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140714 : Albertina: Blow-Up
Albertina
Blow-Up
30.04.2014 – 17.08.2014
Misunderstood decadence
By Patrick Schabus
"The photographer in Blow Up, who is not a philosopher, wants to see things closer up. But it so happens that, by enlarging too far, the object itself decomposes and disappears."
Antonioni
"Blow Up", like many of Antonioni's films, is amongst the most important works in film history. But the exhibition in the Albertina sticks to his work rather than highlighting it, it resembles a cluster of things brought together, which in some way are related to his films.
The murder in the film Blow Up is only the "red herring" because actually the film is about a man whose life does not end in a morass of boredom and kitsch when he is working on his photos. This is no celebration of glamour and the swinging sixties but the deconstruction of a dehumanised society and the commodities culture.
Through its characters, Blow Up shows the social vacuum between people. Because celebrations, conversations and sex in Blow Up are always only failed efforts to escape from this condition. In the same way as the film's protagonist, who continuously enlarges the photos in order to find the truth in the photo kernel (which is not there), the exhibition thus dissects the film. The remains of the dissecting is presented to the visitor.
Photos, which were made by Antonioni for his films, marketing material and some art works associated with Antonioni's films, are shown. The photos by Donald McCullin appear as if they had been wrenched out of the film for which they were produced. The attempt to bring the art works and objects together fails through the arbitrariness of choice. It's as if the objects, which had been tied together by Blow Up, were distributed in a free fall over a landscape. Without the film compilation, they remain uncommented and fashion photography is not recognizable any more as an example of the decadence of the sixties but becomes an approbation of the same.
Where Antonioni compiles all elements of a situation in order to create a larger whole from it, this selection of works is rather more reminiscent of a compilation of things that don't communicate with each other any more. It's as if the objects here, like the building of the Tower of Babel, are all saying something different - and this in different languages. The exhibition is less like the deconstruction of the beautiful sham of the 60's but rather a vivisection to extract the glamour from the film. An empty husk remains, which only resembles the being of the main character in Blow Up.
Albertina
1010 Vienna, Albertinaplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 534 83 -0
Fax: +43 1 533 76 97
E-mail: info@albertina.at
http://www.albertina.at
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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140714
Albertina
1010 Wien, Albertinaplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 534 83 -0, Fax: +43 1 533 76 97
Email: info@albertina.at
http://www.albertina.at
Öffnungszeiten: Tägl. 10-18h, Mi 10-21 h
Albertina
1010 Wien, Albertinaplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 534 83 -0, Fax: +43 1 533 76 97
Email: info@albertina.at
http://www.albertina.at
Öffnungszeiten: Tägl. 10-18h, Mi 10-21 h
