Götz Bury - Illusions

Art can be critical of media and media criticism can be fun—that’s the message anyway from “dream manufacturer” Götz Bury’s art. In his Traumfabrik (“dream factory”), the artist produces prototypical works from the image landscapes of the media world, whether they be turkey-serving presidents in combat gear as the protagonists of the “axis of evil”—with or without AK-47s, holidays under palm trees, documentations of Neanderthal life, or things happening otherwise elsewhere in the world.

These props that are inspired by stereotypes of reality in the media are developed from sheet metal, pasteboard, and wood in the workshop of the artist and are reimagined by visitors to the Traumfabrik through extreme gestures and impersonations. These compositions of “reality images” are thereby experienced as the scurrility of exaggeration, thanks to the omnipresent one-dimensionality of media-presented reality itself.

The agendas of reality or even history must be adequately portrayed in the pictures according to the standards of the media—i.e., grotesquely. Just as radio announcers professionally modify their voices through raised pitch, rapid speech, and excessive melodiousness in order to keep our moods up, happiness on the screen can only be communicated though being inundated by countless face-distorting smiles, which are, in the end, painful.

Those who visit the dream factory take home photos of themselves from the artist, as well as the knowledge that reality is in fact a surreal dream, and those who make illusions of themselves there, remain naive. (wh/jn)

Works of the artist can be viewed at Werkstadt Graz.

Interviewee: Götz Bury
Artworks by: Götz Bury

Copyright info: The audio and video recording has been made with personal permission of the artist.
Licensing: 0
Language(s): German, English
Subtitles: German, English
Producer: KA21 GmbH / CastYourArt
Production crew: Sigmund Steiner, Wolfgang Haas
Production country: Austria, Vienna