translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
260410: Kunstraum Niederoesterreich Translation is a mode
Kunstraum Niederoesterreich
Translation is a mode
09.04.10 – 29.05.10
Translation as a motive
Fifteen artists and artists’ collectives are currently displaying their work at the Kunstraum Niederoesterreich. The works, which mainly centre on the topic ‘translation’, attempt to encapsulate the moment a design transmutes into a different form, leaving the door open for a multitude of interpretations. Birgit Rinagl and Franz Thalmair, curators of the exhibition and members of CONT3XT.NET based the presentation on Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Task of the Translator” (1921). One of their aspirations was to “translate” art from virtual space into exhibition space.
In their witty work “TextEdit”, the American artists Alyor Braun and Arend de Gruyter-Helfer present five pieces of various tones of black and gray woven cloth, which, by using Apple’s TextEdit software, render a dialogue between the artists. Their statements are woven on a digitalized loom - transforming text into a woven fabric.
The Austrian artist Gerhard Dirnmoser deals with translations in an analytic rather than a synthetic manner. Following his extensive research on the term “exhibition” he created a huge diagram, presenting ramifications and catchwords such as “exhibition from a materialistic point of view” or “exhibition as a narration”.
Categories of recurring everyday activities during the course of a year, (in this case, the year 2005), which include activities such as “sleeping, eating, producing art, and communicating ” are typed onto an infinite loop by the Austrian sculptor Arnold Reinthaler. To symbolize the hours, a line is assigned to each category - one line equalling one hour. Reinthaler relates his work to art created in the 1960’s or to Roman Opalka’s photographs – both attempt to freeze time with the help of art.
The poetic work by the Serbian artist Aleksandra Domanovic, who lives in Berlin, has nothing to do with translation. In Domanovic’s work “Hottest to Coldest, com” (2008) names of cities such as Maputo, Vienna, Bamako and many others show up on a terminal - in a constantly, seemingly random order; but the city names appear in sequence from the warmest to the coldest location. Measurements obtained from 200 meteorological stations around the globe are continuously posted on Domanovic’s website www.hottestotcoldest.com.
While the exhibition is, for the most part, worthwhile seeing, the theoretical framework of reflecting artistically on the essence of translations is not always coherent, and sometimes even redundant. The works speak for themselves.
By Susanne Rohringer
Kunstraum Niederoesterreich
1010 Vienna, Herrengasse 13
Tel: + 43 1 90 42 111
Fax: + 43 1 90 42 112
email: office@kunstraum.net
http://www.kunstraum.net
Opening hours: Tue – Fri 11 a.m. – 7 p.m., Thu 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. , Sat 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
260410
Kunstraum Niederoesterreich
1010 Wien, Herrengasse 13
Tel: +43 1 90 42 111, Fax: +43 1 90 42 112
Email: office@kunstraum.net
http://www.kunstraum.net/de
Öffnungszeiten: Di-Fr 11-19, Sa 11-15 h
Kunstraum Niederoesterreich
1010 Wien, Herrengasse 13
Tel: +43 1 90 42 111, Fax: +43 1 90 42 112
Email: office@kunstraum.net
http://www.kunstraum.net/de
Öffnungszeiten: Di-Fr 11-19, Sa 11-15 h