OLIVER LARIC. Liminal Beings

In his exhibition Liminal Beings at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Oliver Laric explores the fluid boundaries of identity, myth, and representation. KHM Director General Jonathan Fine reflects on how his threshold beings — figures suspended between human and animal, divine and mortal, male and female — revive questions that have fascinated humanity since antiquity. A proove for the directors theory Jonathan Fine, this exhibition is also a plea for the importance of contemporary art in dialogue with historical collections. Contemporary art, he believes, is often more immediate, accessible, and easier to read than many works of ancient and classical art. Precisely for this reason, it opens up new approaches to historical holdings and makes it possible to re-examine key themes — such as translation, originality and copy, or hybrid identities — from a contemporary perspective. In working with contemporary artists, the Kunsthistorisches Museum sees an opportunity to keep its collections alive and to continually recontextualize them.

The film reveals the thought process behind these hybrid forms, the playful pragmatism of their construction, and the radical openness with which Laric approaches identity and reproduction. From Seoul to Athens, from museum halls to social media feeds, these threshold beings occupy multiple realities at once, inviting viewers to reconsider what it means to exist between categories, forms, and times.

https://www.khm.at/

Interviewee: Oliver Laric, Jonathan Fine
Artworks by: Oliver Laric

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