translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
020913: Kunsthalle Krems: Elfie Semotan - Contact
Kunsthalle Krems
Elfie Semotan - Contact
14.07.2013 to 06.10.2013
But I am art
By Nina Schedlmayer
Helmut Lang, Cordula Reyer, straight clothes, distinctive faces: the Viennese fashion world in the 1990's was really cool. Its image significantly influenced the photographer Elfie Semotan, who already had several exhibitions in museums and galleries – not without reason.
In the large show at the Kunsthalle Krems, she now presents - for the most part never shown before – works which were mostly created in addition to the commissioned works for the fashion and advertising industries. In an elegiac series about the Hungarian puszta, supermodel Reyer appears beside gnarled old people. In another row, Semotan satirizes all too clichéd, perceptions of a typical secretary.
Now and then, however, the chosen works exhibit their art aspirations really forcefully – and remind one sometimes of those other artists who articulate similar thematics far more interestingly.
The inspired stagings of young beauties remind one of artists, who articulated thematically similar works in a more interesting way. Beauties inspired by art history remind of Bettina Rheims, Cindy Sherman, Franz West or Christian Ludwig Attersee.
It's stressed here all too often how very much Semotan broke the rules of the genre The best works in the show are those to which the "But I am art" tag isn't attached: the portrait of Louise Bourgois as a giggling old lady between her bright pink sculptures, Franz Graf in his slightly chaotic-looking house; Maria Lassnig, who is waltzing around in a damnably stylistic dress. That's really unbeatable.
Kunsthalle Krems
3500 Krems, Franz-Zeller-Platz
Tel: +43-2732 90 80 10
Fax: +43-2732 90 80 11
E-mail: office@kunstalle.at
http://www.kunsthalle.at
Opening times: daily 10-18 hours
020913
Kunsthalle Krems
3500 Krems, Franz-Zeller-Platz 3
Tel: +43-2732 90 80 10, Fax: +43-2732 90 80 11
Email: office@kunstalle.at
http://www.kunsthalle.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di - So und Mo wenn Feiertag 10-18 Uhr; in den Wintermonaten 10-17 Uh
Kunsthalle Krems
3500 Krems, Franz-Zeller-Platz 3
Tel: +43-2732 90 80 10, Fax: +43-2732 90 80 11
Email: office@kunstalle.at
http://www.kunsthalle.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di - So und Mo wenn Feiertag 10-18 Uhr; in den Wintermonaten 10-17 Uh