translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
140909: Bawag Contemporary: Young and Reckless 10: Marko Lulic – Historic preservation and Bodywork 2
Bawag Contemporary: Young and Reckless 10: Marko Lulic – Historic preservation and Bodywork 2
On the playground of Modernism
Did anybody discover how well modern sculpture qualifies as a playground device - before Marko Lulic did? In his slide show work “Reactivation (Circulation of Space)” the artist does gymnastics on a sculpture created by Vojin Bakic in 1971, which consists exclusively of rings and is located in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrad; he wreathes and wriggles staccato-like through the individual elements, which were definitely not designed for that.
In another video, a remake of Raquel Welch’s clip “Space Girl Dance” Lulic uses large sculptures for something they were not intended for: similar to the way the actress danced through a Mexican sculpture park, he staged three dancers (one female, two male) into the work of the German sculptor Erich Hauser – the partly amorphous works of the original gave way for more snappy metal creations, the melodic soundtrack of the 1970s yielded the hammering score by Mario Neugebauer. At the beginning, Lulic presents a sculpture in rapidly moving close-ups, as if they were not only backdrop objects, but also a vital part of the game. This is a feature in Avant-garde stage settings: Lulic’s preferred object of investigation. The mixture of sculpture, futuristic outfit and pressing soundtrack lets art appear as a better disco ball – simultaneously praising its aesthetic qualities.
Unfortunately, the music disturbs the silence, which the adjoining video would desperately need: it shows an artist dancing for four hours – luckily cut down to 20 minutes – to an inaudible playlist put together by friends – with remarkable comedian-like qualities, and at the same time increasingly distressed strategies in an attempt to hang on; a work, which moves in a wide reference system between Bruce Naumann and Peter Land, but – although nice to look at – does not win any content depth; in contrast to those works, in which Lulic ploughs through his familiar terrain – Modernism.
By Nina Schedlmayer
Bawag Contemporary
1060 Vienna, Barnabitengasse 11 – 13, until 04.10.09
www.bawagcontemporary.at
140909
BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary
1010 Wien, Franz Josefs Kai 3
http://www.bawagpskcontemporary.at
Öffnungszeiten: täglich 14-20h
BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary
1010 Wien, Franz Josefs Kai 3
http://www.bawagpskcontemporary.at
Öffnungszeiten: täglich 14-20h