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281013: Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier: Salon der Angst
Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
Salon der Angst
06.09.2013 – 12.01.2014
Saldon of arbitrariness
By Daniela Gregori
Well, this is not new in Vienna: as soon as an exhibition venue is under a new directorship it is closed and renovated and the corporate design is also altered. At the Kunsthalle Wien this is now an eyrie. At least now any eagle can represent the Kunsthalle, said new director Nicolaus Schafhausen. One can only hope that he doesn't identify himself with the heraldic animal.
Whether he was able to identify himself with the topic of the exhibition curated jointly with Cathérine Hug, remains open. Unfortunately the organizers refrained from providing a thesis as well as a catalogue. It might have shown a path through the plethora of the 45 positions. Apparently a printed theoretic compendium will follow later. One is therefore forced to stick to a booklet , which doesn't really help in answering the question as to what the doubtless well done works actually have to do with the title.
For example, in Rainer Ganahl’s video “El Mundo” a classic concert is performed in the halls of a New York discount shop that is due to be shut down. The salesroom was formerly a theatre. The Cuban artists collective Los Carpinteros presents an impressive video titled “Pellejo” (skin), in which a couple rapidly ages during the course of a remarkably passionate act of love.
Understood. The exhibition doesn't aim at evoking this diffuse feeling of fear. Rather it thematises fear on a quasi meta level; and this works best using mass media, which today potentially represent the most appropriate distributors invoking all kinds of fear. Marco Lulic, who transforms photos of urban situations in Vienna with headlines from the yellow press to venues of fear or Kader Attia with his installation of room high shelves in which historic papers and magazines are piled, that all have a cover photo in common – one instilling fear with the image of ethnic groups from faraway countries. Or Thomas Hirschhorn’s somewhat brutally staged collage-like juxtaposition of glossy magazine beauties with sites of violence and muted human bodies. Yet these kinds of works remain to be the exception. In these types of exhibitions, one frequently has the feeling that the point was missed - but this time one really questions if the point was ever pursued.
Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
1070 Vienna, Museumsplatz 1
Tel: +43(0)/ 1/ 521 89-0
Fax: +43(0)/ 1/ 521 89-0
http://www.kunsthallewien.at
Opening hours: Daily 10.00- 19.00 hours
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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281013
Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
1070 Wien, Museumsplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 521 89-0
Email: office@kunsthallewien.at
http://www.kunsthallewien.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So 10-19, Do 11-21 h
Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
1070 Wien, Museumsplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 521 89-0
Email: office@kunsthallewien.at
http://www.kunsthallewien.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So 10-19, Do 11-21 h
