collection of the city of Vienna shows an enormous variety of approaches to the human figure. In other words: the sculpture steps off its pedestal - or not. The museum on demand (MUSA) houses much of the artwork purchased by the City of Vienna through the years and is currently displaying them in the exhibition “re_figuring spaces”. The collection that owes its existence mostly to sponsorship initiatives of the municipality provides a glimpse of the different positions on sculpture and their evolution in the last half-century, as well as a who’s who of the Austrian postwar art scene. The interest for the preoccupation with the human figure is the constant of the exhibition, likewise the themes of irruption and fragmentation defining modern and postmodern sensibility can be found in the very diverse works. While the techniques of dealing with the issue of the human body have been expanded enormously, from photography and performance to the allusion to the body by its mere absence, the stone pedestal statues made for eternity still maintain their position. A huge variety of materials is used in the works; guided tactile tours for the visually impaired are also available. The body allows access to beauty as well as to the brutal and grotesque, but by the same token questions arise regarding the historical, social and political context. The body has still maintained its vital importance in modern and postmodern times; perhaps only by now it has reached the necessary ambivalence to achieve its goals in artistic practice, and to question the boundaries of social identity as well as political and sexual orthodoxies. In many of the displayed works the conceptions of how the self and identity are embedded within, and confined by the body, are being undermined in more or less subtle ways. They remind us of the frailty of the human body’s existence, eternally in peril of passing over into a different physical state, at which the artworks present themselves as a memento mori. So where is this self located, if not within the boundaries of our body? If the body can be a valid object for display even as divided, fragmented or actually absent one, where is the limit? Finally, beyond movement and the flow of time one arrives at mere existence or nonexistence.. The human figure is treated, penetrated, displayed, transformed, is being operated with. Here the artists or a live persons body itself becomes the location, origin and subject of reflection. Beyond the parameters of sculpture as such, a large part of this current in postwar art has generated a vide variety of practices by which the territory of the body can be explored subcutaneously. More radical forms of reflection serve as backdrop for referring to the “I” as the center of existence. The recurrent re-turn to the body as origin of contemplation and container of identity reveals the eternal relevance of the issue. The evolution of the enquiries concerning the human body, which are subject to constant changes, ranging from new diseases to genetic engineering, robotics, to the expansion of the limits of human life with comatose states, in vitro fertilization and prenatal diagnosis, perpetually generate new domains of reflection. The question whether if there is any identifying feature distinguishing the sculptural oeuvre of postwar Austria has to be decided by the visitor, given the enormous variety of artistic production. At least the exhibition provides a good overview. It is in any case not too daring to predict that the interest for the examination of the human figure will remain a constant in fine arts. no no MUSA, Vienna, sculpture, Silvie Aigner, Fritz Wotruba, Andreas Urteil, Hilde Uray, Barbara Graf, Valie Export, Alfred Hrdlicka, Bruno Gironcoli, Katarina Schmidl, Erwin Wurm CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 20 May 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/131_raum_koerper.mp4 131_raum_koerper.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com 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. 07:00 Allyson Mitchell - Furry Crits 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 and 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 “Hungry Purse; The Vagina Dentata in Late Capitalism”. Which is exactly the idea. The Toronto native wants you to be comfortable with her radical, provocative works. Mitchell uses grandmotherly softness, faux fur, warm 60’s and 70’s hues, and familiar objects to entice hesitant viewers to contemplate edgy themes related to lesbianism, nudity, feminism, and fatness. “Hungry Purse” is, in-fact, a gigantic vulva crafted from thrift store finds and sewn together with rough “Franken-stitch” strokes. “It’s not beautiful work, and I don’t want it to be,” says Mitchell. But there’s something undoubtedly becoming about the kaleidoscopic colors that clash with crude, undulating textures. The multifaceted artist, who works in sculpture, film, music, and installation, spends tedious, solitary sweat-shop hours on her hands and knees, watching television sitcoms on her laptop and piecing together art that both challenges and honors themes that are very personal to her. Raised in a prototypical, middle-class Canadian W.A.S.P. family, Mitchell began to craft as an outlet as she earned a Masters in women’s studies (she now has a PhD). At university, the queer and fat activist was ‘blown away’ by feminist theory. But she was also disappointed by how inaccessible it was to the general public and she resolved to realize feminist ideas in ways that made people feel smart rather than dumb. The result: towering, thoughtful, direct art you can feel—both physically and emotionally. (ul) MODEPALAST 2010, the exposition for fashion, jewelry, and accessories, which takes place at MAK, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, is based this year on “Green Design”, applying ecological and economic criteria to design and fashion. In conjunction with this year’s MODEPALAST, the Slow Fashion Award will also be awarded. yes no queer, lesbian, fat, political art, sasquatch, allyson mitchell, ISCP, New York, Brooklyn, hungry purse, deep lez, feminist, film, sculpture, music, installation CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 12 May 2010 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/124_mitchell.mp4 124_mitchell.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com For the sixth time, Viennafair takes place from May 6th to May 9th, with a focus on Central and Eastern European art. We spoke with Edek Bartz, the artistic director of the fair. 12:17 Viennafair - Art Fair: Focus on CEE As is the case everywhere, the financial crisis has separated the wheat from the chaff—in the art market as well. In the meantime, the storm is past, and the art market has recovered. Sales records have once again been reported from London, New York, and Paris. In Vienna, the Viennafair is entering its sixth year. Optimism is the key word at the moment. “Cooperation is the key to success”, as noted in the press release for the most important art fair of Austria. In this case, necessity breeds inventiveness. Hence, some galleries and art institutions are collaborating in order to present themselves as one “EC”- exhibitor community. Such symbioses originate from financial grounds. The result, an artistic dialogue, is what counts for the visitor in the end. The end effect is one of hushed expectation, thanks to the financial crisis. A fair survives on sales, an art fair, on the art on the sale. The Viennafair has enhanced its profile by representing 33 galleries from Eastern Europe. Once discounted as “unsexy”, Eastern European art is now considered exciting and attractive, including its representatives: young galleries and “off spaces”, whose appearance in the western world is made possible by the fair—in cooperation with its main sponsor, the Erste Group—through special arrangements. The Viennafair has been developing in the last few years into an important “point of transfer” for Central and Eastern European art, a strategy from which not only the Eastern European art market profits. On the one hand, the appearance of the eastern vendors has become more professional in the last few years, according to Edek Bartz, the artistic director of the fair. On the other hand, the directness and the minimal degree of commercialization of the Eastern art has had a positive influence on the Central and Western European art world. In addition to the work of young artists and artistic performances taking place on Friday evening, a special emphasis has been placed on film and video art. Collectors of video art are still classified as exotic birds of the scene, raising the question: why has so little attention been devoted to this art form and its developments? Is it due to its presentation or to the physical non-existence of moving pictures? In the end, the image does disappear as soon as the light of the projector goes out. The special exhibition, “Borrowed Time”, curated by Edek Bartz, puts film and video art back into focus. The goal is to bring more attention to this art form, not just to present it as a sideshow, but rather, under the most ideal conditions possible. Exhibition visitors would normally only notice videos in passing, but this year, for the first time, the Viennafair will present this art form in a way that allots it the time and attention it deserves. Among the works presented will be those of Dorit Magreiter, Florian Pumhösl, Ana Jarmolaewa, and Günter Brus. An additional presentation platform will show video work from the collection, “Kontakt: The Art Collection of Erste Group”. Instead of small screens and hard stools, large screens and comfortable seats will invite viewers to linger. Bartz’s organizational ability has led him to position the Viennafair as an art event that extends far beyond the fair itself. International collectors and art enthusiasts will be spread throughout the city during the time of the fair. The air will be buzzing with art, performances, and discussions, special tours, studio visits, numerous openings, exhibitions, and late nights. The mild May evenings will only add to the fun. (oh/wh/jn) The art fair, Viennafair, with a focus on Central and Eastern European art, will take place from May 6th to May 9th at the Vienna exhibition grounds. CastYourArt will be on location with our own stand. We look forward to seeing you there! no no Dorit Magreiter, Florian Pumhösl, Ana Jarmolaewa, Günter Brus, galleries, sales, Eastern Europe, Erste Bank, Kontakt: The Art Collection of Erste Group, Vienna, contemporary art, Viennafair, Edek Bartz, art fair, video art CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/129_2_viennaFair.mp3 129_2_viennaFair.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com For the sixth time, Viennafair takes place from May 6th to May 9th, with a focus on Central and Eastern European art. We spoke with Edek Bartz, the artistic director of the fair. 12:17 Viennafair - Art Fair: Focus on CEE As is the case everywhere, the financial crisis has separated the wheat from the chaff—in the art market as well. In the meantime, the storm is past, and the art market has recovered. Sales records have once again been reported from London, New York, and Paris. In Vienna, the Viennafair is entering its sixth year. Optimism is the key word at the moment. “Cooperation is the key to success”, as noted in the press release for the most important art fair of Austria. In this case, necessity breeds inventiveness. Hence, some galleries and art institutions are collaborating in order to present themselves as one “EC”- exhibitor community. Such symbioses originate from financial grounds. The result, an artistic dialogue, is what counts for the visitor in the end. The end effect is one of hushed expectation, thanks to the financial crisis. A fair survives on sales, an art fair, on the art on the sale. The Viennafair has enhanced its profile by representing 33 galleries from Eastern Europe. Once discounted as “unsexy”, Eastern European art is now considered exciting and attractive, including its representatives: young galleries and “off spaces”, whose appearance in the western world is made possible by the fair—in cooperation with its main sponsor, the Erste Group—through special arrangements. The Viennafair has been developing in the last few years into an important “point of transfer” for Central and Eastern European art, a strategy from which not only the Eastern European art market profits. On the one hand, the appearance of the eastern vendors has become more professional in the last few years, according to Edek Bartz, the artistic director of the fair. On the other hand, the directness and the minimal degree of commercialization of the Eastern art has had a positive influence on the Central and Western European art world. In addition to the work of young artists and artistic performances taking place on Friday evening, a special emphasis has been placed on film and video art. Collectors of video art are still classified as exotic birds of the scene, raising the question: why has so little attention been devoted to this art form and its developments? Is it due to its presentation or to the physical non-existence of moving pictures? In the end, the image does disappear as soon as the light of the projector goes out. The special exhibition, “Borrowed Time”, curated by Edek Bartz, puts film and video art back into focus. The goal is to bring more attention to this art form, not just to present it as a sideshow, but rather, under the most ideal conditions possible. Exhibition visitors would normally only notice videos in passing, but this year, for the first time, the Viennafair will present this art form in a way that allots it the time and attention it deserves. Among the works presented will be those of Dorit Magreiter, Florian Pumhösl, Ana Jarmolaewa, and Günter Brus. An additional presentation platform will show video work from the collection, “Kontakt: The Art Collection of Erste Group”. Instead of small screens and hard stools, large screens and comfortable seats will invite viewers to linger. Bartz’s organizational ability has led him to position the Viennafair as an art event that extends far beyond the fair itself. International collectors and art enthusiasts will be spread throughout the city during the time of the fair. The air will be buzzing with art, performances, and discussions, special tours, studio visits, numerous openings, exhibitions, and late nights. The mild May evenings will only add to the fun. (oh/wh/jn) The art fair, Viennafair, with a focus on Central and Eastern European art, will take place from May 6th to May 9th at the Vienna exhibition grounds. CastYourArt will be on location with our own stand. We look forward to seeing you there! no no Dorit Magreiter, Florian Pumhösl, Ana Jarmolaewa, Günter Brus, galleries, sales, Eastern Europe, Erste Bank, Kontakt: The Art Collection of Erste Group, Vienna, contemporary art, Viennafair, Edek Bartz, art fair, video art CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/129_1_viennaFair.mp3 129_1_viennaFair.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com The Slow Fashion Award 2010 is awarded for the third time. We spoke with participating designers about their view on sustainable fashion. 04:49 Slow Fashion Award 2010. Wien - Agadez Choosing the organic eggs off the shelf, eating locally grown apples, drinking fair trade coffee, going without strawberries in December—by now, these are things we take for granted. Is it due to our awareness of climate change? Perhaps. Or maybe we are looking to shift gears - to slow down and live more sustainably. For years now, the word “sustainability” has come up time and time again as a catchphrase of the moment. The fashion industry seems to have dodged this demand for sustainability for quite some time now - just look at the annual craze to follow the latest trends from fall/winter or summer collections—not to mention all those cheap t-shirts made in Asia. However, the Viennese Slow Fashion agency proves that this does not have to be the case, that one does not have to just jump on the bandwagon. Their concept is based on sustainability within the fashion industry and design. High quality, small lines, regional productions, and fair labor conditions—as opposed to children sewing in Bangladesh—make Slow Fashion “the organic egg” of the fashion industry. The movement is based on a socially conscious approach to fashion: “We must re-develop a sense of quality, take into consideration what kind of clothes we buy, by whom and under what conditions they are manufactured,” says Lisa Niedermayr, who runs the Slow Fashion agency together with Barbara Denk. A change in thinking is required, by the consumer as well. The Slow Fashion Award 2010 is an unusual design competition. Ten designers will take on the challenge of going through a cycle of production and application of African textiles, processing them into recyclable accessories that are presentable to the public. Following the slogan, “making the old into the new”, the participating designers received clothes from the African Agadez: holiday clothes, house clothes, everyday clothes - a cross-section of clothes from the region, including a baby sling from the Niger. The task consisted of developing economical and innovative accessories from these pieces. Sustainable work is also about quality: clothes that can be worn longer. “I cannot accept that one must throw out a dress just because it’s spring”, Coco Chanel was once quoted to say. Such style icons were already progressive thinkers. It remains to be seen whether the concept of recyclable fashion catches on with the general public in the same way that organic food has. But in any case, it has already been proven that one must not rely on Birkenstocks and self-knitted items to be a Slow Fashion supporter. The clothes make the man (or woman). (oh/jn) MODEPALAST 2010, the exposition for fashion, jewelry, and accessories, which takes place at MAK, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, is based this year on “Green Design”, applying ecological and economic criteria to design and fashion. In conjunction with this year’s MODEPALAST, the Slow Fashion Award will also be awarded. no no Slow Fashion, fashion, MODEPALAST, MAK Vienna, Coco Chanel, Lisa Niedermayr, Barbara Denk, design, green design, Vienna, Austria, Agadez, the Niger, recycling, sustainability CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/125_slow_fashion_en.mp4 125_slow_fashion_en.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com To Bollywood background music, the blows her partner, then he generously lathers her hairy fanny with soap… a porn movie? No, silly - an art video by Thomas Draschan. 04:07 Thomas Draschan - Psychic Images Collision Why do we constantly need images and want to reflect, recreate ourselves in them? Certainly they allow us to to enjoy insights unattainable to us by ourselves alone. They help us to escape, to distract and to intoxicate ourselves but at the same time bear the danger of overwhelming, narcotizing and alienating us. Deconstructing, dismantling and dissolving of the images implies loosening or at least weakening the ideological ties which inform their conception, production and reception, making them accesible to an alternative reading. This appropriation also connotes criticism, although in Draschans case no ostensibly political posturing in the sense of manifest criticism of media or capitalism is being transmitted. His collages do not force the new nexus between originally unconnected images upon the viewer, he forms allegories which wrest away the single elements from the context and isolate it, thus stripping it of its function. It is essentially about fragments, the elements of found material are decontextualized und the appearance of totality, present in conventional works, is being fractured. Draschan neither creates nor destroys; the received result is neither an exclusive product of his nor of the viewer’s subjectivity. Many sequences are already perfect the way they are found, revealing, be it on the conscious, semi-conscious or subconscious level. He takes the liberty of a new staging that takes possession of the realm of public images for private use, by use of added visual and sound effects. The discontinuities of the editing force the viewer to perceive and determine implicit meanings. The justification of this editing is founded in the possibility of reproducing a mental process in which one image follows the other, determined by the content on which our attention is focused. Of course these films challenge us to the question whether this is still art or not. The piece claims to create allegories by virtue of the non.-linear principle underlying the interaction, allocation, adjacency, connection of the images, which mutually implies isolation and inversion of scenes and images into a different context, in order to unhinge the subjacent idea from the apparent banality and to decipher the false naturality lying under the physiognomies and characteristical configurations that encode our habitual perception. In the end this transposition of objects within the virtual world changes nothing at all. It only brings the structures of art to consciousness, the former requiring a certain historical development before these metaphors become possible. In the video scenes, images and sounds are interlaced and like in the collage a surface emerges in which mental incisions create free spaces in order to find insights and inspirations. Draschan’s work is a perpetual search, an opening towards the interior through the surface, where the levels are entangled and the visual surface becomes object instead of being merely a foundation. (ca) WATCH FULL VERSION ON OUR WEBSITE!!!!! www.castyourart.com no no Thomas Draschan, film, video, deconstructivism, porn, Vienna, media, allegory, context, metaphor, kunsthalle, MQ, karlsplatz CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/126_draschan.mp4 126_draschan.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Every work of art has its own time structure, and Miki Eleta invites us to a dialogue about the transformation of time into space and vice versa. 06:52 Miki Eleta - Playing with Time “The infinite is in the finite of every instant” (quote from a fortune cookie) Time passes, irreversibly. Man can do nothing about it; at best he can feel it and regrettably, only be able to realize it. He learned to interpret natural phenomena, he created others who allowed him to measure it, try to grasp its notion, and capture it in concrete images. They are the symbols, the technical artifacts, the scientific investigations and the artistic creations through which he tries to represent it and give it shape. The great yearning nowadays is the quest for time. In arts this is reflected by the key notions in contemporary arts theory: transition, process, assembly, sequence, development….the traditional genres, classifications and categories disappear. The creative process, the procedure and even the spectators’ participation have primacy in artistic production and consumption. Miki Eleta takes the risk of pursuing the idea of a complete piece of art and taking the required time to produce it. But we are entering the era of instant time. The influence of micro-processors in the way of measuring time is already making its influence felt in our ways of conceiving the universe and our ways of thinking… Today, in our era of microprocessors, instantaneousness has taken over in our lives and with it everything that makes it alarming, disquieting. There is reassuring sense of repetition in phases, as was in times when time was cyclical. There is a loss of sense of continuity, as opposed to when time appeared to be a vast mechanism, now there is only the moment that counts. Just take a look at a digital clock, time comes from nowhere and goes nowhere - it is the instant. Eletas merit is to return to us this sense of continuity. The time is the same for everyone but the personal clock materializes the relationship of a person to his very own time. A clock individually «ties us to time». The fascination of clocks is that they all show the same thing which is to indicate the moment. But this universal functionality does not keep them from showing enormous differences (especially in price). In reality there is no more time to be seen in the inside of a clock than on its outside, as it exposes itself nowhere directly. Never have we seen, heard or touched time. It is never present as a raw phenomenon; we actually perceive only its effects, its avatars. Every clock hides time in a mixture of movements and periods and incites us to confound them with it. This strange needle of the clock which advances without showing us anything else than what it symbolizes - time resides outside of the clock. Alice sighed wearily. `I think you might do something better with the time,' she said, `than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.' `If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you wouldn't talk about wasting it. It's him.' `I don't know what you mean,' said Alice. `Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. `I dare say you never even spoke to Time!' `Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: `but I know I have to beat time when I learn music.' `Ah! that accounts for it,' said the Hatter. `He won't stand beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!' (Alice in Wonderland) (ca) no no Miki Eleta, Switzerland, Zürich, clock, clockmaker, time, period, instant, continuity, infinity, movement, mechanism, kinetics CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/097_eleta.mp4 097_eleta.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Swinger’s club in the Secession, blue sperm, and “Bar Rectum” in the Museumsquartier! Sexplosion in the city? Going Artsy - We get our art criticism off the street. 04:14 Sexcession - Sex in the City The Swiss artist, Christoph Büchel, is presenting a swinger’s club in the basement of the Secession. The “Bar Rectum”, the dark blue sperm, “Darwin”, and the “Bikini Bar” from the Dutch studio van Lieshout, are all currently being featured in the courtyard of the Museumsquartier in Vienna. We’re not sure whether this is a reference to art legend Peter Weibel’s 1983 “Sex in the City”, or a never-before-seen “Sexplosion”, as it was referred to in a daily rag. After a portion of the Viennese population responded through an initial, spontaneous outpouring of letters to the editor, the public reaction has calmed down a bit. With our camera team in tow, we braved the streets of Vienna in order to gage public opinion for ourselves. Going Artsy - Art criticism hits the streets. (wh/jn) yes no Secession, Vienna, Christoph Büchel, Studio van Lieshout, Museumsquartier Vienna, Sex, Provocation, Peter Weibel, Art Criticism, Public Opinion, Schubert Theater, Simon Meusburger, Nikolaus Habien, Irene Suchy CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/127_sexcession.mp4 127_sexcession.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com The curators of the Architekturzentrums 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“. 08:30 Crosswise - “x projects by arbeitsgruppe 4“ ”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, could not really embrace the new trends of a developing modern age. These movements could probably only take root in this country when the desire for security and the good old days had sufficiently challenged the cultural scene. While the avant-garde had a relatively easy starting point, based on work that was not always oriented towards utility, the architecture scene had to persuade politicians, officials, and a conservative society through their own visions and negotiations. In Johannes Spalt, Wilhelm Holzbauer, Friedrich Kurrent, and Otto Leitner, Austria found four visionaries who were ready to meet this challenge, but build on tradition at the same time. Studying under Clemens Holzmeister at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, they founded a working team at the beginning of their studies in 1952. Their “masters“ rarely attended work reviews, however, they observed the creative endeavors of their students in a well-meaning manner. The Salzburger “School of Seeing”, the summer academy under the direction of Oskar Kokoschka, contributed a great deal to the development of art and architecture. Here, the four students got acquainted with the architect Konrad Wachsmann, who emigrated to the US in 1941, and who had a substantial influence on the group with his innovative work methods. Within the environment of this group, there were poets, composers, and filmmakers such as the Wiener Gruppe, Peter Kubelka, the music ensemble, die reihe—who all partied together, as well as influenced each other. Member Otto Leitner left the group after one year in order to participate in a competition to design the City Museum of Vienna in Karlsplatz, which he wanted to take on alone. His colleagues, Spalt, Kurrent, and Holzmeister, participated in the competition as well. The group did not win, however, the experience paved the way for the group for projects that followed. The unofficial name of the group, “the 3/4“, was coined by the designer Anna Lülja Praun, which reffers to Leitner’s separation from the group with a sense of humor. The new constellation held together until 1956. Holzbauer’s journey to the US, as well as opposing points of view of the individual members on the role of the architect in public life, led to a further reduction of the team. The arbeitsgruppe 4 harbored a special interest in the building of churches, not so much due to any commitment to this tradition, but rather due to the church’s ability and willingness as a client to support their extravagant projects at this time. Although many of their projects won competitions, none of their housing projects were realized. Their ideas, especially in terms of “Wohnraumschule” (“living room” schools), were regarded either as trend-setting, or too innovative for their time. This reception was also applied to their concepts for urban planning. Only years later did the ideas of the group come into fruition—for example, with the revival of the Flaktürme, the flak towers in Vienna, and the redirection of the Argentinierstrasse around the Karlskirche. no no Wilhelm Holzbauer, Johannes Spalt, Friedrich Kurrent, Otto Leitner, Clemens Holzmeister, Oskar Kokoschka, Konrad Wachsmann, Anna Lülja Praun, Peter Kubelka, arbeitsgruppe 4, the 3/4, Wiener Gruppe, die reihe, architecture, design, Vienna, Austria CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/123_gruppe4.mp4 123_gruppe4.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Constantin Luser challenges us to enter the maze of his imagination: he corners us against the wall of our indifference and confronts us with the unavoidable question whether we will ever be able to escape. But escape what? 07:49 Constantin Luser - Music soothes the savage beast… In any case, it tames the wildness of our thinking, which means that when it happens -ever so rarely- the hegemony of the concept is erased and for a moment we are cured of our illness separating us from time - our rationality. When music happens, time does not pass, it expands, accumulates, can not be measured. It is no longer in the clock and enters our blood… The cure in this case is not overcoming the ailment but seizing it, transforming it into a score. The mystery of the silence that surrounds us -existence itself- lies at the root of the surprise and consolation of the notes which we produce as medicine. It is true that any instrument is fine - if this relationship with the magic of silence is given. To serve this desire, Constantin Luser offers us an object with an imagined subject. All components must have their place determined by their function and meaning. The object itself has primacy over its components while the space itself and the place and role allocated to man in it, is a constitutive element of the work and creates new realms of experience. There is no form without its opposite - they constitute a unity of meaning where the negative is an imprint of the positive: Absence (life), presence (sound) and the will to the structuring and usage of space. And where does it all lead to ? To chaos (χάος) or to order (κόσμος) ? In other words, order of the world…. The essential key is his personal approach, the current in which he inscribes himself being an intermediator, in order to strike a chord in the collective alterity. He creates a space, topos, which belongs to an utopía…where the abstract, the absence of sound, is a consequence of the presence of the corpus and a way of reading it. The impossibility of the real, its spirit would otherwise not be conceivable. It could not converge with individual life which is always an incarnation of its abstraction. Whenever we create an open form, it is filled with spirits. This is the faculty of the form: it cannot avoid conjuring up the unshaped. Without the rupture which the violently new form provokes, we shall not be able to listen to the return of meaning to the cacophony of our existence. Is there anything stranger than our existence? Music is there because the sense of immediacy is literally untranslatable. Instead of reconstruction, there is construction, there is installation which does not reproduce the visible but instead, makes the invisible visible. The impetus of his work has its starting point in this constructivist core which not only emancipates creation from representation but orientates it towards the creation of space and time through sound, gesture and dramaturgy. He demarcates the final sense of the forms and directs it towards a vertebration of an animist reality. As a product of its power of shaping the world, the structures do not exist just by themselves but possess the idiosyncrasy of roaming between the merely obvious and the unreal. In this leap to meet the image, the poetic moment transgresses the merely existing in order to visualize the possible, the virtual: limit and metamorphosis, because finally it is about a shift where from the physical, material limitation of life a metamorphic process comes into being. In a transmutation of the sensible which interrupts the oscillation, the continuous stream of our inner voice… (ca) no no Constantin Luser, sculpture, sound, space, metamorphosis, absence, presence, music, drawings, installation, instruments, madness, Vienna, fine arts CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/117_luser.mp4 117_luser.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com An exhibition on the statesman and art patron Prince Eugene of Savoy-Carignan is currently open at Vienna’s Belvedere gallery. 06:14 Prince Eugen - General Philosopher and Art Lover Prinz Eugen, as he is known in Austria, was a renowned lover and collector of art and left a vast collection of paintings, copper engravings, books and hand writings. He became one of the most influential Austrians of his time when he moved to the country after being rejected by Louis XIV for service in the French army. As a commander he was a daredevil, willing to sacrifice human lives by the thousands and considered a military genius by his contemporaries, but at the same time a generous patron willing to spend his enormous wealth on his collections, as if his military strategy had a counterpart in his thinking. Two of the exhibition’s sub-headings, “general” and “art-lover” being self-evident, “philosopher” remains to be proven. Certainly the prince kept correspondence with great intellectuals of his time and his passion for the sciences were a foreboding of the age of enlightenment. His interest lay mainly with the profane sciences. Eugene’s collector passion was different from his baroque contemporaries. He did not collect for the sake of representation or to collect rarities but out of a quest for knowledge and genuine passion for the sciences. The philosopher Leibniz, who had entertained the idea of opening an academy of sciences is Vienna, a project which the prince was supportive of, but which eventually was abandoned, had personally dedicated a manuscript of his work outlining his philosophy of monadology, “Principes de la nature et de la grace fondés en raison” which the prince is known to have held in great esteem. The prince had managed to put together a collection of 15000 printed works, 237 precious manuscripts, 290 volumes with etchings, and 250 cassettes with portraits in the years between 1712 and 1736. Of particular interest were books on natural history and geography. While his library “Bibliotheca Eugeniana”, prints and drawings were purchased by the Emperor Karl VI in 1737, from his heiress Princess Victoria of Savoy-Carignan -who had never met him and at once decided to sell everything- most of the artwork was bought by Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia. On of the most spectacular features being the 15 original paintings on loan for this exhibition and back to Vienna for the first time since the prince’s death, there will also be busts, suits of armour, sabers and other arms, tents, drapery and more items illustrating his era. An interesting aspect is the cultural exchange with the Habsburgs enemies of the times, the Ottomans, as seen in little items of the show and elaborated in the catalogue, like fashion fads “alla turcha” in Europe or baroque-inspired architecture in the Ottoman Empire. The exhibition remains strictly in this age though, and there is no reference to contemporary views on politics, arts and history of reception of the era. (ca) no no Belvedere, Prinz Eugen von Savoyen, Ausstellung, Wien, Marie-Louise von Plessen, Ilber Ortayli, Topkapi Palast, Peterwardein, Krieg, Sammlung, Barock, Osmanen, Türkei, Habsburger, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Orangerie CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/119_prinzEugen.mp4 119_prinzEugen.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com When one feasts with the eyes, does one realize that one is consuming more than just food? An episode on the Augenschmaus exhibition at Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna. 07:11 A Feast for the Eyes - Food in Still Life 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. 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. (wh/jn) no no Vienna, exhibition, Bank Austria Kunstforum, still life, vanitas, Heike Eipeldauer, Christian Petz, Arcimboldo, Pieter Aertsen, Paul Cézanne, Damien Hirst, Pablo Picasso, Maria Lassnig, Harun Farocki, Vincent van Gogh CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/118_augenschmaus.mp4 118_augenschmaus.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Developed in parallel to the major Prince Eugen exhibition at the Lower Belvedere, tanzimat examines the continual reorganization of historical constructs and devices that underscore the neverending project of modernity. 02:18 Tanzimat - Interview with Esra Ersen 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. (es) no no Exhibition, tanzimat, Augarten Contemporary, Ottoman Empire, modernization, Esra Ersen, Spanish Riding School, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Viktor Man, G. Karamustafa, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, S. Wachsmuth, Franz Kapfer, E. M. Stadler CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/115_ersen.mp4 115_.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Developed in parallel to the major Prince Eugen exhibition at the Lower Belvedere, tanzimat examines the continual reorganization of historical constructs and devices that underscore the neverending project of modernity. 02:33 Tanzimat - Interview with Gulsun Karamustafa 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. Gulsun Karamustafa is a contemporary artist and film maker from Turkey. In 2009 she was invited for an art residency by Augarten Contemporary. (es) no no Exhibition, tanzimat, Augarten Contemporary, Ottoman Empire, modernization, Esra Ersen, Spanish Riding School, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Viktor Man, G. Karamustafa, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, S. Wachsmuth, Franz Kapfer, E. M. Stadler CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/115_karamustafa.mp4 115_karamustafa.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Developed in parallel to the major Prince Eugen exhibition at the Lower Belvedere, tanzimat examines the continual reorganization of historical constructs and devices that underscore the neverending project of modernity. 01:41 Tanzimat - Interview with Franz Kapfer 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. (es) no no Exhibition, tanzimat, Augarten Contemporary, Ottoman Empire, modernization, Esra Ersen, Spanish Riding School, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Viktor Man, G. Karamustafa, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, S. Wachsmuth, Franz Kapfer, E. M. Stadler CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/115_kapfer.mp4 115_.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Developed in parallel to the major Prince Eugen exhibition at the Lower Belvedere, tanzimat examines the continual reorganization of historical constructs and devices that underscore the neverending project of modernity. 05:49 tanzimat - History is in the making 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”. 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) no no Exhibition, tanzimat, Augarten Contemporary, Ottoman Empire, modernization, Esra Ersen, Spanish Riding School, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Viktor Man, G. Karamustafa, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, S. Wachsmuth, Franz Kapfer, E. M. Stadler CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/115_tanzimat.mp4 115_tanzimat.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Christian Eisenberger’s art work and performances often smack of insouciance, but, like a child and even more like an artist, his desire to engage is very real. 07:26 Estrangement and engagement When a tree falls down in the forest and noone witnesses it, did it really happen? When an artist makes a sculpture on top of a mountain and noone sees it, is it really art? The artist Christian Eisenberger does not like to limit himself to the gallery or the art space. When the impulse moves him, he is content to spontaneously create something when and where he wants, and then to let it run its course. Such is the case with his ice sculptures or his sugar cube towers that are left in their natural environments to melt or be overrun by ants. Such tendencies towards land art-influenced pieces demonstrate both Eisenberger’s methods of inspiration as well as his attitude toward art-world restrictions such as properly designated venues or commissioned works. Eisenberger first gained attention by his impromptu displays of cardboard figures on city streets and art fair grounds. The gesture questioned the predispositions of viewers and so-called “proper” venues. The need to create art is a complex one. On the one hand, one could argue that art is a cry for attention, a narcissistic calling. On the other, art is a form of play, a way to satisfy one’s childlike predisposition towards drawing, building, making stuff. Eisenberger creates works that want to be acknowledged, but at the same time, Eisenberger hides behind his work while simultaneously daring the viewer to look away. In a recent exhibition, he took cover within a bear suit made entirely out of packing tape, spray painting cryptic messages and scrawlings within a makeshift four-walled cardboard space. The set-up both invited the viewer to utilize unstable aids such as a ladder or a wobbly table to get a peek at his antics, but the effort was rewarded by his playful displays and offerings of snacks. In the end, the structure was challenge to and deconstruction of the static “white cube” gallery space by literally converting the viewer from a passive to an active role. It was all part of the “game” that Eisenberger had meticulously set up, at once inviting and defiant. But this is not to say that Eisenberger’s approach is childish. The bear suit is a further development of a series of works involving countless cocoons that the artist created and then shed by wrapping himself in packing tape and then cutting himself out of the mummy-like figures. Such projects satisfy his need to hide and yet be seen, and the resulting shells, which he then displayed in various contexts, remain testaments to his observations on performance, corporeality, and materiality. Further use of ephemeral, “trashy” materials such as packing tape, cardboard boxes, or even his own sperm, express his commitment to spontaneity and his rebellion against material worth. His performances—for example, when he dressed up as kind of faux suicide-bomber clown and walked the streets of Vienna and London—often smack of insouciance, but, like a child and even more like an artist, his desire to engage is very real. (jn) no no Christian Eisenberger, found art, trash, white cube, sculpture, painting, performance art, K2, Kunsthalle Semriach, Projektraum Viktor Bucher, land art, public art, street art, Konzett Gallery CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/114_eisenberger.mp4 114_eisenberger.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com The boundary signal as a conceptual starting point for an interdisciplinary exhibition at Open Space in Vienna. An interview with Fatih Aydogdu. 06:07 Open Space - Boundary Signal 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 yearthe art space opened in Lassingleithnerplatz in Taborstr. 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. Ten artists and artist collectives followed the request of the theme of the boundary signal. CastYourArt visited that exhibition 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) no no Fatih Aydogdu, Gulsen Bal, Open Space, 2/5 BZ aka Serhat Köksal, Ricarda Denzer, Martin Ebner, Mathias Fuchs, Bernhard Loibner, Bob Ostertag, Florian Schmeiser, Xurban Collective, Arye Wachsmuth, Florian Zeyfang, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/071_openspace.mp4 071_openspace.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Fiene Scharp’s references to hair and skin confront us with our own corporeality and challenge us to place such normally mundane materials in a new context, not only in art, but in life as well. 06:24 Fiene Scharp -Hair out of place Beauty. Order. Cleanliness. Purity. Perfection. To all of these coveted qualities, hair is a threat, a flaw, a disturbance. When someone is well-groomed, we describe them as “not having a hair on her head out of place”, signifying that hair is something to be put into its place, to be kept under control. There are many places where hair is not supposed to be: stuck on your sweater, floating in your soup, appearing on a projected film frame, beyond the acceptable areas and lengths on one’s body, etc. And so, when we are confronted with its appearance in a work of art, we are unsure: do the same rules apply here? Should I be delighted or disgusted? As always, the use of unconventional materials in art forces us to make up our own minds. In her art work, Fiene Scharp, based in Berlin, works regularly with materials such as hair, grease, and wax. She describes her focus as being “the moment of touching in which the touch-er and the touch-ee become aware of themselves and the other.” In a primarily visual context such as art exhibitions, touching is often forbidden, but perception is not. Scharp’s use of hair challenges these boundaries by placing the viewer in a position somewhere between attraction and repulsion. A 100-cm cube composed completely of human hair somehow knocks our perception for a loop: questions arise as to from where the hair originated and whether it is too much while, at the same time, impulses are suppressed to reach out and stroke it. Otherwise conventional forms such as delicate weaves or graphs on paper shock us when we realize that they are made of hairs. Carefully placed hairs on ordinary food items such as butter or a lemon provoke us with their violation of propriety. Scharp uses the video format to bring her fixation with capturing this complicated relation to the sense of touch to the next level. Tiny hairs between an index finger and thumb bristle audibly as they act as a barrier between their contact on one video, two hands slowly polish a rough sheet of ice into a smooth, reflective surface in another. Although we as viewers are still limited in our access to the works to the senses of sight and sound, the sense of touch is the focus, and, once again, cannot be taken for granted. For this purpose, Scharp refers to another all-too-human material, skin, which she describes as “a metaphor for the state of being separate, as well as a membrane.” References to hair and skin confront us with our own corporeality and challenge us to place such normally mundane materials in a new context, not only in art, but in life as well. (jn) no no Fiene Scharp, Berlin, Hair, Skin, Unconventional Materials, Sculpture, Video, Sensation, Identity, Border CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/113_scharp.mp4 113_scharp.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Irene Andessner’s self-dramatizations are revivals of historical personalities that utilize memory as a source of reactivation. 06:58 Irene Andessner - Portraits of the Self Irene Andessner began her career with painting. She first studied with Emilio Vedova, one of the most important Italian Informal painters, at the Academia die Belli Arti in Venice, and then with Max Weiler and Arnulf Rainer - also a representative of the Informal - at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Andessner encountered paintings by the Italian Renaissance painter, Sofonisba Anguissola, for the first time at an exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The self-portraits fascinated her, and after an attempt to paint herself as Anguissola, she turned to the fields of photography and video art, in which she explores contemporary forms of the self-dramatization. Andessner’s portrait works are revivals of historical personalities that utilize memory as a source of reactivation: Marlene Dietrich, Electress Dorothea of Brandenburg, Wanda von Sacher Masoch, Irene Harand, Barbara Strozzi, Hedy Lamarr, Ida Pfeiffer, Maria Sibylle Merian, Barbara Blomberg, Gwen John, Constanze Mozart, Angelika Kaufmann, Frida Kahlo. The artist portrays over fifty personalities, primarily women, through role performance. The selection of her protagonists follows strict criteria: they are strong and politically involved women who were inventive, creative, aggressive, intelligent, and remarkable, who made an impression through their personalities or their approaches to life, however, often enough to be displaced into the lower and hidden ranks behind a male-dominated world and historiography. Andessner is interested in how women have dealt with themselves throughout various centuries. In order to develop this approach, she investigates the life of her subjects, seeks out portraits of them, and then selects one of these picture-worthy moments as a starting point for her artistic embodiments. Through the conversion, the artist reflects on the models as social figures, as fictions of women as holy, untouchable superstars, as suffering, dominating, or promiscuous, and reenacts them partly faithfully, and partly as a reinterpretation with materials from our own time. Andessner’s self-dramatizations take place either in the studio or in photographic situations that are recognizable as sets. Large polaroids are taken there. According to Andessner, the material was always important to her, since she also wanted to take a painterly approach to photography, which the polaroid material makes possible. When her self-dramatizations are done as videos, they also have a performative character and integrate others into the revivification. When the artist mixes among people as Ursula K. - a scarred, depressed woman - in suburban bars, laundromats, and public saunas, or, in the live-streaming project, "Maternoster", rides up and down the traveling lift compartments in a paternoster in the headquarters of the Federation of Austrian Industry with heads of business as Alma Mater, Maria von Nazareth, Mutter Courage (Anna Fierling), and Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, she approaches these self-dramatizations as real performances. Her restaged self then becomes evident through actual existing circumstances and thereby eliminates the boundaries of who she is. (wh/jn) no no Irene Andessner, Academy of Fine Arts, Identity, Polaroid, phtography, geder, Venice, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/053_andessner.mp4 053_andessner.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Timing is everything, and the Viennese Jazz Club, Porgy and Bess, could not have asked for better timing when BAWAG PSK stepped up as their newest cultural sponsor. A look at a mutually beneficial partnership. 07:57 BAWAG P.S.K. Culture Sponsoring - Eyes on the Prize At a time when the economy has been taking a turn for the worse and funding for the arts has been cut all over the world, cultural sponsoring from the Austrian bank BAWAG PSK is thriving. They say that timing is everything, and the Viennese Jazz Club, Porgy and Bess, could not have asked for better timing when BAWAG PSK suddenly stepped up as their newest cultural sponsor. BAWAG PSK had been looking to change their image, and jazz as an art form fit the criteria for their own revamped identity perfectly: coming from a long tradition, but always innovative, creative, and contemporary. BAWAG PSK’s bold move paid off in more ways than one, their collaboration with Porgy and Bess—the largest external undertaking in the bank’s history—landed them the 2009 Maecanas Prize for Best Overall Concept/Large-Scale Enterprise in Art Sponsoring. Through their collaboration, they have not only modernized their image, they have improved and solidified their overall reputation among both their customers, employees, and the economic and cultural world at large. BAWAG PSK takes a three-pronged approach to their sponsoring concept, covering culture, education, and charities, and all three fields have been combined within the Porgy and Bess enterprise. Through a collaboration between Porgy and Bess and the new Galerie “BAWAG Contemporary”, the artist Stephen Mathewson installed a commissioned work in the art space located in the foyer of the club. Jazz legend Carla Bley put on a benefit concert for the charitable organization, Wiener Tafel. BAWAG PSK not only receives prizes, they grant them as well. In the field of education, a winner was announced for the Fidelio Competition at Porgy and Bess, in which one young musician is recognized among three hundred from the Konservatorium Wien University and then given the privilege of performing later at the music salon at the BAWAG PSK. Taking chances, making informed choices, forging new paths—the concept for BAWAG PSK’s culture sponsoring strategy seems to keep one particular goal in mind, perhaps learned after many ups and downs: Keep your eyes on the prize and your investments will pay off in the end. (jn) no no Rudolf Leeb, Christoph Huber, BAWAG PSK, Porgy and Bess, Maecenas, Konservatorium Wien University, Fidelio Competition, Stephen Mathewson, Galerie “BAWAG Contemporary”, Wiener Tafel, Carla Bley, cultural sponsoring, jazz CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/112_maecenas.mp4 112_maecenas.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com "An improvised mini-takeaway-concert featuring the singer and composer Uwe Dreysel from CastYourArt." 03:24 Takeaway Concert Uwe Dreysel - Man muss ja nicht verraten What happens when you realize that you still love somebody? When you fall in love with someone all over again? When you’ve just fallen in love? Suddenly, what is normally difficult and heavy becomes easy and light: e.g., one carries a piano into the courtyard. In order to catch the last rays of autumn and let your hearts run free, CastYourArt helped with the piano. Uwe Dreysel sings, the courtyard serves as the stage for the actor this time around. Take your concert away. . .(wh) no no Uwe Dreysel, Music, Vocalist, Composition, Conzert, Vienna CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/107_dreysel.mp4 107_dreysel.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com “The chamber of curiosities at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, one of the most important chambers worldwide, will reopen in 2012." 7:06 The Chamber of Curiosities at the Museum of fine arts Vienna “And if there ever was an age when one sees varied and wondrous things I believe that ours is one” (Mateo Bandello, 1554) Miniatures made of ivory, rhino and narwhale horn. Ostrich eggs, symbols of power and resistance as the ancient mythology says the giant birds live on stones and iron. Seychelles nuts washed ashore on the Maldives. Bezoars, rocks found in the stomach of ruminant animals that are rumoured to dispel melancholy, composed in the finest art of metalworking. Arty watches, wondrous automatic machines, quadrants, astrolabes and other scientific instruments. The most bizarre monstrosities, Madonna figures and Dionysian satyrs standing in a row with mystic animals thrown out of the deepest oceans. Basins, goblets, bowls, cans, mugs, made of gold, polished with precious and semi-precious stones. An unbelievable mishmash, collected at numerous expeditions and trips to the most isolated and distant places on earth, passed on, inherited, bought and finally exhibited at the Ambrase court of prince Ferdinand II and at the specially for this occasion equipped premises of Kaiser Rudolf II, at the Hradschin in castle of Prague. The cabinet of curiosities and wonders of the renaissance rulers opens up a whole new world to the curious. The displayed objects fascinate the viewer, cause amazement and inquisitiveness, and leave the impression of a long gone era. „In uno omnia.“ The view of the world of Athansius Kircher, scholar and founder of the first museum the Kircherianum at the Collegium Romanum, signalizes modern times not only by the immense amount of knowledge but also by power. The amazement should not only cause cognition and knowledge it should rather cause awe of the power of those who were able to pool it. The world as a micro cosmos within the chamber of curiosities represents the prince as the ruler of the world, explains Sabine Haag, an expert of the chamber of curiosities and managing director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. The chamber of curiosities in the renaissance, an early model of museums conflicts with the emerging modern time assertiveness because the basis of the presented knowledge was to stabilise power. The general orientation of the chamber of curiosities, a concentration of knowledge and amazement was seen as a handing down of traditional perceptions. Too much wonder and amazement can be negative, as it inhibits and perverts the use of mind, says René Descartes. The holistic perception had to give way to the analysis and the concept of differentiation. A major part, of the chamber of curiosities collection disappears; the rest is split and distributed to emerging special museums. The two chambers of curiosities and wonders of prince Ferdinand II and Rudolf II, are brought together by the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. In spring 2002 the collection was closed to the public and should reopen after a major restoration in spring 2012. The adjustment of the premises allows donators to become involved with the chamber of curiosities. For example, our partner UNIQUA sponsors the restoration of the Saliera saloon, named after the famous saltshaker of the Italian sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini. CastYourArt, thanks to our partner UNIQUA, had the chance to take a look behind the closed doors of the chamber of curiosities and to hold an interview with Sabine Haag. (wh/ek) This podcast was realised with the kind support of UNIQUA ArtCercles. The exhibiton “Karl der Kühne” can be seen till the 10th of January 2010 at the museum of fine arts Vienna. no no Athanasius Kircher, Baroque, Benvenuto Cellini, Sculptor, Exotika, Goldsmith, Habsburger, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Chamber of Curiosities, Curiosity, Mirabilia, Museum, Renaissance, René Descartes, Sabine Haag, Saliera, UNIQA, Vienna, Chamber of Wonders CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:30 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/101_kunstkammer.mp4 101_kunstkammer.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com “Whoever leaves behind an image of oneself chronicles his/her existence, reflecting him/herself in this gesture. Photography and biography: the imagemaking art of Edgar Lissel." 6:49 Edgar Lissel - On the rise and fall of images The artist is occupied not only with the creation of images, but also their demise. With a view on that which lies between, how can one capture and demonstrate this? The medium, not the object, is the focus of Edgar Lissel’s artistic challenge. His work experiments with unconventional mediums, investigating the process of producing images. Life comes into being and then passes away. What lies between expresses a need to be captured by the imagemaking process. People, in principle, are occupied with images, according to Lissel. The creation of images provides the possibility of visualizing oneself. Whoever leaves behind an image of oneself chronicles his/her existence, reflecting him/herself in this gesture. This artistic engagement with visual self-verification led Edgar Lissel to camera obscura photography. Used as a tracing instrument in the eighteenth century, the pinhole camera has been considered the most direct way to gradually depart from outer reality on a photo-sensitive background. Light and time have remained key terms in the work of the artist who, through his camera obscura work, puts the authenticity of pictures under closer examination. In a world in which complicated means and time-saving procedures have the reputation of producing that which is artificial, unnatural, and false, the slowness and immediacy of image development in “primitive" obscura photography seems to authentically capture that which is allowed to develop and pass away in life. Museum display cases, vans, and entire flats are converted by pinhole cameras. But the image development that Lissel organizes not only documents exterior life. The space in which the image of the outside world develops enters the picture. Outlines of articles remaining in the flats burn themselves gradually as photograms on the photo-sensitive material, which record and reflect the development space and process of the image. Lissel poses the question of how this process of formation allows the development process to lend itself to a kind of existential personal testimony of life. His photographic procedure transforms itself into a biographical one. From that point on, it is bacteria which forms these temporary pictures and duplicates them. Lissel works with scientists on these bacterial images in order to understand the bacterial transformation process and to be able to manage them and make them artistically functional. Cyanobacteria, that is, the original bacteria that was already in existence three and a half million years ago and were responsible for the first deoxygenation in the primordial world soup, becomes a medium, in the same way tubes of paint and mixing pallets are for other artists. In the series, "Selbstzeugnisse" (“personal testimonies”), Lissel first projects microscopic photographs of himself onto the bacteria, which begin to regenerate their own images due to their light sensitivity. Cultivated in petri dishes, they position themselves in the light-sensitive spots and shy away from the shadows. The light images which are formed are photographed, afterwards, the light sources are withdrawn and the bacteria formations disintegrate. In the work cycles, "Selbstzeugnisse", "Vanitas", "Der Weg zum Licht” (“The Path to the Light”), “Domus Aurea", and "Myself", the creation, transience, and existence of life are directly brought up for discussion several times. A disintegrating building relic from the past, a dead fish, a rotting apple, a withering leaf. Copied and reproduced from bacteria, which are the starting points for both the development and the impermanence of this world. In the meantime, the newest work cycles in the imagemaking art of Edgar Lissel are called “Pluoreszenz” and “Sphaera Incognita”, respectively, and will record that which exists. (wh/jn) no no Edgar Lissel, photography, camera obscura, photogram, picture, image, reality, bacteria‚ CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:30 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/098_lissel.mp4 098_lissel.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com “The virtuoso handicraft of violin-making nearly four hundred years after Stradivari. A view of the "New Viennese Violins" workshops." 8:45 New Viennese Violins - A Virtuoso Craft Violins are often only spoken about when they are stolen. However, before they can be stolen, they have to be built, and this is the aspect on which we focus in this podcast. The “New Viennese Violins“ Association came about based on an idea from Christoph Schachner, to bring professional and amateur musicians closer to high-quality, newly manufactured instruments. These offer a better alternative to the mystified, often overestimated old instruments. “As a result of violins being treated like antiques, a myth has developed around them which is often incomprehensible. Hence, a new violin often costs only a quarter or fifth of what an old violin of similar quality costs“, says Nupi Jenner, a member of the association. The production of violins is a complex experience, a craft which involves an intuitive process. The knowledge required for the selection of the wood that is suitable for building stringed instruments developed over many generations. The cover is frequently made from spruce and the remaining parts from maple. It can be very difficult to find the right kind of spruce to build the instruments, even in a dense forest. For larger instruments, like the cello or double bass, willow and poplar trees are also used. The selection from a wood dealer who specializes in instrument-making is left up to the discretion of each instrument-maker. In order to develop instruments of equal high quality, it is necessary to keep the parameters as consistent as possible. Nevertheless, in the end, each instrument has its own character. Achieving consistency in the production can be almost impossible, even when scientific procedures and computerized measuring techniques are utilized. Thus, the virtuosity of the violin craft always remains a bit mysterious. Since objective assessments of a certain quality level are difficult to establish, the purchase depends very much on the personal approach of the musician, his/her sensitivity to tone, physical requirements, financial options, and the kind of advise and maintenance he/she expects from the violin-maker. Once a year, those who would like to produce, play, and/or listen to the “New Viennese Violins“ gather at the Radio Kulturhaus in Vienna. In the context of instrument presentation, the partly newly-built stringed instruments of renowned musicians are played. There, one can directly encounter violin-makers, musicians, and experts involved with the new stringed instruments and become convinced of their sound quality in person. (wh/jn). no no violin, stringed instruments, instrument making, violin-makers, Vienna, New Viennese Violins, Radio Kulturhaus Vienna, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:30 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/102_nwg.mp4 102_nwg.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com “Herbert Boeckl experimented to figure out which new possibilities on offer would preserve that which was essential. A portrait of the advocate of the Austrian Modern. 8:41 Herbert Boeckl - Capturing the Essential Centuries do not have clear boundaries, rather, they flow into each other in the same way that the years which they are made up of do. The transition period in which the nineteenth and twentieth century collapsed into each other was called the fin de siècle. The fact that something was coming to an end was a modern perspective. In 1918, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Otto Wagner, and Koloman Moser all died within a year. Accompanying them was the fall of turn-of-the-century, successfully up-and-coming, modern Austrian art. So what remained in terms of artistic progress? For one thing, there was Oskar Kokoschka. He had moved to Dresden and fled—as did a majority of the intellectual and artistic heavyweights—upon the rise of the National Socialists: first to Prague, and then to London. And then there was Herbert Boeckl, who stayed behind. This starting point was not exactly ideal for the development of the painter: an authoritarian, conservative, anti-modern mood prevailed in Austria, along with a shortage of moral support from colleagues. Towards the end of the turn of the century, Herbert Boeckl’s works were close to those of Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele: expressionistic. Over the course of time, however, his painting took many turns. University professor and grandchild Matthias Boeckl counts five direction changes: first, there were the traditional atmospheric paintings of his early Carinthian years, then his move to secessionism with his line paintings, then expressionism, then his pastose phase of expressionistic realism, and finally, his abstract colorfield painting, starting from the end of the Second World War. Boeckl himself always rejected a categorization according to creative periods, rather, he saw his work in relation to motifs. Boeckl sharpened his view of nature and humanity, of the essence of existence, of the necessary form, in his portraits and landscapes. Both, according to Agnes Husslein-Arco, director of the Belvedere and granddaughter of the artist, proved to be persistent motifs throughout his stylistically diverse work. The intrinsic, the enduring, the fundamentally valid: this is what Herbert Boeckl wanted to maintain as a painter. This objective did not, however, make him conservative, rather it made him an advocate of modernity. He experimented to figure out which new possibilities on offer would preserve that which was essential. However, his focus on the everlasting probably corresponded to his religious nature. At the beginning of his career, Boeckl had already completed a fresco in the Church of Maria Saal, which locals considered provocative and which therefore remained covered for years. At the very end of his life, he created one of his most important works, "The Apocalypse", in the Angels’ Chapel at the Seckau Monastery. Boeckl was committed to the ideals and style directions that modernity brought out, and he shaped the development of the Austrian art scene as a director and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, as well as as a prominent member of the Austrian Art Senate. He supported the appointment of Fritz Wotrubas and Albert Paris Gütersloh as professors at the Academy and counted among his students some of the most important artists of the postwar generation—including Maria Lassnig and Alfred Hrdlicka. On the occasion of the retrospective of Boeckl’s works at the Lower Belvedere in Vienna, CastYourArt spoke with both curators of the exhibition, Agnes Husslein-Arco and Matthias Boeckl, in Herbert Boeckl’s studio, which has remained virtually untouched since his death in 1966. Accompanying the exhibition is a 500-page catalog which includes a list of Boeckl’s works. (wh/jn) no no Herbert Boeckl, Agnes Husslein-Arco, Matthias Boeckl, Belvedere, Vienna, Expressionism, Cubism, Fritz Wotruba, Apocalypse, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Modernity, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:30 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/103_boeckl.mp4 103_boeckl.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com “Every work of art in the moment it is created is contemporary”, says Walter Guadagnini, curator of the exhibition “PastPresentFuture”, at the Bank Austria Kunstforum. 6:35 Restless Glance - The Unicredit Group Collection 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? 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) no no exhibition, corporate collections, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Unicredit Group, HypoVereinsbank, non-chronological exhibitions, contemporary art, Walter Guadagnini CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/111_ppf.mp4 111_ppf.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Kunsthaus Graz explores parallels between Warhol, Wool, and Newman and presents work that confirms the influence of American abstract expressionism on pop art. 6:02 Warhol, Wool, Newman - “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. 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. Andy Warhol built upon Newman’s understanding of space, according to the director of the Kunsthaus Graz, Peter Pakesch. Pop art - when Warhol is considered to be its most important representative - is, to that extent, not a reaction to American abstract expressionism, but rather, the logical extension of a continuous development. Peter Pakesch has been following this theory for a long time. After a ten-year preparation period, he can now publicly confirm this theory on the basis of original works. Like Newman, Warhol also plays with the perception of space and time. Through his silkscreen images, which often use newspaper images as source material, he demonstrates that it is pointless to look for references that correspond to reality. There is no independent reality behind these pictures. He tries to dispel the meaning out of the pictures and thereby produce a counterbalance to mass-media reporting, “Because the more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better and emptier you feel.“ By contrast, in his films, Warhol tries to set the illusion machinery of Hollywood against disillusionism by bringing the films back into the physical. He slows them down, plays with time, and thereby creates a new space of perception for the viewer. Christopher Wool also works in this context. For him, original painting no longer exists. The prototypes are stamped, the writings are painted along with the template. The motif is endlessly repeated. It is exactly through this repetition of the same that identity develops, and this connects Wool with Warhol. In the word paintings of the New York-based painter and photographer Wool, condensed slogans and shortened messages from the present media world are featured. There often exists a gap thereby between the signs and the original “SENSEISNOLONGERTOBEMADE”. The randomly placed empty spaces obscure meaning and put perceived reality into question. It produces a disturbance and represents an alternative world to the determined everyday life of the media. (jk/jn) no no Andy Warhol, Barnett Newman, Christopher Wool, abstract American expressionism, minimal art, pop art, Kunsthaus Graz, painting, Peter Pakesch, New York, film, painting, silkscreen, Hollywood CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/105_warhol.mp4 105_warhol.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com As an artist, Helmut Grill pushes the complicit engagement of imagemaker and viewer to the limit. A portrait of the artist. 7:08 Helmut Grill - Suspension of Belief. In this hi-tech age, the relationship between artist and viewer is a complicated one. There has always been the tacit agreement of suspension of disbelief between them, that what is presented may be altered or manipulated, but that the intention of the artist is to reveal some kind of truth nonetheless. Digital technology provides the means to doctor photos in every context, be it in advertising, art, or even private use. We seem to have all come to the agreement that when it comes to visual media, there is always room for improvement. The artist Helmut Grill worked for many years in the field of photographic manipulation. In the early years, the necessary equipment for this venture would take up an entire room. Now, Photoshop is a standard application on every computer-almost no photo goes unretouched. Those with advanced skills in this craft are among the highest-paid in the media industry. But despite our awareness of this sophisticated process, we still engage in the game of believing what we see, or at least enjoying the challenge of thinking we can still determine what’s real or what’s not. As an artist, Helmut Grill likes to push this engagement to the limit. Instead of using the medium of digital alteration to render images more palatable and easier on the eye, Grill creates images that disturb, provoke, and call into question our complicity when it comes to visual mediation. In the “Alphapeople” series, portraits of faces assembled out of mismatched features question our presumptions about conventional beauty; the “Arstarte” series positions soft-porn shots against a backdrop of current war scenes, rupturing the seductive hard-sell of such quintessentially commercial images; “Relations” is an interactive series of visual comparisons in which typically modified proportions in photos can be physically displayed through a mouse click, demonstrating the arbitrary yet significant influence of slight alterations in dimensions—a technique used on a regular basis in advertising. In his latest works, Grill has moved on from human figures to houses and landscapes. Like his human subjects, none of Grill’s residential subjects actually exist. Pasted together from various components, these dwellings are situated in a strange, surreal universe that attracts and repels the viewer simultaneously. Their facades are swathed with multifarious messages in the form of neon signs, posters, graffiti, etc., which suggest an intriguing, potentially dangerous world within. Grill was inspired to take this project one step further-moving for the first time into three-dimensional territory-by realizing these imaginary structures into actual models. As with the doctored photos, the imagination is stimulated-for better or for worse. (jn) yes no Helmut Grill, Digital Art, Photography, Photographic manipulation, Models, Media, Vienna, Advertising CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/096_grill_sub.mp4 096_grill_sub.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com What kind of validity can art attain between privatisation and the public sphere? An exhibition project curated by Sabine Breitwieser for the contemporary art festival "Steirischer Herbst". 6:47 Utopia and Monument - On the validity of art between privatisation and the public sphere. Public space is both a battlefield and stage for those visions and ideas in which a society puts its faith. At a distance, it also discloses that which is blindly supported in this society. One can survey it as if it were a kind of societal relief, or a contemporary witness of history, as it reveals both conscious and unconscious orders and structures. In those times when the common faith in ideas is particularly strong, signs of this faith are placed into public space in the form of monuments which make beliefs concrete to us, alert us of the destructive power of faith, and signal the successful displacement of other beliefs. The loss of faith in grand ideas has shown its effect by the occupation of public space by private interests. As a result, less public space is reserved for the monumental. The new landmarks follow the logic of commerce. The power of the consumer and the economy is reflected in the layout and occupation of public space - chalkboards with menu options, billboards displaying the fashions of the season, pavilions for company meetings, closed-off zones for large-scale events. "Between purchases they savor the spectacle of the constant disintegration of the complexes to which they belong ... Were the Mediterranean lapping at the avenue's edges, the shops could hardly expose themselves in a more windowless fashion. They disgorge a stream of commodities that serves to satisfy creaturely needs; it climbs up the facades, is interrupted at street level, and then shoots with redoubled force up into the heights on the far side of the crosscurrent passerby. ... No one invented the plan according to which the elements of the hustle and bustle scribble a jumble of lines into the asphalt. There is no such plan. The goals are locked in the individual little particles, and the law of least resistance gives the curves their direction." (S. Kracauer). With the decline of grand narratives, the selling-out of public space into the form of a street fair has fully begun. That which gains ground is less utopian, and just as less monumental in its space requirement, however, no less hungry and, as a diversified phenomenon, particularly assertive. Under the title "Utopia and Monument", Sabine Breitwieser has developed a two-part program for the "Steirischer Herbst" festival, in which she applies art to a discourse on public space. Examples of the unspoken being openly expressed on the street - understood here as a social platform for self-exhibition - are sought out. At the same time, the scope of art for public statements is tested, as well as its competitive power within the struggle over limited public space. Fourteen international artists were invited to participate. Until October 18th, they explore the question of the validity of art between privatization and the public sphere. Part Two of “Utopia and Monument” will follow next year.(wh/jn) no no Utopia, Monument, Steirischer Herbst, Sabine Breitwieser, public space, Graz, Zinganel, Maljkovic, Ayse Erkmen, Siekmann, Zinny, Maidagan, Lara Almarcegui, Niry Baghramian, Kooperative für Darstellungspolitik, Nils Norman, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/104_utopia.mp4 104_utopia.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Can art create a livable space? A podcast on the exhibition “Viennese Model Rooms” at the Belvedere in Vienna. 5:59 Viennese Model Rooms - Can art create a livable space? In the last few years, the boundaries between interior decoration, art, and design have begun to blur. Within this trend, each discipline contributes its own unique qualities. This direction has resulted in a combination of presenting individual artistic vision and adjusting to the demands of the market. One can describe this phenomenon as a kind of product-building exchange between the senders and the recipients - for which, in our case, the model rooms serve as the means of communication. The history of Viennese model rooms goes back several centuries. The beginnings of example-setting ideal spaces were already emerging in the second half of the seventeenth century. The first attempts focused on the careful selection of materials, then furnishings were added gradually, such as furniture and lighting. Industrial development, economic progress, and improved quality of living cleared the way for individual expression. At this point, not only could wardrobe demonstrate social status and taste, living spaces also emerged as a means of expression and distinction. The demand for creative guidance towards this purpose rose and was promptly met. In the nineteenth century, furniture and exhibition catalogs were already providing advice on the development of style. It was in this period that the term “model room” came into being. The path towards the model room was paved with the interactions of various disciplines. The work of the architect became art work, an artist would take on the role of a designer, whereby his/her work became a matter of everyday culture. With the exhibition, "Viennese Model Rooms", the Belvedere takes on the concept of ‘applied art based on contemporary ideas’ - founded by Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, and the Wiener Werkstätte - and, under the curatorial direction of MuMoK director Edelbert Köb, looks into the transferability of this artistic approach into the present. Gilbert Bretterbauer, Peter Kogler, Florian Pumhösl, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Lisa Ruyter, and Esther Stocker, as well as the companies Backhausen, Wittmann, and Zumtobel, have taken on this task. Six individual contemporary model rooms were developed by the artists, negotiating artistic vision and market demand. They are on display at the Orangerie, Lower Belvedere until January 24th, 2010. (nd/wh/jn) no no interior design, applied art, design, furniture, Belvedere, Orangerie, Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, Wiener Werkstätte, Edelbert Köb, Gilbert Bretterbauer, Peter Kogler, Florian Pumhösl, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Lisa Ruyter, Esther Stocker. CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/106_WMZ_en.mp4 106_WMZ_en.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Austria’s newest international art fair, “art albertina - Drawings International Art Fair“, presents master drawings from every period. 7:18 art albertina - The Art of Drawing Austria’s newest international art fair offering, the “art albertina“, is specifically dedicated to a medium which has, until now, often played a subordinate role in the art market—drawing. From September 23rd to the 27th, several prestigious art dealers and galleries will be presenting master drawings from every period in the Propter-Homines-Halle of the Albertina Museum. Klaus Albrecht Schröder, director of the Albertina Museum, hopes to be able to establish a second major fair for the art of drawing with “art albertina“, alongside the renowned springtime fair, the Salon du Dessin in Paris, and is aiming for a new positioning at the same time. Classic modern and national contemporary art works predominate, followed by representative nineteenth-century pieces. With its specialization in drawing, the “art albertina“ hopes to contribute to a higher appreciation of a generally underappreciated art form. According to Schröder, Friedrich Hegel’s systematic classification of the arts in the early nineteenth century contributed in part to this underestimation. Hegel’s blurring of the differentiation between drawing and sketching fostered a conception of drawing as being a merely preparatory medium. The fact that the term of drawing has changed considerably in recent times has been little acknowledged. Thus, many important contemporary artists focus on or work exclusively in this medium. Keeping this background in mind, it makes sense, as the “art albertina“ demonstrates, to present the various styles of drawing within a framework, thereby bringing attention to an art form which justifiably lays claim to a self-sufficient status. The connection between the fair and its location, the Albertina Museum, which houses the most important graphic collection in the world—at present it encompasses approximately 50,000 drawings and watercolors, as well as about 900,000 printed works from the late gothic period to the present—will, according to Schröder, surely prove fruitful. "art albertina" has invited only those exhibitors who are intensively involved with the medium of drawing. (sh/jn) no no Art fair, drawing, Albertina Museum, Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Salon du Dessin, classic modern, contemporary art, Friedrich Hegel, graphic collection, Michael Werner, Anisabelle Berès, Galerie, St. Gertrude, Meyer und Kainer CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/108_artalbertina.mp4 108_artalbertina.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com As a “picture-maker”, Götz Valien is interested in the efficiency of pictures. He uses this effectiveness and at the same time exposes it—that is the agenda behind his picture-making art. 7:10 Götz Valien - Undisguised Seduction Götz Valien calls himself a “picture-maker”. The term seems to refer to someone who produces a handicraft rather than a work of art. However, when one looks at his work as a whole, the self-designation “picture-maker” loses the crudeness that one might be tempted to initially expect. It is not necessarily the same whether one paints pictures or whether one engages with the creation of pictures as a phenomenon through painting. As a picture-maker, Götz Valien is interested in the efficiency with which pictures release, whether emotionally, consciously, or unconsciously, that which is buried deep within us, in the same way figurative language can. In his work, he uses this effectiveness and at the same time, exposes it—that is the agenda behind his picture-making art. The artist uses the wishful-thinking-oriented visual language of both our earlier and current entertainment and advertising industries—in particular, art deco. He freely borrows from their themes, breaking through these proposed dreams of reality by way of surreal exaggeration and the integration of typographic elements. The material context to which his pictures refer becomes the virtual image, the ideal. Reality is exposed as virtual realism. "Whether it’s kitsch, cliché, advertisement, slapstick, or fine art, it must always seduce, but at the same time, this seduction must be undisguised in order to create a true ‘spiritual surplus’ ”, says Valien. In order to invoke such an impression on the viewer, as well as an awareness of the effect, he not only falls back on his experiences as a contemporary of a mediatised and populist world, but also on his historical knowledge of the technique of painting and how it has evolved according to art history. Art deco-like interior and exterior spaces, visions of modern life painted in the iconography of the 1920s, desires—beauty, exclusivity, wealth, passion, sensuality, sex, progress—which refer to the visual language of earlier times and the advertising iconography of today. The current art world is also referenced: " No Buy Oshi" grows in 20th Century Fox Intro-type characters (or Universal Pictures) into the evening sky, in the foreground is a woman out of control. Born in 1960, Götz Valien grew up in Salzburg and currently resides in Berlin, where he works as a picture-maker, as well as as a cinema poster artist. For a long time, he says, he considered this handicraft to be separate from his art. However, upon closer examination, it has overlapped with his activity as a picture-maker of virtual reality. Götz Valien’s poster work can still be seen on the front of the Kino International, as well as the Zoo Palast, his paintings have been exhibited at the Preview Berlin as well as at the Scope Miami, London, and New York. (wh/jn) yes no Götz Valien, Berlin, fine art, painting, posters, art deco, virtual, realism, Popo, cinema, advertisement CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/088_valien.mp4 088_valien.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Deborah Sengl’s hermaphroditic cross-breeds between humans and animals arise from the unstable intermediate realm of fragile identities and precarious subordinate positions. 5:35 Deborah Sengl - A olf in Sheep's Clothing. It was animals that were created first, only thereafter, human beings. Seniority, the privilege of age, was compensated by the privilege of designation, the late arrival meant: “the ability to observe and appropriately designate what came before“. (Peter Sloterdijk) But human beings are the notorious late arrivers, one should not be deceived by the biblical version. Because humans only come into their own through language, the individual must always harbor the eerily daunting gap of pre-linguistic existence. When Deborah Sengl uses metalinguistic capability in order to create a new word, she refers to the fact that the found language masks as much as it reveals. By creating the word “ertarnen“ (“to deceive through displacement”), which is used in most of the titles of her artworks, she incapsulates the central themes of her work: humans, animals, camouflage, and breeding. The artist represents hermaphroditic natures in her paintings, drawings, and taxidermal sculptures: Human bodies with animal heads; animals that are camouflaged as their prey, or, as their predators; female figures whose bodies are covered with fashion logos; masked faces. The diverse variations of deception which nature holds ready—which its creatures usually use for their own protection—are shifted a bit throughout her work, thereby disturbing conceptions of hierarchies, balances of power, and victim-perpetrator relations. It addresses the various roles we must play in the struggle for existence in order to survive in society. Sengl’s junction of human and animal, playing with the roles of perpetrator and victim makes one thing visible above all: the fracture which takes place within all humans. The lion in the skin of its most-prized prey; the zebra, the cross-country skier sporting the head of his feared pursuer, the bear; the woman, who has “ertarnt” herself with a luxury logo-hide, these characters deceive their so-called enemies by impersonating or “ertarn-ing” them, they are all primarily creatures torn by identity and/or language. Deborah Sengl studied at the University of Applied Art in the department of visual media design and completed her degree in painting in 1997 under Christian Ludwig Attersee. In the beginning, she was also pursuing a minor in biology, with a focus on genetic engineering. (sh/jn) no no humans, animals, Peter Sloterdijk, language, painting, drawing, sculpture, identity, nature, University of Applied Art Vienna, Christian Ludwig Attersee, Fashion, logos, luxury CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 8 Sep 2009 13:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/093_sengl.mp4 093_sengl.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Through the creation of a unique collection of works done by psychiatric patients, the art historian and doctor Hans Prinzhorn gave new value to "outsider art" and its creators. 9:32 Michael Braunsteiner - The Prinzhorn Collection In the early twentieth century,in the course of the modern art's search for the “very early origins” of art, so-called “outsider art” was discovered. At the same time, psychiatrists who hoped to be able to use works of psychiatric patients for diagnostic purposes began actively collecting for the first time on a large scale. Along these lines, the art historian and physician Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), received a commission from the Heidelberger hospital in 1919 to extend the small educational collection of the institute and to find methods that would help to gain insides into the type of the patients’ illness using their creative works. However, Prinzhorn rejected taking a purely clinical psychiatric approach to the works. Instead, he set the works into an art-theoretical context and thereby brought the aesthetic beauty of the until-then marginalized “mad art” into focus for the first time—a pioneering achievement. In 1922, Prinzhorn published the book, Artistry of the Mentally Ill, in which he documented and interpreted a large part of the collection, drawing parallels to other forms of artistic patterns and contemporary art. While his colleagues mostly rejected the book, it was enthusiastically received by the modern art world. It inspired artists such as Max Ernst, Alfred Kubin, and Pablo Picasso, and had a substantial influence on twentieth-century art theory and reception, which is reflected in—not least of all—today’s occupation with “state-bound art” and “outsider art“. Today, the Prinzhorn Collection includes 5000 works from 435 mostly schizophrenic-diagnosed patients of various social backgrounds and age ranges. It brings together drawings, paintings, collages, textiles, sculptures, and texts, which emerged between 1880 and 1933 in the psychiatric institutes of mainly German-speaking countries. A selection of the Prinzhorn Collection is presently on display in the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Benediktinerstift Admont. (sh/jn) no no Michael Braunsteiner, Admont Monastery, Museum, Prinzhorn Collection, Hans Prinzhorn, Psychiatric University Hospital in Heidelberg, Outsider Art, Artistry of the Mentally Ill CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/099_3_prinzhorn.mp3 099_3_prinzhorn.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Through the creation of a unique collection of works done by psychiatric patients, the art historian and doctor Hans Prinzhorn gave new value to "outsider art" and its creators. 7:53 Michael Braunsteiner - The Prinzhorn Collection In the early twentieth century,in the course of the modern art's search for the “very early origins” of art, so-called “outsider art” was discovered. At the same time, psychiatrists who hoped to be able to use works of psychiatric patients for diagnostic purposes began actively collecting for the first time on a large scale. Along these lines, the art historian and physician Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), received a commission from the Heidelberger hospital in 1919 to extend the small educational collection of the institute and to find methods that would help to gain insides into the type of the patients’ illness using their creative works. However, Prinzhorn rejected taking a purely clinical psychiatric approach to the works. Instead, he set the works into an art-theoretical context and thereby brought the aesthetic beauty of the until-then marginalized “mad art” into focus for the first time—a pioneering achievement. In 1922, Prinzhorn published the book, Artistry of the Mentally Ill, in which he documented and interpreted a large part of the collection, drawing parallels to other forms of artistic patterns and contemporary art. While his colleagues mostly rejected the book, it was enthusiastically received by the modern art world. It inspired artists such as Max Ernst, Alfred Kubin, and Pablo Picasso, and had a substantial influence on twentieth-century art theory and reception, which is reflected in—not least of all—today’s occupation with “state-bound art” and “outsider art“. Today, the Prinzhorn Collection includes 5000 works from 435 mostly schizophrenic-diagnosed patients of various social backgrounds and age ranges. It brings together drawings, paintings, collages, textiles, sculptures, and texts, which emerged between 1880 and 1933 in the psychiatric institutes of mainly German-speaking countries. A selection of the Prinzhorn Collection is presently on display in the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Benediktinerstift Admont. (sh/jn) no no Michael Braunsteiner, Admont Monastery, Museum, Prinzhorn Collection, Hans Prinzhorn, Psychiatric University Hospital in Heidelberg, Outsider Art, Artistry of the Mentally Ill CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/099_2_prinzhorn.mp3 099_2_prinzhorn.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Through the creation of a unique collection of works done by psychiatric patients, the art historian and doctor Hans Prinzhorn gave new value to "outsider art" and its creators. 9:13 Michael Braunsteiner - The Prinzhorn Collection In the early twentieth century,in the course of the modern art's search for the “very early origins” of art, so-called “outsider art” was discovered. At the same time, psychiatrists who hoped to be able to use works of psychiatric patients for diagnostic purposes began actively collecting for the first time on a large scale. Along these lines, the art historian and physician Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), received a commission from the Heidelberger hospital in 1919 to extend the small educational collection of the institute and to find methods that would help to gain insides into the type of the patients’ illness using their creative works. However, Prinzhorn rejected taking a purely clinical psychiatric approach to the works. Instead, he set the works into an art-theoretical context and thereby brought the aesthetic beauty of the until-then marginalized “mad art” into focus for the first time—a pioneering achievement. In 1922, Prinzhorn published the book, Artistry of the Mentally Ill, in which he documented and interpreted a large part of the collection, drawing parallels to other forms of artistic patterns and contemporary art. While his colleagues mostly rejected the book, it was enthusiastically received by the modern art world. It inspired artists such as Max Ernst, Alfred Kubin, and Pablo Picasso, and had a substantial influence on twentieth-century art theory and reception, which is reflected in—not least of all—today’s occupation with “state-bound art” and “outsider art“. Today, the Prinzhorn Collection includes 5000 works from 435 mostly schizophrenic-diagnosed patients of various social backgrounds and age ranges. It brings together drawings, paintings, collages, textiles, sculptures, and texts, which emerged between 1880 and 1933 in the psychiatric institutes of mainly German-speaking countries. A selection of the Prinzhorn Collection is presently on display in the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Benediktinerstift Admont. (sh/jn) no no Michael Braunsteiner, Admont Monastery, Museum, Prinzhorn Collection, Hans Prinzhorn, Psychiatric University Hospital in Heidelberg, Outsider Art, Artistry of the Mentally Ill CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/099_1_prinzhorn.mp3 099_1_prinzhorn.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com His inventions are not only exceptional on a technical level, they are also imaginative, confrontational, and critical of society--and unexpected at the same time. A portrait of Julius von Bismarck. 7:57 Julius von Bismarck - Everything and nothing His works are inventions, usually connecting technology and software and interactive works of art. To some, says Julius von Bismarck, he’s a designer, to others, an artist, and for the other third, an inventive aristocrat. He has enjoyed success in his work, regardless of which category he is put under, because what he creates is not only exceptional on a technical level, it is also imaginative, confrontational, and critical of society and unexpected at the same time. In particular, his 2008 work, “Fulgurator”, has made its way through the blogging circuit. He calls this work his "apparatus for a minimally invasive manipulation of photography". This pistol-like device is like a reversely functioning camera which operates via a kind of reactive flash projection that enables an image to be projected on an object exactly at the moment when someone else is photographing it. During Barack Obama’s international election campaign appearance at the Berlin Siegessäule, he used the device to project a bright cross on the lectern, which appears in all other photographs taken of it at the same time. He also used it to project the image of a dove, a symbol of peace, onto Tiananmen Square (Gate of Heavenly Peace), which would then appear in other’s photos of the portrait of Mao. In 2008, von Bismarck received the Ars Electronica award for interactive art for the Fulgurator. Two former interactive projects of the artist living in Berlin are the “Top Shot Helmet” and the “Fühlometer”, through which one can read the average mood of the Berlin citizens, collected and determined by a sophisticated software system, in the form of a representative smiley-face projected on a huge screen on the Gasometer Schöneberg building. The “Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus” is his most recent artistic project. The uninterrupted, continuous stories that are told, according to a basic description of this artwork, flow seamlessly from one topic to another, from one detail to the next. The “Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus” is a drawing machine illustrating a never-ending story by the use of patent drawings. The machine translates words of a text into patent drawings. By using references to earlier patents, it is possible to find paths between arbitrary patents. They form a kind of subtext. A significant amount of the things we encounter day after day is incorporated into this patent history—an invention that interminably reminds us of an overly possessive and commercialized world. (wh/jn) no no Julius von Bismarck, photography, technical, software, inventions, aristocrat, politics, Fulgurator, Berlin, Ars Electronica award, Top Shot Helmet, Fühlometer, The Perpetual Storytelling, patent, possession, commerce CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/087_bismarck.mp4 087_bismarck.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com His work measures the coexistence of the natural and the artificial and creates a classification of personal experiences of time and nature . A portrait of the artist Wilhelm Scherübl. 08:22 Wilhelm Scherübl - transform There has been substantial evidence for the theory, according to the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, that it is far less important for humans to know who they are, than where they are. The persistent ignorance regarding one’s place of existence is one of the causes for what newer philosophy calls oblivion of being. The inquiry after the “where” and the placing of one’s person and works represent central aspects of Wilhelm Scherübl’s work. His work realizes itself in the examination of his locations of residence and life, and in the integration of the respective condition of the places and resources which he finds there. Scherübl lives in the country, in upper Ennstal, where he sometimes paints outdoors, using trees and plants for his works, and plays with reflections on natural water surfaces for his light installations. His art is a reflection on nature and the attempt to attain insights into artistic and natural processes of development, as well as into the complexity of the earth’s organism and our own finiteness. The artist acts as an initiator here, he begins a process for which he formulates basic conditions which, in the end, still escape his control for the most part. The process leaves growth, light, cold, and wind to nature. By freezing the paint outdoors, the so-called Minusaquarelle (“minus watercolors”) are formed: only then do moments of the completion of his light installations on the water emerge, when the surface is flat and undisturbed by wind. The plant installations are subject to the natural cycle of growing, blooming, and withering. Conversely, installations in which plants are transplanted into artificial and/or artistic contexts and are therefore dependent on life-supporting measures, refer to the concept of nature as something which is in principle made possible through production, as well as to the attempt of humans to disconnect themselves from natural processes. The anonymous, living sculptures in states of perpetual change reflect on the imperfect, the temporary, and the unformulated. With a background in sculpture, Scherübl - who attended the Academy of Fine Arts and completed his degree under Bruno Gironcoli -has progressively shifted his focus from form to transformation. His works represent the overlying process and the physical energy which flows into it, as well as those things that are left out—like chips of stone—which Scherübl then incorporates into new developing cycles of works. What is essential here is the time aspect: transformations develop over time and possess their own rhythm. Scherübl's idea of making efficient use of time paradoxically involves time consuming techniques in order to fill up large surfaces of paper with ball-point pen or pencil, or to gradually obscure windowpanes with many small brush lines. Through these works, the time and the energy which something needs in order to come into being becomes tangible. Coming into and out of existence, artificial and natural light: these are also themes to which Scherübl dedicates an installation which can currently be viewed in the exhibition “Nature - Creation is not finished!“ at Stift Admont. The “Hall for Artistic Intervention“ was set up by the artist with a light installation in which a network of power cords branch out in tributary-like forms, representing the transformation of energy, and lead to a fluorescent sign reading “ENNS”, making reference to the river to which he lives nearby. Books from the Stift Admont library show illustrations of sunflowers: the ultimate light seeker. “I am addicted to light“, says Wilhelm Scherübl. (sh/jn) no no Wilhelm Scherübl, Sculpture, Installation, Drawing, Painting, Intervention, Time, Nature, Ennstal, Radstadt, Stift Admont, Museum, site specific, Organism, Process, Transformation, Change, Light, Watercolor, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Bruno Gironcoli CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:30 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/095_scherubl.mp4 095_scherubl.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com His view is one of pragmatic irony, the work of art without the narrative. A portrait of the artist Michael Kienzer. 08:03 Michael Kienzer - "inter/medium" A grid-like strut frame, constructed out of several vertical and horizontal aluminum rods, stands in the space, and is held both together and upright by means of a chaotic network of wide black rubber bands with no visible beginning or end. The sculpture conveys a precarious stability, based on workings of gravity, traction, pressure, and friction. Bringing attention to the forces that constitute a work is a central concern of the artist, Michael Kienzer. Through the methods of interlacing, interweaving, and extensive tension, he creates links, references, connections between things and materials, and thereby reveals the fact that it is not the elements themselves, but the mutual relations between the elements—what is formed in between—that represents the character of a work. Kienzer completed his degree at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Graz and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where he studied sculpture under Bruno Gironcoli. For his work—which has received numerous awards, among them the Monsignore Otto Mauer Award—he uses various media; for objects, installations, and designs, he takes different approaches to themes such as space, time, surface, compression, materiality, image, and the original. His sculptural interventions are mostly site-specific, working within the means of a given space. For example, in a lapidary fashion, two aluminum plates are set up straight across a space, supported only by themselves and the walls, drawing attention to the physical forces at work, therby shifting them, and changing the viewer’s perspective of the structures, which at first appear unalterable. Some of Kienzer’s works—especially those which are located in public and semi-public spaces—invite the viewer to take part in them. As a communicative work of art, the artist describes a space constructed out of thirty doors, which was on display as a major feature of MUMOK sculpture series, “Out Site”, in the following way: one can arrive here into a liminal space, a gap. For his current installation, “hanging around“, in the Bruno Kreisky Park in Vienna, the artist stretched a few hammocks between trees, which emphasize the spaces in between them and makes them usable. The stretching and interweaving also shape the principles of construction and representation that are present here. This theme finds its strongest expression in the sculptures in which wires, pipes, rope, and rubber bands are intertwined into inextricable balls, forming different units of materiality. The coming together of the various materials directs one’s attention to their characteristics--smooth, raw, flexible, rigid—and how these characteristics work on one another. The materials themselves are an important topic for Kienzer. Most of the time, he uses semi-manufactured materials such as wire, glass and aluminum plates, bars, rope, rubber bands, as well as everyday household items such as tape, tin cans, glass bottles, and erasers—but these are not used in the readymade sense. The materials and objects seem to be or are, in fact, new, untreated, carry no traces, have no history, and represent a pure presence in their respective functions in the works of art. Their composition raises the question concerning their conditions and balances of power: when rolls of tapes are piled up one on top of another forming a post that seems to be supporting the ceiling, or telephone boxes are placed one on top of the other, or a pile of paint cans replace one beam of an aluminium installation, or a helium balloon is suspended in the air with tape, an order of the things and the forces involved become a subject of examination. The view is one of pragmatic irony, the work of art without the narrative. Dubravka Ugresic asks a friend “What is art?“ in her novel, “The Museum of Unconditional Surrender “. “An activity which has something to do with overcoming the force of gravity—but not with flying. “ (sh/jn) no no Michel Kienzer, sculptor, Vienna, Otto Mauer, Bruno Gironcoli, sculpture, design, installation, object art, public space, Kunstgewerbeschule Graz, University of Applied Arts Vienna, space, time, surface, materiality, intervention, MUMOK, Bruno Kreisky, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/089_kienzer.mp4 089_kienzer.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com In preparation for the upcoming EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, the city is now positioning itself in the artistic regard. An interview with the Galeristin Anne-Laure Fournier of Galerie 1918 Shanghai ArtSPACE. 04:05 1918 ArtSPACE Shanghai In terms of artistic production in China, Beijing is definitely the hub. Shanghai, in contrast, is known more as an economic center and business-oriented city. But in preparation for the upcoming EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, the city is now positioning itself in the artistic regard. It has become evident to Anne-Laure Fournier that sculptures are being set up in public spaces across the entire city, Until now, she says, painting had been occupying center stage in the local art scene. Originally from France, Anne-Laure Fournier came to Shanghai in order to learn the language, but she remained in the city and now manages, together with Zhao Yonggang, the Galerie 1918 Shanghai ArtSPACE. Their gallery, housed in a former storage facility, is located only a few streets down from the Moganshan Lu, the art center of Shanghai, where, aside from a few traditional galleries, the Eastlink Gallery is also located. In the Chinese art scene, says Fournier, there is no middle ground between sophisticated modern art and very traditional art. The sculpture in China is very much classically influenced, mostly figurative, and rarely abstract. For the gallery, this was, along with the changes occurring in the city, a motivation to more actively engage with more recent sculptural work in China, and to look for positions that link the traditional with the contemporary. In our podcast, Ms. Fournier shows us examples of which artists are being presented in the gallery, with an emphasis on sculpture. In addition, we present a brief glimpse into the status of Shanghai’s art world in view of the country’s strained economic situation. (wh/jn) no no Shanghai, Beijing, China, EXPO, Anne-Laure Fournier, Zhao Yonggang, Galerie 1918 Shanghai ArtSPACE, sculpture, Moganshan Lu, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/075_1918.mp4 075_1918.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Douglas Henderson compares his work more with abstract painting than with composing. A portrait of the New York performer and composer. 23:11 Douglas Henderson - Visible Sound 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. 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. The work of this composer and performer is located somewhere in the scope of multi-channel electro-acoustic composition. However, he is not only concerned with purely acoustic work, rather, he is consistently devoted to making sound visible. He didn’t really want to begin, says the artist, with the common perception of music, and wanted to be less concerned with how music sounds than how it looks. This does not mean that the acoustic intensity would be negligible, but rather that it would serve as a reference that determines which approach his compositional work takes. His recording, “Icebreaker”, performed at the Hudson Opera House, awakes paranoid feelings in the listener, who feels as if a sheet of ice is cracking underneath his/her own feet and shattering into a million tiny bits. His loudspeakers, painted in swimming-pool blue and filled with water, lean once again in a more visual direction. He compares this 2003 piece with abstract painting, and as a composer, he considers it representative of a large part of his work. Lately, the artist has also turned his attention to constructing instruments in the form of space installations. Strings are stretched across the spaces and entire building structures are utilized as bodies of sound. They are activated by machines and challenge the movements of the visitors, who come to realize that they are triggering what they are hearing with their own bodies.(wh/jn) no no Douglas Henderson, sound, composition, performance, dance, Princeton University, Pulitzer Prize, New York, Berlin, Rockefeller Foundation, Foundation of Contemporary Art New York, electro-acoustic CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:30 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/081_2_henderson.mp3 081_2_hendersong.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Douglas Henderson compares his work more with abstract painting than with composing. A portrait of the New York performer and composer. 17:09 Douglas Henderson - Visible Sound 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. 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. The work of this composer and performer is located somewhere in the scope of multi-channel electro-acoustic composition. However, he is not only concerned with purely acoustic work, rather, he is consistently devoted to making sound visible. He didn’t really want to begin, says the artist, with the common perception of music, and wanted to be less concerned with how music sounds than how it looks. This does not mean that the acoustic intensity would be negligible, but rather that it would serve as a reference that determines which approach his compositional work takes. His recording, “Icebreaker”, performed at the Hudson Opera House, awakes paranoid feelings in the listener, who feels as if a sheet of ice is cracking underneath his/her own feet and shattering into a million tiny bits. His loudspeakers, painted in swimming-pool blue and filled with water, lean once again in a more visual direction. He compares this 2003 piece with abstract painting, and as a composer, he considers it representative of a large part of his work. Lately, the artist has also turned his attention to constructing instruments in the form of space installations. Strings are stretched across the spaces and entire building structures are utilized as bodies of sound. They are activated by machines and challenge the movements of the visitors, who come to realize that they are triggering what they are hearing with their own bodies.(wh/jn) no no Douglas Henderson, sound, composition, performance, dance, Princeton University, Pulitzer Prize, New York, Berlin, Rockefeller Foundation, Foundation of Contemporary Art New York, electro-acoustic CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:30 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/081_1_henderson.mp3 081_1_hendersong.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Achievements of the past made accessible so that one can develop the future. A portrait of the collectors Gertraud and Dieter Bogner. 08:39 Gertraud and Dieter Bogner - Collecting art, making ideas usable.    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.   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.   The collection covers the work of Roland Goeschl, Dan Graham, Francois Morellet, Peter Weibel, Stanislav Kolibal, Heimo Zobernig, Thomas Kaminsky, and Dorit Magreiter. It addresses characteristics which connect the works beyond considerations of style and at the same time, provides a context for Schloß Buchberg as an art location with workshops, seminars, and research projects which challenge new phenomena in art and their points of connection in history. "The linkage of generations and the leaps forward and back"—therein, says Dieter Bogner, exists the life of this whole conception.   One project that was personally important to the two collectors and closely connected to the arrangement in Schloß Buchberg involves the engagement between the architectural and artistic work of the De Stijl representative Friedrich Kiesler and the establishment and support of the Kiesler Private Foundation. In 1997, the remainder of the estate of Lilian and Friedrich Kiesler was acquired and brought to Vienna through state funds. The fact that the structure and the development of the Kiesler Private Foundation was successful in Vienna is due to, among other things, the commitment of the two collectors. It was important to them to point out that the roots of geometric-constructivist art could also be found in Austria, as well as a versatile tradition of abstract, analytic, and constructivist thinking under Friedrich Kiesler, Mathias Hauer, Alois Riegl, and Sigmund Freud.   The Kiesler Private Foundation makes the Kiesler Archive accessible for research and grants an award for achievements in art and architecture every two years, which corresponds with Kiesler’s innovative beginnings and demonstrates how the Bogner collection continually challenges the times within these fields. The museum and collection are part of "a future-oriented idea which makes products, memories, and achievements of the past accessible so that one can develop the future ", according to the collectors, who take on the role of museum planners. In the last few years, Kunsthaus Graz, the Louvre, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York are among the many institutions that have profited from the Bogners’ consultation regarding museum conversion. (wh/jn) no no Dieter Bogner, Gertraud Bogner, Kunstraum, Buchberg, Sammlung, Friedrich Kiesler, Kiesler Stiftung, De Stijl, geometrisch-konstruktive Kunst, Konzeptkunst, UNIQA, ArtCercle CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/091_bogner.mp4 091_bogner.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com The magic of enchantment exists in transformation. A portrait of the Israeli artist Ariel Schlesinger. 06:09 Ariel Schlesinger - Poetic Destruction In the modern, functionally disenchanted world, those who seek out magical moments must first acknowledge reality, but still hold on to the belief that that which is possible can reveal itself in reality. The magic of enchantment exists in transformation. It is based on the ability of the ordinary, banal, and overlooked to wake the fantasy buried within ourselves. Two parallel curved pencils experience togetherness. Small flames burn from the valves of the tires of a casually parked bicycle. Lighters positioned next to each other share an adjoining flame. The Israeli artist Ariel Schlesinger describes himself as a little romantic. His sense for the fantastic and awareness of the possible as that which is overlooked in reality are two jumping-off points for his art, which magically draws in and fascinates viewers through subtle interventions. Ariel Schlesinger grew up in Israel and studied at the Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and the School of Visual Arts in New York. Currently, he lives and seeks out magical moments in Berlin and Tel Aviv. His art is characterized by object art and installation. In his work, Schlesinger uses found objects, building them up into larger works. Installed on a stepladder with cable straps, a cheap power drill on its last legs of battery power propels a gear that ends with a showerhead, which in turn releases a gas-filled soap bubble that floats down and bursts with a loud bang into the reality of an incandescent grid. The relics from everyday life gathered by the artist seem to be cobbled together in their artistic reconstruction. The do-it-yourself aesthetic prevails: one can also be enchanted by simple things—as a child constantly experiences in play—which are often veiled by the slick product design that is the result of a lack of imagination in the adult world. (wh/jn) no no Ariel Schlesinger, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Israel, object art, installation, Bezalel, Academy for Art and Design Jerusalem, School of Visual Arts New York, visual art CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/083_schlesinger.mp4 083_schlesinger.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com How reality constructs itself when we forego that sense which determines our medial world in such a predominating way. A discussion with the media artist Johannes Deutsch over the Invisible Garden in the Museum Stift Admont. 06:39 Johannes Deutsch - The Invisible Garden What would a virtual world be like without computers? The artist Johannes Deutsch tries to make the answers to this question tangible through his art project, "The Invisible Garden". Located in the outdoor park area of the Museum Stift Admont, the interactive garden world of the media artist has been growing for two years as part of the museum’s "Made for Admont" series, and offers a feast of feeling, smelling, and hearing experiences to the visitors of the museum. The idea for the garden developed at a time when the artist was planning an interactive television world for the HYPERLINK "http://www.dict.cc/englisch-deutsch/West.html" West  HYPERLINK "http://www.dict.cc/englisch-deutsch/German.html" German  HYPERLINK "http://www.dict.cc/englisch-deutsch/Broadcasting.html" Broadcasting  HYPERLINK "http://www.dict.cc/englisch-deutsch/Corporation.html" Corporation. Deutsch approached this project with the structure of a new world and the possibilities of its development in mind. He is fascinated by the question of how we derive our conception of the world on the basis of perception, sense, and knowledge processing, not only within the virtual realm, but also in the realm of our life that we regard as material. How do we imagine our material world and how much of this conception do we determine through our senses? With which mechanism of terminology do we arrange, organize, and delineate this? Which relations do our sensory perceptions suggest to us? And: How does our reality construct itself, if we forego that sense which determines the structure of our medial world in such a predominating way, i.e., the visual sense? Lights out, senses of hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting on. This is the way the artist consciously spent the last minutes of the day at the time and how he experienced how quickly the familar dissipates and the unfamiliar gains intensity. The invisible garden at the Stift Admont embodies this experience. Blindfolded visitors are guided through the world of the invisible garden. Shifts occur in one’s perception of time, distance, space, and rhythm, and the possibility emerges to create a concept of reality in one’s own words or through the help of the explanations of one’s escort. The leaves of a gingko tree not only feel like rubber but can also be bent accordingly, the leaf with the pointed tips is probably a maple one, the finger with which one brushed the bark of a bush now carries the taste of bitter almond—these are experiences that open the door into another world. They offer a sensuous immersion—let the de- and re-construction begin. (wh/jn) no no Stift Admont, museum, Made for Admont, media art, new media, Johannes Deutsch, garden, visual, deconstruction, virtual reality, senses, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 7 Jul 2009 11:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/094_deutsch.mp4 094_deutsch.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com A young art collective characterized by highbrow hijinks. An interview with the Bruce High Quality Foundation. 08:04 The Bruce High Quality Foundation - Con Artists 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. 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. “The most radical gesture of art is its own existence,” is a key line in The Bruce High Quality Foundation’s (BHQF) artist’s statement. This young art collective, based in Brooklyn, NY, has successfully maintained a studio and “career” based on the spirit of collaboration. Although they have never cited any of their individual names in the press and until now, have not even really shown their faces, their philosophy is not necessarily about “obfuscating shit”, or strategically dodging identification. Their vibe is more about the “liberating qualities of fiction”, the principle that “facts” do not necessarily lead to the “truth”. BHQF’s avoidance of pin-down-able “facts” creates interesting challenges such as not qualifying for an official Wikipedia entry (Wikipedia requires “facts” that can be verified twice in publications), or often being “misrepresented” in the press. But these aspects are all part of the fun. Perhaps it is not surprising that this (loosely defined) collective of young gentlemen are often characterized by a form of highbrow hijinks: playful references (e.g., superimposing “Bruce’s” face on famous artworks), wacky interventions (e.g., staging a “protest” at the Art Basel art fair in Miami), and mass open events (e.g., producing their own interpretation of “Cats on Broadway”). The work often resembles a form of fratboy pranks dreamed up by art school intellectuals. But perhaps the most fascinating aspect of collectives is their will to exist and persist. According to “the Bruces”, their most commonly asked question is how long “the experiment” will last. Political projects could probably take a cue from the Bruces’ formula of success, which involves a combination of fluidity, openness, and genuine camaraderie. Until now, it’s been working and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. (jn) yes no The Bruce High Quality Foundation, New York, art collective, identity, celebrity, intervention, parody, Art Basel, Wikipedia CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/076_bruce.mp4 076_bruce.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com The artist Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag conducts science by way of art. A podcast on the tonal experience of space and raw electricity as the essential form of the media age. 11:29 Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag - The acoustic perspective of space and the nature of electricity. 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. 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. Attempts at categorizations place Sonntag’s roots in minimum and conceptual art, as well as in new/experimental music. However, Sonntag prefers not to be pigeonholed. He finds the categories into which the arts are assigned too limiting. He would define himself more as a composer than as a sound artist, but his work is also visual. His favorite term would be inventor. Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag conducts science by way of art, and his prolific artistic invention has been highly recognized. He has received numerous awards and has had exhibitions everywhere from New York to Bishkek. In 2008, he opened the avant-garde festival of electronic art, Ars Electronica in Linz, with his sonArc:: a project which explored elementary forms of electricity. In search of the roots and visions of this media age, Sonntag captured the essence of electricity through the possibilities of taming lightning with his technological devices. The tonal experience and exploration of space and questions of perspective form the other important field of the artist’s research. Sonntag seeks out possibilities of capturing tangible spatiality through sound, and thereby pose alternatives to the visual occupation of the perception of space, with its pervasion of perspective, from the field of psycho-acoustic space perception. For this CastYourArt podcast, Sonntag referred acoustically to his body sounds - the result, an aural sampling of the thought process of the artist as well as a body sound collage… (wh/jn) no no Jan- Peter E.R. Sonntag, sonArc:: project, experimental music, sound, composition, body, space, perspective, electricity, electronics, Berlin, Oldenburg, minimal art, conceptual art, Ars Electronica, Heinz Fadle, Lübeck CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:30:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/085_2_sonntag.mp3 085_2_sonntag.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com The artist Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag conducts science by way of art. A podcast on the tonal experience of space and raw electricity as the essential form of the media age. 16:47 Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag - The acoustic perspective of space and the nature of electricity. 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. 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. Attempts at categorizations place Sonntag’s roots in minimum and conceptual art, as well as in new/experimental music. However, Sonntag prefers not to be pigeonholed. He finds the categories into which the arts are assigned too limiting. He would define himself more as a composer than as a sound artist, but his work is also visual. His favorite term would be inventor. Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag conducts science by way of art, and his prolific artistic invention has been highly recognized. He has received numerous awards and has had exhibitions everywhere from New York to Bishkek. In 2008, he opened the avant-garde festival of electronic art, Ars Electronica in Linz, with his sonArc:: a project which explored elementary forms of electricity. In search of the roots and visions of this media age, Sonntag captured the essence of electricity through the possibilities of taming lightning with his technological devices. The tonal experience and exploration of space and questions of perspective form the other important field of the artist’s research. Sonntag seeks out possibilities of capturing tangible spatiality through sound, and thereby pose alternatives to the visual occupation of the perception of space, with its pervasion of perspective, from the field of psycho-acoustic space perception. For this CastYourArt podcast, Sonntag referred acoustically to his body sounds - the result, an aural sampling of the thought process of the artist as well as a body sound collage… (wh/jn) no no Jan- Peter E.R. Sonntag, sonArc:: project, experimental music, sound, composition, body, space, perspective, electricity, electronics, Berlin, Oldenburg, minimal art, conceptual art, Ars Electronica, Heinz Fadle, Lübeck CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:02:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/085_1_sonntag.mp3 085_1_sonntag.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Nadine Rennert’s early abstract work explores the formal possibilities of its material. A deep look into the soul. 06:47 Nadine Rennert - Nowhere to Hide The early work of Nadine Rennert can be considered abstract art. It explores the formal possibilities of its material. It plumbs the depths of its soul, says the artist. The work of the Berlin-based artist has moved lately more in the direction of figurative art. The use of materials such as fleece, wool, leather, skin or down remains the same, as well as the approach of trying to find what lies within the raw material, within its soul. What has changed is that the material of her work must now be understood in a broader sense. Individual sentences in the form of statements and situations from stories and fairy tales have been added. These materials originate from the interweaving of individual lives in their social and temporal circumstances. In her sculptural work, Nadine Rennert finds an up-to-date form for these sometime archaic materials through their internal tensions. The used materials sustain these translations into the now. They display the signs of their use, referring to the everyday, to real life. Quietly and unknowingly, they make their way into the lives of their viewers. What characteristics have we retained through our schooling and the circumstances of our upbringing? What about us has its own history, goes its own way? What do we carry with us? Rennert’s sculptures urge us to question ourselves. They touch upon deeply buried layers: integrity, vulnerability, belonging, being alone or outcast. Her work gets to the nitty-gritty of things. When the artist investigates the possibilities of her materials, she opens up that which has been well stored away and preserved in the cellar of our existence, exposing it to the world. The ideas for her work develop in this vulnerable interim of awaking, when certain impressions get caught in the light of our half-conscious dream state and then tend to retreat back into the dark depths of the subconscious. These sealed-up goods are uncorked by the work of the artist. That which is deep-seated is expressed in Rennert’s work with literal openness. On the one hand, it is obvious but on the other hand, not completely articulated, remaining open enough to stir up the viewer’s own history. The artist describes her work as an open-ended invitation that can be met with curiosity. For the sake of argument, through her work, the artist realizes potentials and develops counterpositions against the defenses within ourselves. (wh/jn) no no Nadine Rennert, Berlin, Georg-Kolbe Museum, Sculpture, Material, Soul, Fine Arts, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/073_rennert.mp4 073_rennert.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Oswald Oberhuber has created a site-specific installation which includes drawings, paintings, and sculptures thematically related to Prince Eugen of Savoy. A discussion about the exhibition with the artist. 08:52 Oswald Oberhuber - The Passions of Prince Eugen 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. 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. Oberhuber stresses the fact that he regards the work that he specifically created for the exhibition in the Belvedere as an overall composition. The works do not exist on their own, but rather in the context of the exhibition and its interpretation. In finding an artistic language for a subject from the eighteenth century, how it related to current times was an important aspect for the artist. Bright colors prevail, the works are often graphically oriented and spare in detail. The use of color and simple graphics challenge the usual assumptions that visitors hold of royal portraits, creating a playful, ironic, almost comic effect. Oberhuber is not concerned about being accommodating, but rather about creating points through which the viewer can connect and thereby facilitate understanding. Using less words, the strengths of the works become apparent through what they downsize: those things which are often primally sensed, but at the same time, resist the current widespread view that their clarity depends on how densely they are applied. Looking at the group of works inspired by war events, Oberhuber commented that these take on a partly critical attitude in relation to these occurrences—in a softer language, of course, because he can only speak softly, and prefers not to state something in a brutal fashion. (wh/jn) The works of Oswald Oberhuber can be seen in the exhibition, “The Passions of Prince Eugen", at the Orangerie, Belvedere in Vienna from May 29th through September 13th, 2009. no no Oswald Oberhuber, Prince Eugen of Savoy, Belvedere, Orangerie, Vienna, Exhibition, informal sculpture, Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Universität für Angewandte Kunst, Meran CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/090_oberhuber_sub.mp4 090_oberhubert_sub.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Portrait Maria Lassnig: “Soft as marmalade, marmalade out of blood. I’m batted and left locked out from the world of painting.” 04:45 Maria Lassnig - The Ninth Decade 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 “snaps”, 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. 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. But Life had different plans for her. As a young woman she decided to make a living out of painting. Between 1941 and 1943 Maria Lassnig studied at the academy of fine arts in Vienna. Later on she lived in Paris and New York. While living in the United States she started making animated films because her paintings were not understood. In the year 1980 she accepted a teaching position at the University for applied arts in Vienna. She was the first female professor for Painting at an academy in the German speaking world. Between 1982 and 1997 her works were shown at the documenta in Kassel. In the year 1988 she receives the Austrian State Art Prize and in 2004 she was awarded with the Max-Beckmann prize of the city of Frankfurt. In the last couple of years the work of Maria Lassnig drew more and more attention. Hans Ulrich Obrist curated an exhibition of her work at the Serpentine Gallery in London, the critics deemed her to be the discovery of the century, the “grand dame” of the European painting. In 2009 the Vienna Museum of Modern Art hosted the exhibition “Maria Lassnig. The Ninth Decade." Lassnig wasn’t entirely happy with the title “The Ninth Decade” because it made her sound like an old woman. She perceives herself as becoming smarter and more beautiful from day to day. In her diaries published by DuMont Lassnig describes death as a cruel unfair ending, this human fate unnecessarily destroys a beautiful building, which shines on the top. Looking at her recent work, one can understand this statement. Maria Lassnig stands for those rare examples in art history, where hard work transforms knowledge and experience into a playful exploration. On many occasions she quotes that she does not have a clear vision when she takes a brush into her hand. The central theme of her work evolves around the illustration of the human body. In her “body awareness paintings” as Lassnig describes it, she extends the physical appearance of the body through the dimension of sensation.
Although she points out that she does not represent a feminist agenda, her drawings and self-portraits reflect on the female position in society nevertheless with a certain level of irony. In her work the “country girl” Lassnig portraits a mature woman who hangs on to a small scooter while her breasts seem to lose the battle with gravity. As if she would say, take the “shooter” but leave me the scooter. In her work Lassnig consequently tries to rethink conventional positions, to develop new perspectives and to present things in a new context. She writes in her diaries: “Oh those artists who are trapped in their style, who look frustrated at the world, who are obsessed with success; they should modify their style, change it every week, think their standards over, change their hair color, their wig everyday, vary their preconceived opinion about politics, about the person next to them”. (jk/fls) yes no Maria Lassnig, fine arts, painting, animated motion picture, MUMOK (Vienna), Carinthia, Academy of Fine Arts (Paris), NY, University of Applied Arts, Documenta, Max-Beckmann Prize, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Gallery, Body Conscience Drawing, feminism, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/092_lassnig.mp4 092_lassnig.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com In Liselot van der Heijden’s installations, the viewer always plays an integral part in the set-up and passivity is not an option. A portrait of the artist. 05:59 Liselot van der Heijden - The Eyes Have It 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. 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. Art has always offered the possibility of not taking these positions for granted. For as long as art and artists have existed, there have always also been the viewers. In this day and age, reflexivity has given way to self-reflexivity. Every voyeur is also a voyee. Through her art, Liselot van der Heijden explores these ever-evolving visual positionings. In her compact, spare, but multi-layered installations, the viewer always plays an integral part in the set-up and therefore, naturally, passivity is not an option. Nature plays a big part in van der Heijden’s work. Drawing from an archive culled from nature documentaries, sightseeing trips, and media footage, the artist repeatedly reminds us through her work that even in our idyllic reception of “nature”, our position is always complicit, our intentions are not necessarily “pure”. In exhibitions such as “Aporia”, in which we are confronted by the a drawn-out version of a zebra’s last breath, or “Primate Visions”, in which the fourth walls of zoo habitats are broken down, or “Natural History”, in which observers of the dioramas at New York’s Museum of Natural History unwittingly project life into the life-like figures, anthropomorphism becomes an outdated concept in a far more complex mediation between the natural and the un-natural. Originally from the Netherlands, the artist has been dividing her time between Amsterdam and New York for the last 15 years, and her bewilderment during the Bush Administration also found its way into her work. Shortly after 9/11, when Ari Fleischer memorably warned Americans to “watch what we say”, van der Heijden turned a watchful eye and ear on Bush, creating two video pieces: one consisting of a State of the Union address that has been stripped down to the words “America” (61 times) and another focusing on phrases such as “evil is real” and "God is near", respectively, in addition to their accompanying standing ovations. Reflecting on mediation and complicity inevitably leads to reflecting on the political, and van der Heijden’s critical negotiation of the viewer can, in this case, also be applied to the citizen. (jn) no no Liselot van der Heijden, New York, The Netherlands, LMAK Projects, Video Art, Photography, Politics, Nature, Perspective CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/069_liselot.mp4 069_liselot.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Her search for certain areas and her willingness to expose herself to them is one of the strengths of Maria Teresa Ponce's work. A portrait of the artist. 08:39 Maria Teresa Ponce - Prodigal Homes Maria Teresa Ponce understands how people develop a nostalgia for the country they have left behind, where their own friends, family, places, experiences, and history have remained. Ponce left Ecuador when she was nine and moved to the US, where she spent her youth, and studied architecture. After she completed her degree, she returned to Ecuador to find a country in economic crisis, with no work to be found for young architects. This crisis resulted in Ponce turning to art: she began to take photographs. She experienced that photography opened up new worlds which interested her, but to which she hardly had access. Her photographic work investigates the inner world of prisons, including their inmates. She then digitally superimposed the photographs from the prisons onto photographs of a condemned hospital building, thereby representing the ailments of an institution meant for rehabilitation. Her landscape photography, taken along a pipeline which runs from the Amazon rainforest to the Pacific coast, gives the impression that wealth and economic prosperity are being siphoned outside the country through a hermetically sealed channel. Ponce's work is characterized by her search for these areas and her willingness to expose herself them, as well as their inhabitants. One aspect of Ponce's documentary style is an intentional staging of scenes - some of her projects reveal an interventional approach. In the end, Maria Teresa Ponce works with the medium photography not only to produce pictures, but also to experience, and to evoke associations which are easy to miss. Sometimes, the artist says, she finds herself bordering on activism, the term “photographer” falls short of a proper artistic self-definition. (wh/jn) no no Maria Teresa Ponce, Ecuador, Quito, Photografie, Film, Intervention, Architecture, USA, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 26 May 2009 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/079_ponce.mp4 079_ponce.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Private art funding. An interview with John Zeppetelli, curator of the DHC Art Foundation in Montreal. 13:02 DHC - Private Art Funding in Canada 
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.

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/jn) no no DHC, Phoebe Greenberg, Tammy Lee, Penny Mancuso, John Zeppetelli, Canada, Montreal, Sponsors, Foundation, Christian Marclay, Sophie Calle, Marc Quinn CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 20 May 2009 12:02:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/065_2_DHC.mp3 065_2_DHC.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Private art funding. An interview with John Zeppetelli, curator of the DHC Art Foundation in Montreal. 10:42 DHC - Private Art Funding in Canada 
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.

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/jn) no no DHC, Phoebe Greenberg, Tammy Lee, Penny Mancuso, John Zeppetelli, Canada, Montreal, Sponsors, Foundation, Christian Marclay, Sophie Calle, Marc Quinn CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 19 May 2009 14:20:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/065_1_DHC.mp3 065_1_DHC.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com An improvised mini-takeaway-concert featuring the vocalist Monica Reyes from CastYourArt. 02:44 Takeaway Concert Monica Reyes - Frühbar Monica Reyes has just released her new CD, "Frühbar", which features original compositions from the vocalist and actress - witty and tipsy pop-chansons that capture the kind of truth-revealing antics that emerge after a few drinks. CastYourArt met up with Monica Reyes (www.monicareyes.de) und her guitarist Martin Bayer two weeks ago in the Museumsquartier. After a sudden inspiration, we ended up improvising and recording a spontaneous version of the title song, which resulted in this little "takeaway" concert. Our "stage" was an artwork by Michael Kienzer. (wh/jn) Art performed on art - take your concert away... no no Monica Reyes, Music, Vocalist, CD, Frühbar, Composition, Conzert, Michael Kienzer, Museumsquartier, Vienna CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Sun, 17 May 2009 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/062_reyes.mp4 062_reyes.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com In William Anthony’s world, no artist is too high to be sent up. A portrait of the artist. 05:22 Bill Anthony - Comedy of Errors 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. 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. From that moment on, Anthony decided to play the fool. If it wasn't for Anthony's subject matter, one would think that his “scrawl”-ings had been done by a child. But upon closer examination, they reveal not only a meticulously developed style based on intentional “errors” and deliberate erasures, but also an eclectic set of influences and inspirations that draw from many genres and famous works of art, as well as a broad base of historical and current events that lend themselves to being lampooned. Taking a cue from the pop art movement that was in full bloom at the time of his own development, Anthony quickly learned to develop not only a keen eye, but also a keen ear for picking up on ridiculous occurrences. Strange magazine covers, art historical and cultural anecdotes, and of course, multitudes of both well- and lesser- known artworks became the fodder for his hilarious yet well-observed and insightful repertoire of satires. The comic approach of his work has landed his works on the pages of Warhol’s Interview magazine and ArtForum, and in galleries and museums around the world, as well as being compiled in books that cover not only drawing techniques, but also such lofty subjects as World War II and the Bible. He is a favorite among art critics, as his witty references range from such diverse artists as Fragonard and Bosch, to Manet and Hockney. In Anthony’s world, no artist is too high to be sent up. Lucky for them, because this is where the fun starts. (jn) yes no Andy Warhol, ArtForum, Christopher Henry Gallery, Comedy, Comics, Drawing, Illustration, New York, Pop Art, Satire CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 12 May 2009 13:20:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/068_anthony.mp4 068_anthony.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com The border between nature and culture is a tectonic faultline of human self-understanding. A peek into the exhibition "Nature - The Creation is not finished!" at the Museum at the Monastery of Admont. 07:07 Nature - Creation is not finished! The border between nature and culture is a tectonic faultline of human self-understanding. For example, when humanism seeks to tame the animal instinct in people, this can be understood as a tectonically preventive measure on the level of cultural history. When humans dabble in creation regarding nature, the foundations of both sides sometimes clash. The resulting tremor can then be so large that it raises a mountain of questions, which are often so disturbing that they force us to reinvestigate the notion of being human. The exhibition, "Nature - Creation is not finished!", at the Monastery of Admont, looks at the boundaries and dissolution of boundaries between nature and culture. However, the artistic directions of the exhibition are not limited to earthquake faultlines. Rather than becoming fixed on the precariousness of the boundary, a multiplicity of different presentations of nature becomes evident. The artistic handling of creation is more playful. Nature is the theme behind featured artworks such as Christoph Lingg’s idle industrial fields, which are shown as the backyards of our affluent society, and Gabriele Schöne’s paintings, which deal with the disappearance of nature. However, nature itself is also seen as a lively medium of artistic expression in the exhibition. The motifs in Edgar Lissels’s photographs arise from the photo-tactical characteristic of cyanobacteria to race towards the light. Wilhelm Scherübels’s watercolors function through the mechanisms of frost patterns. In Thomas Baumann’s installation, an artificial iceberg develops during the period of the exhibition. CastYourArt met the curator of the exhibition, Michael Braunsteiner, and asked him about the overlying concept of the exhibition. The artists Wilhelm Scherübel and Günther Pedrotti were also present and reflected on their creative approach to nature in the interview. (wh/jn) The Museum at the Monastery of Admont will be exploring the theme of "Nature - Creation is not finished!" through November 8th, the current exhibition in the contemporary art section runs until the end of May. no no Stift Admont, Nature, Exhibition, Collection, Museum, Contemporary Art, Michael Braunsteiner, Wilhelm Scherübl, Günther Pedrotti, Edgar Lissel, Christopher Lingg, Gabriele Schöne, Thomas Baumann CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 06 May 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/086_admont.mp4 086_admont.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com There is no pessimistic art. Art affirms. Job affirms. A portrait of the Viennese artist Tomak. 05:59 Tomak - There is no pessimistic art Oil on canvas, drawings, texts, performances: one must work hard on compiling the techniques of artistic expression, says the Vienna-based artist Tomak. Contentment leads to comfort. But those who only want to please others do not create art, as they are not willing to sail the upwind course. To want to advance and to be able to persist against harsh winds are both foundations of his artistic self-positioning. Art which earns the right to be called art arises from both strength and sensitivity. One must be hard and ready to fight against inertia, to be able to separate the weak from the strong. Tomak demands this attitude from himself and expects it from others. Surrender to contentment? "Why not produce something questionable, something disturbing? Off to war!" "This most affirmative of all spirits contradicts with every word he speaks.” Nietzsche’s portrayal of the artist fits Tomak well. He likes the theatrical aspect of Nietzsche. What he hates is the urban bourgeois bohemian and provincial regulars-reserved-table-proletarian. They are also theatrical, but in the most negative sense: they feature intellect and revolt only for show, creating homeopathic art, fighting a homeopathic fight. By definition, one exposes oneself as an artist. One cannot exclude oneself, if one wants to be taken seriously. As an artist, one must accept injuries, which are considered part of the artistic research. Tomak uses medical abstraction in order to comprehend psychological conditions. "The life one lives leaves its mark on one's face, so I portray life through portraying my face". He incorporates himself into his artwork, literally to the bone. Those who want to see do not want to be spared. As Nietzsche says, “Representing terrible and questionable things is already an instinct of the power and glory of the artist: he is not afraid of them! There is no pessimistic art. Art affirms. Job affirms." (wh/jn) yes no Tomak, Painting, Design, Text, Performance, Vienna, Nietzsche, Provocation, Philosophy CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:28:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/080_tomak.mp4 080_tomak.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Sales are important, as well as investigation, orientation, discussion, and, in particular, building up good contacts. A discussion with Edek Bartz, the artistic director of Vienna Fair. 18:43 Edek Bartz - Taking a museum Director by the hand. By mid-January, the London Art Fair kicks off the international art fair season. At year end, offerings such as Art Basel Miami or alternatively, the Contemporary Art Fair in Istanbul are up for grabs to art dealers, buyers, and onlookers. The business of fine art is conducted at these fairs. Depending on which art information site that one consults, anywhere from 30 up to 100 art fairs pave the way of artistic-financial exchange between London and Miami each year. In view of the vast range of fairs to choose from, it has become increasingly important in the last few years for fair directors to develop a comprehensive profile of their event. According to Bartz, his task is to recognize and bring together opportunities that represent particular geographical, financial, artistic, and institutional circumstances. For three years, the artistic director of Vienna Fair has developed a prominent profile among the international art events. The fair’s program is characterized by contemporary art with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe. It features a variety of renowned galleries and it has opened doors into the international art market for young and lesser-known galleries from the eastern member states of the European Union. Edek Bartz himself has an Eastern European background. Born in a Russian internment camp in Quaraghandy, the fourth largest city of Kazakhstan, he spent his childhood in Poland. In 1958, on the way to “emigrating” to Israel, his mother made a “stop” in Vienna, where her family had lived, and ended her journey there. Bartz soon made a name for himself within and beyond the city as a gifted manager in the music and art worlds. He himself was a musician, acted as a manager for the Austrian pop icon, Falco, and founded and managed festivals. Today, he curates exhibitions and teaches at the University of Applied Art in Vienna. The combination of his knowledge of art and his understanding of the organizational and commercial sides of art events was his most important qualification for his position as artistic director of Vienna Fair, says Bartz. Sales are a very important aspect of Vienna Fair, but a successful art fair must also be an entertaining platform for analyzing artistic directions, identifying where new centers develop, discussing curatorial strategies, and, in particular, building up good contacts. Those who are seeking the opportunity for discussions with gallery owners, artists, and curators, considering purchasing an artwork, or just looking for some interaction and exchange, should check out Vienna Fair, which runs from May 6-10, which will also feature a number of internationally curated exhibitions in galleries and art spaces around Vienna, as well as various events and parties sponsored by the fair. (wh/jn) CastYourArt will also be represented at Vienna Fair in the media section. Feel free to stop by, we look forward to your visit! (wh/jn) no no Vienna Fair, Art Fairs, Contemporary Art, Eastern Europe, Vienna, Galleries, Edek Bartz, Michael Kimmelman, Victor Misiano, Iwona Blazwick, Whitechapel Art Gallery, White Columns Gallery, Matthew Higgs, Simon Reiss, Gallery LeLong, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/084_bartz.mp3 084_bartz.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com The concert series “Young Meets New” makes new interpretations of classical music accessible and introduces the kind of artistic interaction which transcends the borders of institutions, generations, and cultures. 06:12 BAWAG - Young Meets New “Young Meets New” is a concert series in which singers and instrumentalists from classical, jazz, musical, and opera backgrounds interpret chamber music anew. Marialena Fernandes founded and produced this concert series together with the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität and the BAWAG P.S.K. Bank. The latter provided not only a Bösendorfer grand piano and budget for the performances, but also the main banking hall in the Otto Wagner building on Georg Coch Platz 2 in Vienna. The goal of “Young Meets New” is to make new interpretations of classical music accessible. In addition, it aims to introduce the kind of artistic interaction which transcends the borders of institutions, generations, and cultures. Crossovers, says Professor Marialena Fernandes, which challenge involvement with the Viennese Philharmonic, among other things, is a passion. She is dedicated to bridging gaps and shifting borders - in music as well as in life. Last year, she was awarded the MIA Award for special achievements by women with an emigrant background for her successful transnational work. CastYourArt spoke with Marialena Fernandes (http://www5.marialenafernandes.com) and attended the rehearsal and concert of the university professor with Italian cellist Maddalena del Gobbo and clarinetist Oliver Darnhofer, student at the University of Music and Performance. Those who would like to attend “Young Meets New” performances, featuring Marialena Fernandes and young talents, have the opportunity every third Thursday of the month in the BAWAG (http://www.bawag-kultur.at/bawag-kultur/home/nav.html) at Georg Coch place 2 starting from 18.00. (wh/jn) no no Young Meets New, music concert, jazz, classical, musical, opera, chamber music, Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität, BAWAG P.S.K., Bösendorfer, Otto Wagner, MIA Award, Marialena Fernandes, Maddalena del Gobbo, Oliver Darnhofer CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:30:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/078_jungneu.mp4 078_jungneu.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Sound design, sound speculation, improvisation, classical composition, and a combination of all of the above. A view into artist Carlos Sandoval’s world of sound. 16:31 Carlos Sandoval - Setting in Motion Carlos Sandoval is a sound artist. Sandoval’s own definition of his work includes sound design, sound speculation, improvisation, classical composition, and a combination of all of the above. In the work of the artist, the dissolution of the composer as the ruling subject of the music plays an important role. For example, for his installation of trees, “Baumberauschen", in the Kreuzberg section of Berlin, nature is the designated composer of the music. The trees are equipped with sensors which detect their movements, caused by wind and growth, and direct these impulses with sounds from sound archives. The artist teaches improvisation and composition as complementary strategies at the Universität der Künste Berlin. The multifaceted approach to planning and spontaneity is a reflection of Sandoval’s focus: the withdrawal of the controlling subject from the music, which can also be found in Sandoval’s 2008 collaboration for the program of the "Interaktion Festival", called "The Tilt Group". Sixteen musicians participated, paired up randomly, in a competition for the best musical interaction. The artist has an experimental and unusual concept of music. His works are sound manipulations, sound improvisations, sound installations. His raw material includes everything from the cries of a flock of birds to street noise to electronic toy sounds to the moans of couples in the throes of ecstasy. The instruments of the artist are experimental developments. For example, over the course of one decade, during repeated stays at the STEIM Foundation in the Netherlands, Sandoval has developed a digital data entry glove from which he is able to control and work on sound samples live from the computer. Carlos Sandoval was born and grew up in Mexico. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he was trained in piano construction and tuning at Bösendorfer in Vienna. He then completed his studies in Mexico at the National School of Music Composition, studying theory with Estrada. Presently, Sandoval works as a freelance composer and musician in Berlin. (wh/jn) no no Carlos Sandoval, The Tilt Group, Interaktion Festival, STEIM Foundation, Berlin, Sound Design, Improvisation, Composition, Estrada, Mexico, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:50:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/060_2_sandoval.mp3 060_2_sandoval.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Sound design, sound speculation, improvisation, classical composition, and a combination of all of the above. A view into artist Carlos Sandoval’s world of sound. 18:29 Carlos Sandoval - Setting in Motion Carlos Sandoval is a sound artist. Sandoval’s own definition of his work includes sound design, sound speculation, improvisation, classical composition, and a combination of all of the above. In the work of the artist, the dissolution of the composer as the ruling subject of the music plays an important role. For example, for his installation of trees, “Baumberauschen", in the Kreuzberg section of Berlin, nature is the designated composer of the music. The trees are equipped with sensors which detect their movements, caused by wind and growth, and direct these impulses with sounds from sound archives. The artist teaches improvisation and composition as complementary strategies at the Universität der Künste Berlin. The multifaceted approach to planning and spontaneity is a reflection of Sandoval’s focus: the withdrawal of the controlling subject from the music, which can also be found in Sandoval’s 2008 collaboration for the program of the "Interaktion Festival", called "The Tilt Group". Sixteen musicians participated, paired up randomly, in a competition for the best musical interaction. The artist has an experimental and unusual concept of music. His works are sound manipulations, sound improvisations, sound installations. His raw material includes everything from the cries of a flock of birds to street noise to electronic toy sounds to the moans of couples in the throes of ecstasy. The instruments of the artist are experimental developments. For example, over the course of one decade, during repeated stays at the STEIM Foundation in the Netherlands, Sandoval has developed a digital data entry glove from which he is able to control and work on sound samples live from the computer. Carlos Sandoval was born and grew up in Mexico. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he was trained in piano construction and tuning at Bösendorfer in Vienna. He then completed his studies in Mexico at the National School of Music Composition, studying theory with Estrada. Presently, Sandoval works as a freelance composer and musician in Berlin. (wh/jn) no no Carlos Sandoval, The Tilt Group, Interaktion Festival, STEIM Foundation, Berlin, Sound Design, Improvisation, Composition, Estrada, Mexico, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:15:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/060_1_sandoval.mp3 060_1_sandoval.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Overcoming the segregation of forms of sensory perception. A portrait of artist Carsten Nicolai. 07:43 Carsten Nicolai - Spaces in between Through his artwork, Carsten Nicolai overcomes the segregation of forms of sensory perception. Sound is made visible, light frequencies are heard. Sound, light, time, and space are the cornerstones of the work of the artist, who is making neither a political statement nor yet another self-reflexive discourse about art. Instead, he tries to investigate and penetrate the frontiers of perception, of which we have no conception but which do seem to have an effect on us. Nicolai is experimental in his art in a scientific sense. He formulates precise conditions, clears away that which is unnecessary, defines environments in which his artworks can grow: sometimes through the influence of the public, sometimes through moments of disturbance, blurring, or chance in the system. Self-organized processes - for example, the formation of snowflakes in the air due to impurities and disturbances - fascinate him. Through the formation of self-organization and chance, Nicolai can step into the background as an artist and avoids the personification of his artwork. Such processes speak for themselves. Carsten Nicolai began with painting - first, completely classic: oil on canvas. Then, however, with the exploration of new artistic possibilities, the search also began for other materials that would suit his objectives. The conventional canvas was replaced by translucent polyester frameworks within which the arriving light breaks and whereby the color in the picture is produced. Liquid-filled basins placed on loudspeakers through which digitally worked sound samples are played reproduce frequency patterns on their surfaces. Through the explosion of a gas mixture, the speed of sound at 334 meters per second is made visible in a glass tube. On his label “raster noton”, the artist publishes under the alias "alva noto". His sound work is designed on an editing program that does not work in real time and therefore the sound must first be visually drafted in order to be heard. Nicolai considers his work in sound as visual work, he does not make music but instead calls himself a visual composer. The artist, born in Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1965, has achieved great success with his work. Numerous prizes, almost twenty solo exhibitions in cities ranging from Berlin to Tokyo, Biennales, group exhibitions, as well as alva noto performances in the New York Guggenheim, Centre Pompidou, Kunsthaus Graz, and the Tate Modern. Although his work is appreciated worldwide, he is more concerned with those details, fragments, or parts in which - following the thesis of philosopher Marcello Viccini - all the information of the whole is retained. (wh/jn) no no Carsten Nicolai, Sound, Light, Time, Space, Blur, Technology, Science, raster noton, alva noto, Biennale, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/059_nicolai.mp4 059_nicolai.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com We keep things on hand because they are important to us, for example, birthdays of friends, important telephone numbers, and sometimes, works of art. A visit to the Museum on Demand of the city of Vienna. 07:14 MUSA - Museum on Demand We keep things on hand because they are important to us. We store them. They are available: for example, birthdays of friends, important telephone numbers, and sometimes, works of art. In Vienna, the Museum on Demand (Museum auf Abruf, MUSA) serves this purpose. This museum of the city of Vienna keeps a collection of artworks by artists living in Vienna which is accessible to the city’s residents. The collection began in 1945 with an acquisition of watercolors. Since then, the art collection has increased to nearly 20,000 works. They represent the work of Vienna’s resident artists for over a half century. Acquisition, says the present director of MUSA, Berthold Ecker, is the most significant form of support for artists. This has been the cornerstone of MUSA’s artistic policy since the beginning and remains so until today. The city of Vienna purchases about 130 new works of art annually for this collection. Today, one can find works from Franz West, Maria Lassnig, and Erwin Wurm there. The city’s collection was available for quite some time, but there was no location available at which it could have been shown. What began with paintings, sculptures, and drawings, grew to include installations, videos, and new media work. If a permanent exhibition space could be found, the collection could be brought to the public’s attention. With each exhibition, a "Museum on Demand" was created, as designated in 1991 by the director of the collection at that time, Wolfgang Hilger, which is also how the name of the permanent institution was coined. In 2007, the Museum on Demand came into being. In a building next to Vienna’s City Hall, 600 square meters of the most modern exhibition space including storage are located in the former premises of a public kitchen. The MUSA houses a front gallery reserved for young artists in addition to the exhibition hall in order to allow for these single exhibitions. In the Artothek, pieces from the collection can be borrowed and taken home for the small fee of less than three Euros per month. The goal of bringing art made by the Viennese artists to the Viennese and making access easier is just as much a part of the museum’s program as the promotion of the artists. The museum offers three large-scale exhibitions per year and ten exhibitions in the front gallery, as well as an ambitious revolving program which takes into account individuals with special needs. Admission to the exhibitions is free. It would be inappropriate, according to the director of the museum, Berthold Ecker, if the Viennese and their guests, as patrons of the collection, had to pay admission. An independent jury decides on the purchases as well as the selection of the young artists that are featured in the front gallery. Submissions for purchase are available here and those who are interested in an exhibition in the front gallery can submit an application accompanied with a biography and portfolio to MUSA. (wh/jn) no no Museum on Demand, MUSA, Artothek, Front Gallery, Vienna, The City of Vienna, Berthold Ecker, Collections, Contemporary Art, Painting, Sculpture, Drawing, Installation, Video, New Media, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/061_musa.mp4 061_musa.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com With her porcelain figures, the artist Shary Boyle uses delicate ornamentation in the representation of contradiction and hybridity. A view into the manufactory of the fragile. 07:56 Shary Boyle - Heartburnt Porcelain For a long time, porcelain was imported into Europe from Asia, obtaining values on the market comparable to gold. In 1708, alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger discovered the formula for hard porcelain. As a result, Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and Böttger's employer, allowed for the first porcelain manufacturer to be established in Meissen. The alchemist and his colleague at the factory were prohibited from traveling in order to prevent the spread of the formula. But by 1718, an arcanist fled from Saxony and smuggled the formula to Vienna, where another manufacturer was developed - Augarten, the first competitor of the Meissen porcelain. Porcelain production in Meissen specialized early on in figurines, which were status symbols of the wealthy upper class at this time. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, production methods and tastes changed. The porcelain figures soon gained the notorious reputation of being a mass-produced form of kitsch. After a visit to the Meissen factory, Goethe wrote that "it is bizarre that one finds very little there that one would like to display in one's own household." On view "are only items which are undesirable and no longer sought after, of which there are not only one, but hundreds and thousands.” Shary Boyle, a Toronto-based artist, began in the late '90s with sculptural work. Initially, she used a modeling compound for her figures that can be hardened in a regular oven. Inspired by a combination of mythology and current events, her figures are fantastic, fragile interpretations of the world. She uses the fantastic as a form of escaping from the banal and depressing elements of our daily existence, which, according to her, was how the whole theme of her work began. Almost ten years later, the artist continues to working with porcelain, having become an expert on the techniques of its production, as well as its history. Contrary to the modeling compound she used for her early work, porcelain is a medium rich in history. She therefore no longer creates these figures only from the material. They are part of a tradition which began in Europe in Meissen, and whose symbolically strong references the artist uses. For the development of her knowledge of the techniques, Boyle visited the porcelain factory in Meissen. The lace ornamentation of her porcelain is originally a Meissen invention. She utilizes this delicate detail in the representation of contradiction and hybridity. The content of her work is about creating a space for what is less accepted, turned out of order, and uncontrollable. The lace ornamentation covers and runs amok over the figures, whose limbs are often wrongly attached or cut off. Biedermeier-like figurines that seem to be frozen in a humble stance stand beheaded or with detached limbs, exhibiting wounds and cuts, their faces showing desire, but also sustained injustice and pain. The beauty of the medium and its rather conservative tradition becomes a study in contrasts: for example, how a veil lays a delicate lace shroud over everything and seems like it's trying to cover that which is erupting from within. Boyle's work will be on exhibit at the International Comix Festival in Lucerne from March 28th to April 5th 2009. (wh/jn) no no Carsten Nicolai, Sound, Light, Time, Space, Blur, Technology, Science, raster noton, alva noto, Biennale, CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/067_boyle.mp4 067_boyle.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com In an ephemeral city, Francisca Benitez discovers the human element of public space. A portrait of the artist. 07:33 Francisca Benitez - Ephemeral City 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. 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. In a city as densely packed as New York, public space is always an issue. An endless procession of building up and tearing down, moving in and moving out, rumbling underground networks and soaring stories of skyscrapers, is accompanied by a constant series of negotiations between people, places, and properties. It is a fluid, flexible entity, but there are still lines that are drawn and maps that are plotted. In an era when exploration seems to be a tapped-out enterprise, the artist still finds novus terra incognita. For Benitez, these opportunities seem to be everywhere. Her work is not so much about confrontation or intervention as it is about observing, recording, noticing. A ride on her bike leads to the discovery of ancient religious architectonic rituals that subtly transform alleys, backyards, and balconies in Williamsburg. A trip to her roof reveals spellbinding pigeon formations that represent power struggles between former street gang-members. An experiment of simple floor rubbings unearths a vast grid of previously unnoticed property lines. But these engagements are not just about identifying hidden territories and demarcating space. They are also about personal encounters, chance meetings, mutually verified acknowledgments of positioning and re-positionings. In the end, public space is not just about vacant lots, “keep off” signs, or property issues. It’s about the human element that underlies them all. (jn) no no Francisca Benitez, Architecture, New York, Public Space, Video Art, Photography, Gordon Matta-Clark, Williamsburg CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/070_benitez.mp4 070_benitez.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Michael Braunsteiner of the Privatmuseum Stift Admont speaks about the museum's years of development and its contemporary art collection. 14:09 Michael Braunsteiner - Totally Relaxed and Somehow Cooler. In the Austrian Alps, a modern private museum was set up between Vienna, Linz, Graz, and Salzburg in 2003, after five years of construction. Within a few years, it was awarded the Austrian Museum Prize for its innovative design and in recognition of the unusual dedication of its private owners to the preservation, presentation, and promotion of art. According to the director of the collection, Michael Braunsteiner, the owners of the museum demonstrate a style that is "absolutely relaxed and somehow cooler". This is surprising considering that the owners are not newly-rich young idealists, but the monks from the Benedictine Admont Monastery, which dates back over 1000 years, and whose monks are aged over fifty years old on average. Since the renovation, the Benedictine monastery does not only house the newly reconstructed, largest monastery library in the world, but also a museum complex extending over several floors, which includes an art-historical and natural history museum, as well its own permanent collection of contemporary art and exterior monastery spaces used for art installations. In 1998, Michael Braunsteiner was assigned to lead the transformation of the museum and to curate the reconstruction of the contemporary art collection. CastYourArt spoke with him about the developing years of the museum, especially in regard to the arrangement and layout of the contemporary art collection. (wh/jn) no no Michael Braunsteiner, Stift Admont, museum, Austrian Museum Prize, library, ancient manuscript, baroque, collection, contemporary art, curator CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:40:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/051_2_braunsteiner.mp3 051_2_braunsteiner.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Michael Braunsteiner of the Privatmuseum Stift Admont speaks about the museum's years of development and its contemporary art collection. 12:19 Michael Braunsteiner - Totally Relaxed and Somehow Cooler. In the Austrian Alps, a modern private museum was set up between Vienna, Linz, Graz, and Salzburg in 2003, after five years of construction. Within a few years, it was awarded the Austrian Museum Prize for its innovative design and in recognition of the unusual dedication of its private owners to the preservation, presentation, and promotion of art. According to the director of the collection, Michael Braunsteiner, the owners of the museum demonstrate a style that is "absolutely relaxed and somehow cooler". This is surprising considering that the owners are not newly-rich young idealists, but the monks from the Benedictine Admont Monastery, which dates back over 1000 years, and whose monks are aged over fifty years old on average. Since the renovation, the Benedictine monastery does not only house the newly reconstructed, largest monastery library in the world, but also a museum complex extending over several floors, which includes an art-historical and natural history museum, as well its own permanent collection of contemporary art and exterior monastery spaces used for art installations. In 1998, Michael Braunsteiner was assigned to lead the transformation of the museum and to curate the reconstruction of the contemporary art collection. CastYourArt spoke with him about the developing years of the museum, especially in regard to the arrangement and layout of the contemporary art collection. (wh/jn) no no Michael Braunsteiner, Stift Admont, museum, Austrian Museum Prize, library, ancient manuscript, baroque, collection, contemporary art, curator CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:10:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/051_1_braunsteiner.mp3 051_1_braunsteiner.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com Karine Giboulo’s artworks are miniature worlds, three-dimensional comics, fascinating documentations against the social production of moral invisibility. 05:37 Karine Giboulo - 3D Comic Book With her work, says the Canadian artist Karine Giboulo, she would like to leave behind an impression of the world. That is, her impression. The common thread in the works of this artist is her viewpoint. Giboulo looks closely at those things which do not lie directly before her eyes. Her view refuses to be influenced by the power strategies which aim at holding the world in an overview so that one need not see it in precise detail and can look away so as not to get so emotionally involved. The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman identified such an overview—the social production of moral invisibility—as an intentional strategy of our modern, global world. Giboulo’s view points in a reverse direction. It concentrates on the particular, focusing in on things in detail, thereby identifying the effects of these overviews and strategies of looking away. Giboulo’s work consists of miniature worlds: 3D views of fast food restaurant parking lots, living rooms, advertising themes, factory halls…all assembled from intricately detailed Plasticine figures. Her childlike representation of the adult world, sometimes reinforced even more by the stylistic use of fairy-tale personification, is disarming. Such art can be so endearing and frank, in the same way children are, who will tell you to your face that from which you would rather look away. For example: the readiness in our global world to look away from things and to retain untouchability through a persistent overview remains most pronounced where one extensively seeks out the cheapest commodities, which are in turn produced elsewhere for even cheaper. In her work, "All you can eat", Giboulo follows the need to illustrate in detail the realities of the productions of things on which "Made in China" is imprinted anonymously: sneakers, TV screens, plastic flowers, mobile phones, electric toothbrushes, and other things that describe the consumer side of our western life. Who are the people who produce these things for us? Do they sometimes wonder about the people who buy all these things that they manufacture? Giboulo visited factories in the Special Economic Zone of Shenzen and made a miniature world of three-dimensional close-ups of the people she observed there after her return. Her views, which go beyond the aesthetics of repetition, bring attention to de-individualization and mass by emphasizing the individual aspects of such an existence. Looking closer in the way Giboulo does closes the gap between the consumer and the anonymous factory worker, much in the way the wall of the consumer’s living room in Giboulo’s work borders the bedrooms of Chinese migrant workers. (wh/jn) yes no Karine Giboulo, Installation, Comics, Miniature, Globalization, Capitalism, Canada, Montreal, China, Fable, Fine Arts CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:45:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/063_giboulo.mp4 063_giboulo.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Ecuadorian artist Miguel Alvear's photography and films originate from South American pop culture worlds and unearth buried layers of the collective. A Portrait. 07:36 Miguel Alvear - Tableaux Popular In his work, the Ecuadorian artist Miguel Alvear works with motifs that originate from the pop culture worlds of South America. He mixes popular icons with historical, mythological, and art historical examples. Sometimes he brings together images from different social environments, combining things that normally try to stand apart due to taste or class distinctions. This approach to art, which ignores the concerns of snobbery and taste, creates friction. In his work, Popular Mechanics, commissioned by the City Museum of Quito, Miguel Alvear reestablishes the flashy, over-the-top style of female Tecnocumbia dancers in the imagery the local public bus drivers like to display on their dashboards. In the end, his work, which is basically reflecting the taste of the public, was not accepted by the museum as a symbol of Ecuadorian culture. Miguel Alvear comes from a film and video background. He studied at the Institut des Arts de Diffusion in Belgium and then at the San Francisco Art Institute in California. This cinematic background comes through in his photographs, which are like cinematic still images - Tableaux Vivants, which mix the sacred with the grotesque, the fluid with the static, landmarks with garbage, and, like in the Tecnocumbia songs, religious language with sexually provocative imagery. In his most recent film, Blak Mama, Alvear captures the hybrid visual language of religious pagan rituals, such as the annual celebration in Latacunga in honour of "Mama Negra". The parade held there does not only refer to the rescue of the city by this holy figure. Its visual language also alludes to the suppression of the native population by the Spanish colonialists, the mixture of religions that emerged from a not fully successful Christian mission and further influences of the religious concepts of the African slaves, of Bolivian and Guatemalan immigrant workers, and not least of all, the necessity of throwing wild celebrations. The artist's film is not documentary. The imagery of the festival, its characters and their visually symbolic power are a reference, he places them into situations, which unearth buried layers of the collective unconscious or give voice to the suppressed, which is present in the parade, but only subliminally articulated. "Personal transformation stems from insatisfaction, desire and fantasy. When wanting to become the other, cross-dressing is the first step to take. Dress like him, dress like her. And dance." (wh/jn) yes no Miguel Alvear, Ecuador, Quito, Photography, Film, Video, Tableaux Vivants, Tecnocumbia, Institut des Arts de Diffusion, San Francisco Art Institute, Belgium CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/077_alvear.mp4 077_alvear.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com The sound artist Sam Auinger, in search of a new language of hearing. 27:27 Sam Auinger - A Hearing Perspective. People go through life with open ears - they cannot close their ears, as they can their eyes, to the sounds of the world, unless they physically block them. The ear is a completely closed off sensory organ. We hear, even when we sleep. We hear sharply only rarely and perceive differently, those noises which surround and penetrate us. If we tune into ourselves and back in time, not only the sounds from streetcar, cow-, door-, recess, fire brigade, church, or bicycle bells resonate within us, but also an amazingly extensive audio cosmos. We come to learn that sounds have emotional connotations, that our feelings have different intonations. Sam Auinger is engaged with the world of sounds, tones, and noises and their geographical-cultural as well as historical differences. He thereby carries on a tradition of artistic involvement with sound in which people such as Erik Satie, Luigi Russolo, John Cage, and Murray Schäfer made history. Trained at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz and University Mozarteum Salzburg, he made himself a name as a composer and sound artist, as well as a researcher and architect in the world of sound and its effects. His works, which depict different worlds of sound, are presented worldwide as performances, installations, experiments, films, and videos, and invite a conscious recollection of ones own horizon of sound. In his work, "Sechse läuten", for example, he collected noises from his childhood, listening for which tones followed him into adulthood, determining which came to him out of joy, obedience, feeling left out, familiarity, or fear. Not only sounds themselves, but their location have a character. The location as a sound object, an aspect of sound emphasized by the American avant-garde artist John Cage, is at present part of the research of the artist, who is active as a guest professor for experimental sound organization at the University of the Arts in Berlin. In his search for a new language of hearing, Sam Auinger often works in various collaborations, and publishes under the names "O+A", " berliner theorie", "tamtam", and "stadtmusik". CastYourArt interviewed Sam Auinger in Berlin. (wh) no no Sam Auinger, Berlin, Linz, Salzburg, Mozarteum, Bruckner Conservatory, Universität der Künste, sound, noise, composer, space, John Cage, Erik Satie, Murray Schäfer, Luigi Russolo, John Cage, stadtmusik, tamtam, berliner theorie, o+a CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:44:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/podcasts/057_auinger.mp3 057_auinger.mp3 http://www.castyourart.com When art moves people. Augarten Contemporary, which specializes in young art, highlights the power of sensation in an exhibition. 07:37 Sense and Sentiment - Mistakes are closely followed by Effects 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 August 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) no no Augarten Contemporary, Belvedere, Sabeth Buchmann, Eva Maria Stadler, Kathi Hofer, Academy of Fine Arts, Exhibition, Vienna, Sensation, Gilles Deleuze, Julian Göthe, Tony Conrad CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/074_empfindung.mp4 074_empfindung.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Canadian photographers Carlos and Jason Sanchez reveal the dark side. One can find among their works, that which one turns a blind eye to in life. 06:18 Sanchez Brothers - Exposures of the Dark Carlos, born 1976, Jason, born 1981, surname Sanchez, together, "The Sanchez Brothers", are an extremely promising, young photographer collective. The work of the two young artists from Canada has already been shown in numerous solo exhibitions in Canada, the USA, and Europe. Their photography, produced in a Montreal studio located in a factory buildings owned by their uncle, has been successful, although, or perhaps because, they shed light on the dark sides of life and human actions: pain, insanity, death, natural selection, injustice, abuse, disaster, mourning, degradation, isolation, exploitation. One can find among these, that which one turns a blind eye to in life. What Carlos and Jason Sanchez visualize are themes of events which one hears about based on media reports and stories. Their photographs condense the storylines. They are key scenes, full-blown and frozen in time, into which one immediately gets immersed, allowing the viewer to experience the challenge of the photographers, who want to share a complex context in a single cinematic image. Such capsulization is costly and would be not possible for the two young artists without national funding and support from the province of Quebec, which goes into research, scouting for the right locations, the visualization of the imagined scenes in the studio sets. Part of the interior design, purchased in furniture stores and second-hand shops, is carefully packed up again after the shoots and properly returned for reuse - this saves money, because the photographic work of the duo is already costly from a temporal perspective. On the average, two months go into the preparation time alone. The brothers have observed development in the extension of their work towards installation, a path which they have already followed in the last few years with works such as “Between Life and Death", "Natural Selection", and "Buried Alive". Film also holds a place in the long-range artistic future of Carlos and Jason Sanchez. (wh/jn) yes no Carlos Sanchez, Jason Sanchez, Sanchez Brothers, photography, film, installation, morbid, death, interior, Canada, Montreal, Quebec CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/064_sanchez.mp4 064_sanchez.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Wherein lies "The Power of Ornaments"? The curator Sabine B. Vogel and the artist Parastou Forouhar answer at the Orangery, Lower Belvedere. 07:16 The Power of Ornament - An exhibition at the Orangery, Lower Belvedere In 1908, Adolf Loos published a polemic modern architecture pamphlet titled "Ornament and Crime". Ornamentation, he argues, is redundant, cost-intensive kitschy decoration, and an expression of the cultural backwardness which can be found in primitive cultures, and which is not representative of modern man. "The barbarian era," the architect concludes, "is finally past." Only a few years later, Siegfried Kracauer showed that even the modern era, which strives for practicality and rationalization, produces ornaments on its surface. He argues that these ornamentations are an expression of modern mass society, visual representations of modern life and its realities. The ornamentation is not taken into consideration by the masses who produce it. It develops without their knowledge. They do not produce it consciously or on purpose, which is why it resembles "the aerial shots of landscapes and cities", in which patterns only emerge for the distant viewer. Contrary to Loos, for Kracauer, who considers ornaments to be expressions of everyday life in modern society, ornamentation is something that cannot be pushed aside. He argues that as a reflection of modern existence, the ornament is a readable expression of social structures and should be understood as an opportunity to identify patterns in modern society and face the consequences of what may have gone awry. If the modern man, however, still fails to examine the conditions of life, given this new perspective, then he will once again become subject to the unseen forces, as in nature, which determine modern life and are therefore beyond his control - e. g. the powers of capitalistic rationalization. The theory from Kracauer to make the conditions of life readable and subject to critique through the ornamentation have not played a role in art since the Loosian critique. With the exhibition, "The Power of Ornaments", at the Orangery, Lower Belvedere in Vienna, curator Sabine B. Vogel points out that in the contemporary art of the last few years, a movement has begun which takes up Kracauer's suggestion to use ornamentation to make the conditions of modern as well as traditional life visible and therefore subject to critique. In the work of artists such as Adriana Czernin, Brigitte Kowanz, Sarah Morris, Raqib Shaw, Aisha Khalid, Mona Hatoum or Parastou Forouhar, ornamentation is given a voice on different levels, such as physicality, eros, violence, cultural differences, and the rhythms of modern and traditional life, and reveals its seductive power to touch upon deeper layers that lie behind the wall of the abstract beauty of the ornament. What these artists all share is their approach of use this seductive power of ornamental beauty with a very clear intention in mind. In this exhibition, ornamentation emerges not as a hollow decoration, but rather as an allegory of the collective modern existence within mass society, and the artists use the ornament as a powerful tool for critique and rebellion. Its beauty attracts the attention of the viewers. It encourages them to look closer, in order to expose collective patterns of social standardization, brutality, and suppression of otherness in its details. According to Kracauer, "People who are separated from the community, who consider themselves singular personalities with their own distinctive souls, do not fit in to these patterns." "The Power of Ornament" demands that one looks closer, and not to look away. (wh/jn) no no Belvedere, Orangery, Exhibition, Vienna, Sabine B. Vogel, Ornament, Vienna, Adolf Loos, Gustav Klimt, Parastou Forouhar, Shirin Neshat, Raqib Shaw CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/072_ornament.mp4 072_ornament.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com The Finnish painter Robert Lucander does not try to insert his own meaning, opinion, or views into his work. He is picturing the moment. 06:31 Robert Lucander - Picturing the Moment Robert Lucander moved from Finland to Berlin one year before the Wall fell. The prospect of reunification peaked interest in the other side. Differences between east and west became clear. The painter realized, to his own surprise and fascination, that the discourse over various cultural shadings was not simply metaphorical rhetoric, but rather a very real detail that needed to be taken seriously: Lucander ordered industrially produced, color-standardized acrylic lacquer that had been produced in the east. In comparison to the same western version of the product, it exhibited an amazingly different quality of color. The experience of limiting the artistic material to cultural characteristics strengthened Lucander's interest in a force of expression which does not only result from the creative act of the artist, but which lies within the given material already. He begins by investigating the material as a medium with temporal, geographical, and cultural forces of expression, and looks for possibilities to emphasize what information already lies within it. Thus, he uses industrially produced paints and strictly adheres to the selection of colors from the annually newly offered color pattern selections. In the artistic handling of the colors, he limits himself to the current instructions regarding the acrylic lacquer doses. The color materials thereby subject his work to the taste, geographical environment, and time of their development, and the work of the artist begins to demonstrate its predetermined qualities through contrasting arrangements. One of these contrasting media is the substrate itself. Robert Lucander paints on industrially manufactured plywood boards, which he gets cut according to the grain and then glued. The grain - which has a particular quality similar to the human fingerprint and which the artist uses as a compositional element - works in the paintings as a contrasting material to the mass-produced acrylic, whose material characteristics as decorative color with even covering strength and flowing brush lines can be superficially perceived as de-individualizing and generic. The artist outlines places where the grain is left visible with pencil. He uses these defaults in the wood as areas in which he can explore spatial as well as individually personal depths in his primarily humanly representative work. The face and body characteristics of the human figures that emerge from the depth of character of the plywood substrate stand in contrast to the glossy pages of fashion magazines from which the painter faithfully depicts the details of the faces and bodies. These models are torn away from their glamorous contexts in the work of the painter and placed into an everyday, mundane framework. According to Lucander, he does not try to insert his own meaning, opinion, or views into his work, rather, he tries to emphasize, through his artistic practice, what is apparent as a witness. That which we read into or note about his work is left up to us as viewers. His paintings are not memorials of the life of an artistic genius inverted outwards, but rather snapshots of a sort, capturing a certain moment in time. (wh/jn) no no Berlin, Finland, Robert Lucander, Painter, Artist, Acrylic, Masses, Individuality, Pop Art CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/058_lucander.mp4 058_lucander.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Presenting an era of artistic development. An interview with Diethard Leopold about the permanent exhibition "Vienna circa 1900" at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. 07:21 The Leopold Collection - Vienna 1900 It was an artistically exceptional time, an era of extraordinary creative density during the transition into the twentieth century. Originating from the artistic and intellectual circles of Vienna, works in painting, literature, science, philosophy, music, architecture, sculpture, and design developed in this time which remained relevant to the evolution of taste and knowledge far into the twentieth century. The Leopold Museum in Vienna, based on the collection of Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold, has one of the most extensive and most varied collections of art from this period. Under the curatorial management of the art historian Peter Weinhäupl, Diethard Leopold, and his parents, Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold, the presentation of these works has been recently reconsidered and newly conceived. Even though the exhibited works would have allowed for the possibility, individual works have not been chosen to be featured as star attractions in this exhibition of the new presentation. Under the title "Vienna circa 1900", the curators took the opportunity to focus on one era on the basis of interior design, works of art, and excerpts from philosophical and literary texts as well as compositions. Going through the exhibition, influences, contradictions, and commonalities between disciplines can be identified, and the psyche, the physicality, and the relationship to everyday objects from this Viennese era become apparent, which ended at the end of the First World War and the death of Klimt, Schiele, Moser, and Wagner. CastYourArt visited the psychologist Diethard Leopold at his Viennese office and spoke with him about the conception of and his personal approach to the works of the exhibition. An exhibitional glimpse of artistic Vienna circa 1900: the inside view… (wh/jn) no no Leopold Museum, Diethard Leopold, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Jugendstil, Expressionism, Secession, Exhibition, Vienna CastYourArt.com office@castyourart.com (CastYourArt) Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:15:00 +0000 http://www.castyourart.com/054_leopold.mp4 054_leopold.mp4 http://www.castyourart.com Who are the players in Russian video art? An update by Antonio Geusa, curator and recognized authority in all things regarding contemporary video art in Russia. 05:04 Russian Video Art on the Fly 150 Russian journalists, artists, art col