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220811: Salzburger Kunstverein Sense and Sensibility ?
Salzburger Kunstverein, Künstlerhaus
Sense and Sensibility ?
21.07.11 - 25.09.11
Between art and literature
This year’s summer exhibition “Sense and Sensibility” at the Salzburg Kunsterverein deals with the relationship of fine arts and literature using several artistic examples. Curator Hemma Schmutz was mainly inspired by Jane Austen's novel.
Perhaps one should first consider possible types of literary relations with fine arts. This exhibition does not primarily deal with the relationship of language and art, as this may be the case with Visual Poetics, but with literature as an inspirational source. Postcolonial literature and its narrations on travel, conquests, territorial occupations forms the main focus. Especially works by Ines Doujak and Michael Höpfner combine this aspiration. If the artistic work was there first and the title was created later is no longer clear, but this is probably not relevant for the artistic work anyway.
The photographic works by the young Czech Eva Kotakova offer a refreshing position, in which books and knowledge are defined as a burden. In “House Arrest” the artist is shown enclosed by piles of books leaving her no air to breathe or space to move. In the photos, Kotova’s body underlies an “education intrinsic deformation” – in one photo she sinks into a “sea of knowledge” – mirroring her personal negative experience with education.
Michael Höpfner’s photo series, presented as rows of slides on benches, strongly questions cultural progress with respect to clearing inaccessible landscapes. For this work, Höpfner, who becomes acquainted with untouched territories through his travels, uses Joseph Conrad’s book title “Outpost of Progress” (1897). This book describes the unscrupulous greed of two Belgians causing havoc in an outpost in the once Belgian colonial empire of Congo and ultimately commit suicide.
Injes Doujak goes even beyond Höpfner’s criticism of civilization and invites artists to design ostrich eggs, focusing on the artistic presentation of topics including women traffic or transgender. The ostrich eggs hang on small Plexiglas ships designed by Doujak, all areferring to Herman Melville’s narration “Benito Cereno” (1855), in which he reports about the slave uprising on ships and thereby deals with the question of authority. In this context, ostrich eggs were a symbol for power and influence.
Finally, let us point to the “cozy” niche in the large hall of the Kunstverein with the “library of unread books” by Julius Deutschbauer is in one corner. This collection of unread books exists since 1997, and since 2000, Deutschbauer interviews people on their unread book. So far 700 interviews were conducted, which have all been documented, and all of the books were catalogued in a library. Once a month a collective reading as well as a monthly literary reading takes place under the title “reading and needlework”. In August, Josef Winkler has been invited to attend.
By Susanne Rohringer
Salzburger Kunstverein, Künstlerhaus?
5020 Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 3?
Tel: +43 (0) 662/84 22 94-0?Fax: +43 (0) 662/84 07 62?email: kunstverein@salzburg.co.at?
http://www.salzburger-kunstverein.at?
Opening hours: Tue - Sun 12 a.m.- 7 p.m.
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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220811
Salzburger Kunstverein
5020 Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 3
Tel: +43 (0) 662/84 22 94-0, Fax: +43 (0) 662/84 07 62
Email: office@salzburger-kunstverein.at
http://www.salzburger-kunstverein.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So 12-19h
Salzburger Kunstverein
5020 Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstrasse 3
Tel: +43 (0) 662/84 22 94-0, Fax: +43 (0) 662/84 07 62
Email: office@salzburger-kunstverein.at
http://www.salzburger-kunstverein.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So 12-19h
