docu bh 040109end a engl.indd

barbara holub _ gr.mohreng.23/18 _ 1020 vienna _ austria _ [email protected]
Barbara Holub
Selected Projects > 2008
Barbara Holub
Initiative Island
This is The Gallery and The Gallery is
Many Things
Eastside Projects
Birmingham
2008
Eastside Projects
Initiative Island
This is The Gallery and The Gallery is
Many Things
Birmingham
2008
The project addresses the context of EP as new public gallery in a „prime location“
among the regeneration areas in birmingham. It consists of two billboards (one on the
facade and one inside the gallery) and a large curtain running along the back wall of the
gallery space.
The image of a city is usually marketed by the skyline – or in cities with a historic city
centre - by a significant building like a cathedral or city hall sticking out. The skyline
of birmingham contradicts usual skylines, where the highrise buidings are usually
expressions of capital and centres of attraction in the city centre, whereas in birmingham
the highrise buildings are mainly tower blocks (housing) rather than fancy corporate
buildings. they were distributed all around the city and mainly located outside the city
centre, creating an „anti-skyline“.
This emancipatory „anti-skyline“ of birmingham is being eradicated by demolishing
a massive amount of tower blocks (rather than seeking solutions how to adapt or
add elements meeting the needs of today and thus transforming the city gradually),
advocating a growth and urban renewal which will be limited to the „newly successful“.
This changes the identity and the image of the city dramatically and there will be
many people whose voice won’t have a place within the prosperous propaganda of
regeneration, whose voice will succumb in silence, unheard....
Initiative island makes this absence visible, and suggests a new presence.
Initiative island creates a „set“ for a fictional story - a parallel life in real life, using the
context of the gallery.
The billboards promote the agenda of not escaping into (virtual) „second life“, but
1_Billboard Facade
to claim territory within real life. The abstract chains of beeds refer to an object
Barbara holub created for a recent exhibition at the Plymouth Arts Centre, where she
transformed a rotary airer (as a symbol of limited space) into a sparkling chandelier. On
the billboards the beeds can also be read as text lines which are unspoken (not spelled
out), open to new interpretation.
Thus the billboards are used in their usual function – for advertising an urban issue in
reference to the context of a newly founded public gallery, EP, which is located in the
middle of a regeneration area.
Thus EP itself can become Initiative island, addressing the question, of how a public
gallery (and art itself) can use the potential of withstanding instrumentalization.
concept text Barbara Holub, August 2008
billboard inside
2_Billboard Inside
The billboard inside the gallery shows an image of the demolition of Haddon Tower, a
tower block where artists got involved before the demolition. The image is overlayed
with negative-white pearl chains deriving from a photo of “crystal turn” - a refunctioned rotary airer the artist developed for her show at Plymouth Art Centre, where
she replaced the laundry lines by crystal beads. The rotary airer was transformed into
a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, slowly turning. The billboard marks a place
called “Initiative Island” , somewhere in the void of the demolition.
3_Curtain
The third element of Initiative island is a curtain running along the back wall of the
cinema room. it is based on a map of all tower block in birmingham, differentiated
between still existing tower blocks and the ones already demolished. They are linked
by lines creating an image resembling a star map, as if one was looking at outer space,
transforming the map into a non-hierarchical structure – a structure which has no
definite scale and therefore suggests that Initiative island can take place in any scale
between longterm visions and makro-utopias in everyday life.
The possible absence of the ethnic diversity of birmingham in the areas of regeneration is
adressed by the manufacturing of the curtain. The pattern on the curtain is embroidered
by people living at the integrationshaus in vienna, waiting for asylum – people who are
invisible in vienna, giving presence to people from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds
in birmingham. The text on the curtain was developed together with them and was
executed in their languages.
The frontside of the curtain shows a map of the tower blocks in Birmingham in which
the existing tower blocks are embroidered as solid circles and the demolished ones as
outlines.
The curtain was realized in cooperation with
the Integrationshaus, Vienna, with:
Enkhjargal Bajinnyam (Mongolia)
Otgon Tulga (Mongolia)
Svetlana Tsal-Tsalko (Ukraine)
Ketino Merebaschwili (Georgia)
and
Sabine Ott
Cornelia Silli
Barbara Holub
entrance to the “cinema space”
- back of the curtain
Barbara Holub
More Opportunities
Plymouth Arts Centre
2007/ 2008
More Opportunities
Barbara Holub
24 November 2007 – 20 January 2008
Plymouth Arts Centre presents the first UK solo exhibition of the Vienna based artist,
architect and urban designer Barbara Holub. Her work addresses anthropological issues
that decisively shape society, examining social and personal identities through the modes
of visual art and architecture. As part of the Artist and Curators Residency Programme,
Holub has been spending time in the city researching the current fluxes and state of the
regeneration process in Plymouth.
‘More Opportunities’ relates to a city in search of a new identity and the concerns that
ensue through regeneration. Barbara Holub through her processes as an artist and architect has spent time talking to local people, planning departments, examining areas of
significant identity transformation such as Devonport, relating to people in and outside
of the borders and boundaries that occupy this area. Barbara Holub transforms this
research into narrative and poetic elements in the show, which oscillate between reality
and fiction laying open today’s pragmatism and stages a demonstration.
‘More Opportunities’ revolves around the limits of occupying space. The artist uses the
format of a demonstration as an outdated, almost “retro-utopian” model, relating to a
16mm film documentary from the dockyard strikes that took place in Plymouth in the
mid 1960’s, and more recent strikes of the current privatisation of the Naval yard and
reclamation of land to Devonport area being transformed into privatised social housing.
The feeling and sense of lost opportunity in this area coming along this development of
regeneration is symptomatic to many current examples of public-private-partnerships all
over.
This melancholy due to an unclear new identity resulting from the ongoing processes of
transformation in the city and in ones own individual life is accompanied by the big hope
and generalised desire for “more opportunities”. In her show Barbara Holub addresses
the collective understanding and personal wishes in terms of “more opportunities” beyond the concrete cause of Plymouth.
excerpts from the press information by Paula
Orrell
view from the marlborough building onto the
devonport area which will be developped as housing area
3 sets and a demonstration
Staged Demonstration
Looe Street, Plymouth
8th December, 2007, 2pm – 4pm
1_Barbara Holub staged a demonstration as part of the focus of the exhibition on the
regeneration of the city and the search for a new identity that comes along with this.
the location is on looe street in front of the plymouth arts centre which is also looking
for a new location. the performance refers to the first demonstration of the dockyard
workers in 1969 - the first one after 300 years since the coexistence between the
dockyard/ naval base as major employee of the city and the city was always considered
beneficial to both sides; during the last years the dockyard has been privatized by HML
as a result of economical decline after the end of the cold war and the company starts
to give back part of their property to the city.
The changes due to the privatization culminate in the development of tours through
the dockyard where the navy officers function as tour guides. after a sample tour the
participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire in order to optimize the quality of the
tour according to the expectations of the visitors.
The demonstration was filmed and then included in the exhibition.
the plackards and banner for the demonstration are painted in reflective white
- devoid of a message but with a visionary aspect between innocence and the glooming of science fiction appearances. they were presented in the show even before the
demonstration.
“more opportunities” oscillates between the general promise any politician would
make and the hopes of the individual. Staging a demonstration to this topic lays open
the meaningless format of demonstrations in the globalised economy today, and transgresses it by placing it explicitly as fiction.
videostills of the
dockyardstrike 1969
2_
“who says we are not...“
white reflective paint on hardboard
various sizes, 2007
the plackards for the demonstration are leaning on the wall in the exhibition space,
painted with reflective white color without slogans.
3_
banner „more opportunities“
the banner which was used for the demonstration covered the facade of the exhibition
space.
4_
“more opportunities“
video of the staged demonstration, dec.8, 2007
the video is projected on the opposite wall of the plackards
Set 1
Set 2
5_
“forget the technicalities“
perspex, wood, 2007
The glass ceiling of the council building is a highlight of this buidling from the 1960’s
which is - as part of the ensemble - an extraordinary example of the architecture of that
era in plymouth. now there are discussions to tear it down whereas there is already a
campaign by leading architects, theoreticians and citizens to save this building. the pattern of the light ceiling is lasercut and mirrored as floating floor piece.
installation view with slide installation
“make news instead of”
6_
“welcome to the navy base visitor’s centre“
curtain/ inkjetprint on fabric, 310 x 235 cm
The visitor’s centre of the naval base welcomes the first tourists after privatizing the
dockyards. the curtain is the entrance to the slide show.
7_
„make news instead of“
slide installation, 4 min, 2007
> double video projection, 22:30, 2008
The texts are quotes from „Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea“ (1961, by Irwin
Allen), „Superstudio: Middleburg Lectures“, „Taking the Matter into Common
Hands“ ed.by Maria Lind and Johanna Billing and Lars Nilson
below: excerpts
We are writing the year 2040. The submarine
Newview is bound for a new mission. After
closing down the naval base it was turned
into a think tank for future visions. In this
mission it can appear in various disguises: as
showboat for tourists ... as research station
for social behaviour ... as desire for dramatic
rather than only pragmatic moments ... as set
for retrofictions ... as more opportunities ... as
metaphor codetermining reality ...
We are in search of a new identity.
I want to carry out a vision based on other
principles, which consist in the possibility
i give to each viewer to link up the appropriate associations.
We have to make news instead of listening to them.
Set 3
8_
“crystal turn”
rotary airer, crystal beeds
Rotary airers are an omnipresent signifier of small gardens which characterize the
image of the city (especially in council housing) up to today.
In the exhibition a rotary airer is turned into a chandelier, the laundry lines being
replaced by crystals.
9_
“burning sky“
acrylic paint on canvas
A video-still from the science-fiction-movie „Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea“
(1961) in which a submarine in elegant interior design from the 1960`s seeks to
save the world is painted by a set designer as backdrop for the situation/ exhibition
set today.
10_
“beutegriff“ (grabbing prey)
video, 4:52, loop
The video-projection shows pelicans diving vertically from an elegant flight into the
depth of the sea in order to catch their prey.
11_
“taking the future into our hands“
silkscreen on glass, 100 x 52 cm
A 3d image is created by an overlay of various images of barbed wire closeups from the
wall of devonport which slowly is taken down due to privatization of the dockyards.
installation view / Austrian Cultural Forum/
London Festival of Architecture, 2008
transparadiso
(barbara holub_paul rajakovics_
bernd vlay)
ish bin ein ...
Waypoints Like Sharon’s Stone
Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna
2007
How to be visible? transparadiso’s “ish bin ein ...” is equally a deconstruction, dramatisation and performation of the familiar image of “The African in Vienna”. The departure
point is John F. Kennedy’s reknown 1963 declaration of solidarity “Ich bin ein Berliner”
with the people of Berlin following the construction of the Wall. “ish bin ein ...” is a
“retrofiction”, a utopian reference to a historical “image” and at the same time sets a
suggestive act of the possible. transparadiso creates the scenario of a “State visit” to
Vienna by African-American Presidential candidate Barak Obama and his wife Michelle
who drive along the Ringstraße in a Cadillac Fleetwood from the 1960ies which amongst
other things marks the time of the Black Panther Movement. In front of the history
pregnant and state symbolic Hofburg, the fictional and “actually possible” US President Barak, who simultaneously is not him but wears his mask, announces “Ich bin ein
Wiener”. Kennedy said in his speech, “All free people, where ever they might live, are
citizens of Berlin”. With this he expressed not only a utopian wish rather did nothing
less than allow this utopia to become a piece of reality through a performative act of
speaking. Only through the invocation is the subject constituted: in the case of “ish bin
ein ...”, it is – in analogy to Kennedy’s speech and beyond the myths or attributes of
political correctness – the African as free and autonomous citizen of Vienna.
Ines Gebetsroither
Listen to the Quiet Voice
in:
Orientierungen
regionale08
Feldbach/ Steiermark
2008
When nylons became available also for the average american woman in the end of
the 1950’s, and when they celebrated a world wide triumph with the mini skirts, this
also marked the entrance of american everyday culture in europe. From that time on
nylons also requested their tribute of female beauty on a broad level. At the same time
the fragile weaving of the nylons implies a constant threat of a possible run or a hole,
a synonym for vulnerability which can shift attraction into embarassment from one
moment ot the other.
„listen to the quiet voice“ reflects the various roles attributed to women the east and
the west on the example of the object which recently has been dominating discussions
on the islam which also raised questions concerning our understanding of culture, the
headscarf. Barbara holub produced four headscarfs out of used nylons for the project.
The artist refers to the complex meaning of the headscarf which used to be omnipresent in europe up to the 1960’s in varying roles between fashion, tradition and protection, thus showing the current cultural hybridity which is undergoing ongoing changes.
The performers for the posters are four female personalities who all have a different
relationship to islam, all living in austria. The posters will be affiched on stands which
are usually used for election campaigns and distributed in the area of the regionale08
in Styria (Southern Austria). This „silent election campaign“ quotes the formula of a
political activity, deconstructing this formula by blanking out possible slogans which
are usually general, shallow and without significance. The blank textbars create a
space for projecting possible visions beyond categorization and one-dimensional ideologies, taking a position for the grey zone of contradiction.
The title of the piece refers to „Oblique Strategies“, a series of cards which Brian Eno/
Peter Schmidt published in 1975 for the first time. These give instructions how to
evade deadlocked situations or dilemmas.
The performers are:
Gulsen Bal
visual artist, theoretician and works as an intellectual worker. Serbian/Bosnian parents,
grew up in Turkey, studied in London, where she lives and works. atheist. With the aim
to create a facility for contemporary creative practice concerned with contributing model strategy for cross-border dialogue, she moved to Vienna and initiated “open space” in
2008, since she is programmatically interested in issues between the East and the West.
Mehru Jaffer
Indian Muslim journalist, living in Austria since 1982. Her interest in religion is both
academic and spiritual. As a writer she is most interested in the politics of the day and
its relationship to inter cultural issues.
Riem Khalil
father Palestinian, mother Austrian; greek-orthodox; 1974-1984 in Kuweit, since 1984 in
Austria. Studied political science (international law, arabic and islamic studies), diploma
on „The Role of the Holy Chair as Mediator in International Conflicts“. 2007/2008 diplomatic academy in Vienna.
Barbara Wally
Art historian, curator and author; declared feminist; director of the Summer Academy
of Fine Arts in Salzburg (1981-2008). Converted to islam in 2007, relocates to Yemen in
2009.
.
the system: prêt-à-porter
Künstlerhauspassage Vienna
2006
Phenomenon of Clothing
In her work The System: prêt-à-porter Barbara Holub addresses the shifts in economic
structures and the technical circumstances of communication associated with them in
the changing “western” cartographies. A review.
On the basis of the everyday phenomenon of clothing the artist analyses different
economic models of the second-hand exchange or sale of clothes, ranging from a yard
sale to clothing donated to charity, along with the resulting economic profit. A short
video loop of a yard sale in Los Angeles that is repeated from dusk onwards focuses on
moments in the changing physical posture of people who during the weekend search the
front yards of their neighbourhood for second-hand clothing, and in the process encourage communication in residential areas that are otherwise completely cut off from the
outside world. Holub’s short cuts with schematic silhouettes and blackouts evoke body
poses similar to those of the protagonists of rap videos in which physical gestures form
a significant and expressive element of language. Whereas in the videos the exchange of
goods and the associated financial output form the basis of communication but are not
necessarily focussed on economic profit, the reverse relationship can be seen in a panel
screening a scaffold, where a system used to sort items of clothing is shown.
The provisionally fixed panel implies the transfer of economic models from the first to
the second and third worlds, and in the tradition of photographic staging of images in
the manner of Susan Sontag, represents a kind of “memento mori” i.e. a depiction of old,
no longer existing structures. In fact this is an old clothing sorting system closed down
only recently that was used by the Humana development aid organization. In its shops
Humana sells second-hand clothes that have been collected in containers and then sorted according to different categories, the proceeds go to finance aid projects in various
African countries. A person graphically mounted on the photograph of the sorting system
stands symbolically for the vanishing (i.e. no longer needed) labour force in Vienna that,
because it is no longer economically viable or because of its increasing
financial demands has led to the job, along with the production process, being moved
to Slovakia and to Varna in Bulgaria. In the image the person blends with the items of
clothing delivered by the sorting conveyor belt, leaving the outcome of this work process
open and formulating a question about economic profit models based on the exploitation
of human beings.
Where will the items of clothing in the image end up? Holub makes the subdivision into
around 18 groups visible on the window facade where we can read the names of categories such as Africa Light Mix or Summer/Winter/Trend etc. that are distinguished in
terms of size according to the delivered volume. From the data provided it is difficult
to read which of these models will be sold in Europe and how useful this will ultimately
be for the people of Africa. The fact that the business with second-hand fashion offers a
wide area of commercial possibilities, involving mostly practices that vanish from public
view is highlighted by a searching spotlight included in the exhibition scenario that
moves across the artistically handled image models – photographs, videos and text – and
refers to different ways of seeing things within an economic system that performs as if it
has “rationalised according to function.”
During the exhibition Humana staff members are invited to model Humana clothing
and to present at a photo-shooting on 4 March the different focal points of the items of
clothing that have been sorted according to category. Thus Holub’s examination of the
second-hand transfer of clothing conducts its significance along the circuitous route of
the economic gesture back to the original level of communication.
Prêt-à-porter on the conveyor belt
Interview: In her work The System: prêt-à-porter the artist Barbara Holub, since 2006
president of the Viennese Secession, addresses the shifts in economic structures and
social form of appearance using the humanitarian and global circumstances of the
Humana relief organization.
Manuela Hötzl: In your project “the system: pret-à-porter” you use the example of
Humana to examine the “second-hand industry”. What kind of systems did you
encounter?
Barbara Holub: The starting point of the project was a yard sale in Los Angeles. This
is a structure of a parallel economy that is very typical of Los Angeles. The population
uses the indifferent zone of the front yard that is not bordered by a fence – and where
one never really knows whether it is public or private – to organize yard flea markets.
As public space in L.A. is not space where people linger in the European sense these
yard sales also have the aspect of offering an informal possibility of communication.
The fact that yard sales flourish is not solely based on economic necessity but also on
the need for unplanned society.
The next step in the cycle between garbage and reuse* is then recycling, whereby the
boundary between “second hand” and recycling is a slight one.
Humana also illustrates aspects of the economy, charity, and business management in a global context. At the same time in urban societies second-hand clothing is also a business, as it allows people to individualise their clothing. What
role does fashion play in this context?
The increasing globalisation of the fashion chains, which means that you encounter
the same fashions and the same clothes brands in all cities, increases the interest in
different, individual items of clothing. And so second-hand clothes offer an alternative
to expensive designer one-off pieces, above all in the Western world and for creatively
oriented sectors of the population. Humana conducts a very precise analysis of the
respective fashion trends so that they can sort their clothes in the most effective way
possible and distribute them to the various target groups. For example in the retroshop you can find the currently “fashionable” items that designers copy with a slight
“twist”. Humana advertises that they have the originals of such designs. On the other
hand in the case of clothing exported to Africa care is taken that the skirts are, at a
minimum, knee-length (regardless of European fashion trends) and there is an awareness that T-shirts with imprints are greatly prized – as identity bearers of our culture
that convey a feeling of “belonging”. The question is therefore, what does one orient
oneself on? Which culture is currently the most desirable, and thus dictates the codes?
The fact that Humana has moved its sorting system to Slovakia, Bulgaria and
Turkey Europe’s economy reflects the present state of
Irrespective of the fact whether this applies concretely to Humana or not, it seems that
today in order to remain competitive even businesses that are humanitarian in their
orientation must subject themselves to neo-liberal circumstances of production. The
result is the absurd situation that social aspects are delegated or must be “outsourced”
in part.
The intention is that this project should later follow the journey taken by the
“clothing”. For example in Africa it is planned to “Africanise” the European
clothing with a local designer. What role does “fashion” and clothing play in
regional identity – and what differences, in your opinion, exist between Eastern
Europe, Western Europe and Africa?
To “Africanise” would be a further example of a model in which one culture determines
what is currently “hot”. However, I don’t wish to think in categories of conquest but to
place self-confidence in the foreground. I am simply curious about the look of items of
clothing that take our pieces sorted in Europe as their raw material to transport the
current culture and aesthetics of certain African cultures – regardless of what is cur-
rently sought after by the dominant Western world as “African design”.
We can, in principle, observe a trend towards fashionable mainstream items
of clothing that have a short fashion life, that can be bought cheaply as used clothing
and that, on the other hand, meet the wish of certain population groups for distinctive
clothing. The different fashion worlds that exist parallel are thus reflected in the secondhand world. As the next step in my project I want to visit Humana’s newly built sorting
plants in Slovakia and Bulgaria – to examine, among other things, whether there really
still are regional differences in Europe in regard to fashion and identity.
As an artist you work with installations, actions etc. What does material in the
conservative sense mean for you? In the case of Humana is “fashion” the material?
In my project “the system: pret-à-porter”, as in all my projects, the material is communication. The question of fashion, that is to say the added value that elevates an item of
clothing above a merely functional object is for me only the communicator that allows
entry into the system from a concrete side or allows one to question this system. This
process of “refinement” and with it the creation of an added value is, naturally, an aspect
that also exists in the case of all artistic works.
As a member of the group “transparadiso” you work a great deal with “urban
interventions” and direct urbanism and wish to change the distanced method of
approach used by town planners. What role do aesthetics, design or fashion play
here?
In the transparadiso projects, too, design is the transport medium for content. The objects that we develop are intended to open up different fields of action that allow social
interaction (communication) beyond the familiar patterns, to arrive at new programmes
in the context of an expanded notion of urbanism. This is based ultimately on a combination of programmed urban planning. The aesthetic aspect always aim at linking
everday life and the discourse, and istherefore highly significant for the formulation of
our projects.
You generally choose different operational areas for your artistic interventions.
Now you are using a “fixed” location, the Vienna Secession. Is there a contradiction here?
I regard my current task in the Secession as a large project in which the board and I
have the opportunity to aim at achieving an effect that is naturally far wider reaching
than what can be achieved by an individual art project. The Secession as an institution is
here only the starting point or the culmination of positions that in the best case should
exert an influence not only in the context of art but also socially. As an organisation of
artists we wish to re-establish the Secession as a place of production at the centre of the
public realm.
Manuela Hötzl, 2006
* See also: Michael Thompson, „Mülltheorie.
Über die Schaffung und Vernichtung von
Werten“, Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2003: Thompson deals exhaustively with the question how
a second-hand object can have the innate
potential of achieving a permanent value (e.g.
by becoming an antique) or, where its value is
transient, of becoming garbage.
The System: Prêt-à-Porter
in: Slow
Plymouth Arts Centre
2007
The photos taken at the photoshooting at the Künstlerhauspassage in Vienna were
transformed into a doublesided room devider which served as backdrop for a new photoshooting on the one side, and as changing cabin on the other side in the exhibition
space of the Plymouth Arts Centre.
For this venue the artist collaborated with oxfam, a non-profit-oganization dealing
with second hand clothing. oxfam has a store in the socalled “independant quarter”
in the center of plymouth. this quarter is part of a special support program of the city
government in order to claim a position against international chain stores dominating
the inner city shopping area.
transparadiso
So Near So Far
installation on the
facade of the BUWOG housing company
Hietzinger Kai, Vienna
2008>
(in cooperation with Grita Insam
Gallery)
Voices and images received from satellite dishes often talk more to us then we talk to
eachother. They insert parallel worlds into our living rooms, accompanied by the promise
to partake in the world. Satellite dishes became a signifier of housing. They mark the
urban space and are considered an unwanted extra aesthetic by architects.
The fassade of the headquarters of the BUWOG housing company turns its off-side of the
apartment building - a fassade which does not talk - towards the traffic driven street of
the Hietzinger Kai. So near so far shows a huge satellite dish consisting of many different individual dishes which are swirling around like pixels trying to communicate with
the cars passing by. The fassade thus takes up direct contact with the passerby, turning
into a vis-á-vis which asks questions about our many times onedimensional way of communicating.
transparadiso
Impeccable
video, 5:00
in:
Radical Positionings
Pavelhaus/ Laafeld, 2004
“impeccable” investigates geographical and social borders and their translocations in
reference to economical needs and wants. The video-loop was projected onto the Indikatormobil (transparadiso’s tool for direct urbanism), oscillating between »found fiction« (based on T.C.Boyle’s »Tortilla Curtain«) and »documentatory fiction« (private
recycling in Los Angeles) for an exhibition at Pavelhaus/ Styria in 2004, at the time
when Slovenia joined the EU. It transfers the fears and longings from the US/ Mexican
border to the Austrian/ Slovenian border, reiterating the universal issue of migration.
transparadiso
Plastique Bertrand
in:
“Mandatory”
MAK Center for Art and Architecture,
Los Angeles, 2004
transparadiso invited 14 special paying guests for the opening to the exhibition “mandatory” to an exclusive dinner which took place behind closed doors - referring to the
exclusiveness of fundraising dinners and the issue of many American art institutions
depending on private funding. A special dinner was created by the chef/ artist David
Thorne and a food stylist, based on canned food, which is notoriously considered to be
“bad taste” - reminding of the 1970’s. The question of “good taste” –inherent to social
events like fundraising dinners in the art scene– were topic of this exclusive evening
as well as the dependancy of art institutions from private donors and their possible
influence. The dinner was served in original tupperware dinner trays. The tupperware
drag queen Kay Sedia provided a special entertainment and the composer Daniel
Rothman conceived a music piece based on the sound of dishes recorded in a chinese
restaurant in Los Angeles/ Chinatown which came from the adjacent room - as if the
even more interesting party happened in the other room...
The design of the dinner table was carefully orchestrated with specially made table
cloths, the menu, and relaxation elements like foot massage objects were provided.
After the dinner event of the opening the dinner table was reset and displayed with
the cans of the ingredients for the exhibition.
transparadiso
On Invitation Only
MAKnite, MAK, Vienna
2005
Parallely to their exhibition “Indikatormobil_an urban intervention” transparadiso
invited to a MAKnite, the dinner “On Invitation Only” in the main hall of the MAK. the
uninvited guests were deviated to the courtyard where the Indikatormobil had parked
and invited to a Borschtsch (a traditional Ukranian soup) and hot wine to fight the cold
of this winter night and welcomed the special guests from “Asyl in Not”, an Austrian
charity organization helping asylum seekers. a live video conference enabled a direct
communication between inside and outside which was supposed to be supported by
toasts of the dinner guests in the main hall.
In cooperation with “Asyl in Not” and the Integrationshaus, Vienna
Parapölt
temporary installation for the
Festival of Courtyards
St.Pölten/ Lower Austria
2006+2007
A temporary roof for the historic town center of St.Pölten/ Lower Austria during the
annual “Festival of the Courtyards”: Two overlapping sails create a bazaar-like space
as rain protection. The two sails are based on a collage of images of people carrying
umbrellas which is transformed into two different versions of the same image with different transparencies.
A weather station measures the wind speed and is connected to a sound installation.
When the wind is stronger than 30 km/h, the sound of a rolling thunder goes off and the
Parapölt is pulled in.
performance for photoshooting
pattern _ details of transparencies of the two sails