translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
090215 : Startgalerie im MUSA: Deniz “Vienna” Sözen – Trans Angeles
Startgalerie im MUSA
Deniz “Vienna” Sözen – Trans Angeles
23.01.2015 – 19.02.2015
A normal life on the edge of society
by Wolfang Pichler
Especially in times of a new flare-up of racist and identitarian tendencies, it's important - not only in art - to provide an ear to those that come from other cultures, and lead a completely normal and more or less integrated life. In many short interviews, which are endlessly played through headphones hanging on the wall, the artist, born in 1981 in Vienna, introduces just such people with her quite mundane everyday experience. That it is centered around life in the pertinent communities in Los Angeles states yet again how "globalized" the world in which we live is. So it appears completely convincing and normal that a Viennese publishes a documentation about non-Austrian minorities in the USA. Identities are mixed, swapped and often set together in absurd contexts here, not by the artist herself but by the people present.
A sign with the inscription "Little Vienna" in an anything else but Vienna-like, typical American suburbian street, stands for the dubiousness just as much as for the charming naivety of such a trial as establishing an imported identity into the new homeland. LA will never be like Vienna, just as little as Vienna will ever be like Istanbul or Chicago, in spite of all the gloomy prophecies. Because there is such a thing as a character for a given location and that this undoubtedly affects its inhabitants is ultimately the best proof that "integration" is something that man can put off but not prevent.
With her works that deal with the Armenian- and Thai-born populations in Los Angeles, Deniz Vienna Sözen shows that art also has a social task even if it only – as in this case- to facilitate listening.
Startgalerie im MUSA
1010 Vienna, Felderstraße 6-8, neben dem Rathaus
Tel: +43 (0)1 4000 8400
email: musa@musa.at
http://www.musa.at
Opening hours: Tue, Wed, Fri: 11:00 - 18:00; Thu 11:00 - 20:00; Sat 11:00 - 16:00 hours
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
090215
Startgalerie im MUSA
1010 Wien, Felderstraße 6-8, neben dem Rathaus
Tel: +43 1 4000 8400, Fax: +43 1 4000-99-8400
Email: musa@musa.at
http://www.musa.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di, Mi, Fr 11-18, Do 11-20, Sa 11-16 h
Startgalerie im MUSA
1010 Wien, Felderstraße 6-8, neben dem Rathaus
Tel: +43 1 4000 8400, Fax: +43 1 4000-99-8400
Email: musa@musa.at
http://www.musa.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di, Mi, Fr 11-18, Do 11-20, Sa 11-16 h