A wavy line is drawn across the middle of the original plans

19.4.-10.6.2012

Opening Wed 18th April 2012, 7 pm

Artists:
Chantal Akerman, Ruth Buchanan, Liudvikas Buklys, Saim Demircan, Sara Deraedt, _fabrics interseason (Wally Salner, Johannes Schweiger), Benjamin Hirte, Marie Lund, David Maljkovic, Michaela Meise, Nicole Wermers, Heimo Zobernig.

Sara Deraedt, Folder

The works in the exhibition are made primarily of simple building materials. They reflect everyday use. Their view of the world is without transcendence. They contrast the sublimity of minimalism with their pure physicality. Their source is the building kit, of which normality is constructed. At the level of reference, some of the works refer to semi-public or private spaces, as they provide contexts oriented to meaning for the construction of identity. The shifts that distinguish the works from their functional models can be minimal and yet convey skepticism. If the policeman says, “Stop, don’t move!”, the exhibition wonders what a carpet placed in a building has to say. What did the architect want? How was the life of the users imagined?

Benjamin Hirte, Hocker

The exhibition is interested in the link between the built environment and the ideas and programs formulated through it. Every product of formal design embodies the utopia of a space, in which it can appear in an ideal way. This abstractly planned space is always a political space at the same time, which defines certain orders and identities. This perspective also draws the gaze to the aspect of authority in both artistic and architectural productions, which became visible in the 20th century as the ambivalence of Modernism between emancipation and control, between empowerment and rationalization.

Søren Grammel, Curator of the exhibition
(The exhibition title is a sentence borrowed from the text "Open Display For Particular Viewership" by Ruth Buchanan)

Talks and Events:

Gallery Talk
Tue 24.4.2012, 6 pm
With Søren Grammel (curator of the exhibition)
Introduction and chair Marion Rücker

Tours
Sat, 28.4.2012, 3 pm
Thu 10.5.2012, 6 pm
Thu 24.5.2012, 6 pm

Gallery Talk
Thu, 7.6.2012, 6 pm
With Daniel Pies (director of Grazer Kunstverein)
Introduction and chair Sofie Mathoi