translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
200409: Galerie Grita Insam: Peter Weibel – On modern finance architecture and inhabitable libraries
Galerie Grita Insam: Peter Weibel – On modern finance architecture and inhabitable libraries
The polyartist as a political artist
Oftentimes, when one undertakes the most obvious and natural, bizarre facets emerge. One can, for example, simply regard the world literally. Progenitor of all this is Diogenes who, after Alexander the Great accused him of behaving like a dog, peed against his leg.
One can, if your name is Baselitz, turn things upside down. And if one is world famous as Peter Weibel one constructs an installation titled “Zur modernen Finanzarchitektur” (on modern finance architecture), which embodies a shack, a Favela, comprised of dumped objects, ranging from old files to a glossy Yves Saint Laurent box. Add a heap of newspapers under a Plexiglas stand, position a black pyramid next to it, and name the arrangement “In the shadow of the silent majority”. Or take a photo of a stock chart, trace the curve with white powder, resembling cocaine, and call the whole thing “Line of Crime”.
With his current exhibition at Grita Insam’s gallery Peter Weibel, similar to his works from the 1960s and 70s, he never seems to be at a loss for an answer. Weibel’s style is violent, platitudinous, and straightforward. But what could be more violent and platitudinous than the circumstances he satirizes. Weibel brings “Context Art”, propagated by him at the beginning of the 90’s, to the boil - and reacted immediately, unreasonably, and invincibly. What is presented here is no caricature. It is pure reality.
More pensive works are presented in the gallery’s second exhibition space. Weibel decided to make Karlsruhe, where he heads the Center for Art and Media (ZKM), to his domicile and transferred his thousands of books there. The minimal amount of living space that remained, brought him to think about architecture, respectively he let students of the Academy of Applied Arts think about the topic. This makes Weibel well nigh poetic. Otherwise he is direct, concrete; here the polyartist is a political artist. This does no harm these days.
By Rainer Metzger
Galerie Grita Insam
1010 Vienna, an der Hülben 3, until 25.04.09
www.galeriegritainsam.at
200409
Galerie Grita Insam
1010 Wien, An der Hülben 3
Tel: + 43 1 512 53 30, Fax: +43 1 512 5330 15
Öffnungszeiten: geschlossen
Galerie Grita Insam
1010 Wien, An der Hülben 3
Tel: + 43 1 512 53 30, Fax: +43 1 512 5330 15
Öffnungszeiten: geschlossen