translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
070708: MAK-Ausstellungshalle: The Essence 08 – Annual exhibit of the University of Applied Arts
MAK-Ausstellungshalle: The Essence 08 – Annual exhibit of the University of Applied Arts
Complex essences
As the son of the director of the University of Applied Arts and as someone whose work is presented at the University’s annual exhibit “The Essence”, you will naturally be scrutinized. But Lukas Basts’s project deservedly attracts attention: his invention “measuring device for status bound and dynamic snow conditions" (Messgerät für zustandsgebundene und dynamische Schneeverhältnisse ) designed in Paolo Piva’s Industrial Design course, unites a complex and, until now, decentralized measuring system, into one single apparatus.
The majority of the works displayed at this exhibit - curated by Edek Bartz - focus on the topic of complex realities. Designed as an ‘exhibit within the exhibit’, Agnes Steiner, Malin Schoenberg, and Tobias Egger enable the Institute of Design and Graphics to repeatedly position itself in the midst of the other presentations. Visitors are meant to distribute the sapphire blue pellets constituting border markings on the floor throughout the entire space of the exhibit.
Nina Kataeva’s installation C(R)ASH is linked (via Internet) to the New York stock exchange. A huge airbag is reinflated every time the investors fear that the stock market will crash – until the bubble blasts.
Günther Seyfried’s “Mutants from Innerspace” encodes a film scene of a single DNA strand, which in turn is synthesised into a double helix. The mutations caused by ultraviolet radiation are then again transformed into a film scene. Integrating coincidence into artwork represents a definitely contemporary concept.
The sculpture “Anna” by Florian Hafele draws a lot of attention, but it is so obviously the work of one of Erwin Wurm’s students that it is unable to develop its own language. Claudia Larcher’s video installation “Heim” (home), however, has clearly found its own language. A selection of photographs combined with a few video scenes leads the onlooker through her parental home. The film’s realism is superimposed by an indefinable uneasiness, which disquiets the onlooker, but remains intangible.
MAK Ausstellungshalle
1010 Vienna, Weiskirchnerstrasse 3, until 13. 07. 08
070708
MAK-Ausstellungshalle
1010 Wien, Weiskirchnerstraße 3
Tel: +43(1) 711 36-0, Fax: +43 1 713 10 26
Email: office@mak.at
http://www.mak.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di 10-22 h (18-22h freier Eintritt), Mi-So 10-18 h
MAK-Ausstellungshalle
1010 Wien, Weiskirchnerstraße 3
Tel: +43(1) 711 36-0, Fax: +43 1 713 10 26
Email: office@mak.at
http://www.mak.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di 10-22 h (18-22h freier Eintritt), Mi-So 10-18 h