Bruno Gironcoli at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 A sculpture by Bruno Gironcoli installed in front of Strabag Haus Donau-City in Vienna. Photo made in August, 2005 THE PAVILION OF AUSTRIA, a building by Josef Hoffmann, is modern and proper, architecture meant to please. His lovely pavilion, meant to be a place for educated ‘Kunstgenuss,’ is inhabited this year by works of the subversive...
Vienna Vienna is fast becoming not only a popular holiday destination for tourists from Eastern Europe but also the place where Eastern European artists in need of a gateway to the platform in the larger art market gather. This year’s edition of Viennafair, self-acclaimed as the international contemporary art fair focused on the CEE, boasted a nearly 19% increase in attendance compared to the previous...
Vienna “Exportable Goods – Danish Art Now” at Krinzinger Projekte November 17th, 2006 – February 17th, 2007 Carlsberg, Lego and Bang & Olufsen is what comes to mind when Danish exports are the topic. This is quite remarkable already considering the size of this Nordic kingdom with about 6 million permanent citizens. There is also Arla foods, whose butter had been boycotted some time ago...
Cameron Jamie: Suburban Apocalypse as Theater David Bowie said he decided to become a rock star in order to leave his native suburban neighborhood. Matt Groening became a cartoon star by turning his suburbia experience into The Simpsons. Once standing for the utopia of a peaceful life, it has become the site of a zombie apocalypse (witness the comedy Shaun of the Dead (2004)). Now...
Vienna News Angus Fairhurst “The Problem with Banana Skins, Divided Inverted,” 1998 Polyurethanobjekt, 7 x 36 x 36 cm Photo: EVN Collection, Maria Enzersdorf “Everything stays better (Alles bleibt besser)” promises the current chancellor who is running for his third term in the national election this October. – A fitting slogan for the Austrian angst of anything that might change and an illustration for something...
Francesca von Habsburg and T-B A21(Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Space in Progress) Art collecting has throughout history been an exclusive pastime for aristocrats and the wealthy. After World War II in Austria, the new social democratic government took over this role, creating a climate of relative liberalism in which most art projects were supported by the federal government. Since the takeover of the conservative-right wing coalition...
Vienna Exhibition view from Belgrade Art Inc., Secession 2004, Photo: Pez Hejduk Courtesy: Secession, Vienna Since centuries Vienna has been the melting pot of mid-European culture. Although Habsburg Austria could be defined as a forerunner of globalization until the outbreak of WW1, contemporary Austria still has to come to grips with the legacy of its Eastern neighbors. Bordering on 5 of the 10 new Eastern...
VIENNA The body is the all-time favourite hit theme in Vienna. Vienna was the cradle of post-war Europe body art and performance. Now exhibitions dedicated to Wiener Aktionismus, or Viennese Actionism, are widely in evidence. Hermann Nitsch, the originator of the classical 1960s St. Marx performance , the “orgy-mystery-theatre” involving mainly blood and dead animals, had his retrospective show at Essl Collection (until 11 January)....
