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English summaries January 14 - 27
Galerie Steinek
Olga Georgieva – Outrageously irresistible
16.01.2013 – 16.02.2013
by Susanne Rohringer
Gallery Steinek’s first exhibition in 2013 presents works by the young Bulgarian artist Olga Georgieva, who recently received her diploma from the University for Applied Arts in Vienna after completing her studies under Jan Svenungsson.
In the first room one finds a kind of wallpaper with separate images depicting people in precise black pen and ink drawings. They all seem to be waiting, slouching, or leaning against invisible walls – people at airports or train stations. Mobile barriers impede the onlookers’ view. Georgieva implements these barriers in her works similar to the way they are used at airports or stadiums. The obstacle protects the figures and is acts as a kind of art historic metaphor for looking into, as well as out of, the picture. A barrier tape in red-white-red wraps itself around the works like a band. It is the only coloured accent in the black-and-white drawings and acts as a sort of line of sight or anthology. Georgieva also portraits people she knows and positions them among the crowd. Certain faces repeatedly show up in the pictures, as does Hugo: a headless figure that is being carried. Georgieva appears to hide her own story or narrative among the crowd.
In the second room of the gallery numerous swings hang from the ceiling. The swing boards are large-format domino pieces tied to the ceiling with red ropes. Pushing one swing would set the entire installation in motion. Additionally, this topic is underlined by a picture series mounted on the wall that has a red line constituted of upright dominos that could topple anytime instead of a barrier tape.
All in all, the debut is successful and there are numerous references waiting to be discovered in Georgieva’s drawings. Her artistic meticulousness and her consciousness as a woman and as a migrant are remarkable. These aspects determine her art. Georgieva compresses her drawings as hidden narrations about life.
Galerie Steinek
1010 Vienna, Eschenbachgasse 4
Tel: +431/512 87 59
Fax: +431/512 87 59
email: galerie@steinek.at
galerie.steinek.at
Opening hours: Tue - Fri: 13:00 - 18:00; Sat: 11:00 - 15:00
Kunsthalle Mainz
Attila Csörgő and Roman Signer
09.11.2012 – 17.02.2013
By Daniela Gregori
The red boat, including its paddles, is hanging in the air and is visible from a great distance - as if a crane had fished the kayak out of the Rhine River. At the same time this seems to confirm the Kunsthalle Mainz’s new motto of wanting to be a “local provider with a long-distance effect”. Since September 2012, Thomas D. Trummer is the new head of the Kunsthalle and initiated the exhibition with works by Roman Signer, who created this installation, and Attila Csörgő.
Signer and Csörgő literally devote themselves to the elements of water, air, fire and space, light, matter – and, in view of the original usage of the venue, the choice made by the artists is self-evident. Constructed in the 1880’s, the building was originally utilized for the energy supply of cargo ships. Today, a café is located in the former engine carriage house and a multi-floored glass tower connects the two historical buildings. All in all, this is probably the most beautiful Kunsthalle in Germany.
Signer’s outside installation finds its indoor counterpart in “Canal” (1995), in which the kayak is balancing in a narrow water-filled pool. In “Volets” (2012) two shutters mounted on a wooden wall fight against three alternatingly active ventilators. After the two shutters have finally closed, they open again as soon as the fan starts to work on the reverse side. Similar to an acoustic self-portrait, one can hear noisy snoring coming out of a tent that is right next to the “Volet” installation.
Attila Csörgő, on the other hand, is more of a quiet nerd. It is fascinating to watch his bricolage in which the edges of a dice, a tetrahedron and an octahedron are guided as if by magic to form an icosahedron and then return to their initial position. For the experimental set up “How to construct an orange” (1993-2006) the artist tests various constructions of a paper body floating almost motionless above a fan.
In the tower one finds Csörgő's Mahlstrom-Project (1995) that constitutes part of the evn-collection. Used oil creeps up the sides of a rotating aluminum kettle, thereby forming a whirlpool and transforming its own reflection. Watching a tank ship on the Rhine River, it becomes clear that this work could only have been created for this venue.
Here is some wisdom which is not only valid in sports: before anyone celebrates far-reaching success, he first has to win at home. By the way – the next exhibition is devoted to David Claerbout.
Kunsthalle Mainz
55118 Mainz, Am Zollhafen 3-5
Tel: +49 (0)6131 12 69 36
Fax: +49 (0)6131 12 69 37
email: mail@kunsthalle-mainz.de
www.kunsthalle-mainz.de
Opening hours: Tue, Thu, Fri 10:00 - 17:00; Wed 10:00 - 21:00; Sat, Sun 11:00 - 17:00
Kunstraum Bernsteiner
Sylvia Eckermann – Probabilis
06.12.2012 – 16.02.2013
By Roland Schöny
What a surprise! In the rear-view mirror of time we suddenly look into a cabinet of analogue art: sculpture, installation, light projection. We enter a room with a “chamber of marvels”-character, an experimental situation in which different types of presentations capture our senses. Words, such as “fiction”, “event” or “self-projection", are projected onto the wall in capital letters or as a drawing with words crossing one another.
What a surprise that the artist Sylvia Eckermann, who is considered one of the pioneers of digital art in Austria, now draws on the world of tangible material and designed a highly concise but simultaneously extremely open spatial installation. And not surprising, but all the more astonishing is the certainty and sovereignty with which the artist proceeded.
The artist places light projections and videos – set in a frame similar to that of classic paintings – in a non-hierarchical order next to each other, while the ticking of a metronome lets us listen to the unrelenting passing of time.
This wondrous exhibition, which one would like to see again and again and discover something new each time, can only be Sylvia Eckermann’s preliminary apotheosis of dealing with the probability of reality.
Kunstraum Bernsteiner
1020 Vienna, Schiffamtsgasse 11 (court)
Tel: +43 664 3077097
email: mail@friendsandart.at
www.friendsandart.at
Opening hours: Thu - Sat 15.00 – 19.00 hours
Galerie Martin Janda
Adriana Czernin – Investigation of the Inside
16.01.2013 – 23.02.2013
by Susanne Rohringer
Martin Janda's exhibition year 2013 begins with a new work group of the Austro-Bulgarian artist, Adriana Czernin. Czernin, whose work was last shown here in 2009, is, above all, known for her ornamentally and florally overgrown female bodies, which she portrays lasciviously in extensive scenery composed of pencil strokes.
The works shown now, date from the years between 2009 and 2012 and bring disturbing moments into the apparently so smooth pencil world. As in the earlier pictures, uncanny aspects are present in Czernin's works. Earlier on, the women who appeared caught in the overgrowing ornaments were just about to break out of the cocoon. In the newer works, the discomfiture is increased.
Now one is confronted with faces blackened by graphite and ink in front of an ornamental background. The figures of those portrayed are undergoing a sort of effacement. In "Self Portrait", cascades of colour overrun the place of the head, a sort of fur-head is formed which casts a "graphite shadow". Czernin called this series "Investigation of the Inside" and indeed, according to the artist, it's about the visualisation of the mental condition.
In the more recent pictures, Czernin distances herself from the ornamental picture world. This becomes particularly clear in the coloured pictures "Portrait Yellow", "Portrait Purple", "Portrait Red", where a rotation disc, a sort of cut-off wheel, interlaces itself with the colours yellow, red and purple.
All in all, Adriana Czernin's exhibition in the Martin Janda Gallery is a refreshing experience, above all because the artist shows further development in her work which, as an observer, one enjoys following. Her art has become increasingly meaningful without losing any of its previous elegance.
Galerie Martin Janda
1010 Vienna, Eschenbachgasse 11
Tel: +43 1 585 73 71
Fax: +43 1 585 73 72
email: galerie@martinjanda.at
www.martinjanda.at
Opening hours: Tue-Fri 11:00 -18:00 hours, Sat 11:00 -16:00 hours
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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