ALMOST IN PASSING Experimental Design in Istanbul The

ALMOST IN PASSING
Experimental Design in Istanbul
The Department of Experimental Design of the University of Art and Industrial Design Linz in
Istanbul at Gallery 5533, Dogzstar, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University
DOGZSTAR, 2 April 2010, 10 p.m.
GALLERY 5533, 3 April 2010, 3 p.m.
open; Tue 06. 04. - Sat. 10. 04. 2010 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Meet the artists on Tuesday 06.04. between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.
This April 2010 presentation of artworks by young Austrian artists at Istanbul’s Gallery 5533
(inauguration on Saturday, 3 April, at 3 p.m.) will feature a representative selection of contemporary
productions. Videos, photography, objects, performances as well as audio installations are to reflect
the artists’ personal experiences as well as their social and political backgrounds.
The exhibition will be accompanied by talks with the artists at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University as
well as by an evening with experimental electronic music, art projects and performances at Dogzstar
Club Istanbul (Friday, 2 April 2010, 10 p.m.), all aimed at stimulating productive exchanges and
discussions. The show was curated by Professor Dr. Martin Hochleitner (Director of the Gallery of the
Federal Province of Upper Austria) together with the Department of Experimental Design of the
University of Art and Industrial Design Linz (Andrea van der Straeten and Hubert Lobnig).
This exhibition in Istanbul constitutes the second part of an ongoing exchange between the
Department of Experimental Design of the University of Art and Industrial Design Linz and the young
and vibrant art scene of Istanbul. During their stay at Yildiz Technical University Istanbul under the
Erasmus programme, Oona Valarie Schager and Ufuk Serbest (both students at the Department of
Experimental Design) initiated, curated and organised the very first exhibition of young artists from
Istanbul in Linz.
In April 2009, this show – Inspiring Stanbul – for the first time spotlighted the work of young Turkish
artists right at the heart of Linz while also representing the co-operation between the University of Art
and Industrial Design Linz and Linz 09 – European Capital of Culture.
ALMOST IN PASSING AT GALLERY 5533
HILLARY ALLEN, JAKOB BREITWIESER, SUSANNA FLOCK, ULRICH FOHLER,
KATHARINA GRUZEI, GERDA HAUNSCHMID, ASENA HAYAL, VERENA HENETMAYR,
ELISABETH KRAMER, SIGRID KRENNER, PAMELA LITZLBAUER, KATHARINA LOIDL,
AGNES MIESENBERGER, STEPHANIE MOLD, CLAUDIA NICKL, TANJA OBERNBERGER,
SANDRA OBWEGESER , CHRISTINE PAVLIC, HANNA PRIEMETZHOFER, ANTONIA
PROCHASKA, JOHANNES RAMSL, NORA RIEDL, KAROLINE RUDOLF, OONA VALERIE
SCHAGER, UFUK SERBEST, STEFAN STIPEK, FRANZISKA THURNER
ALMOST IN PASSING AT DOGZTAR
MARTIN & THE EVIL EYES OF NUR
DIE FAXEN
NU´FUK FEAT.JMC
IMAGE RECORDER
VISUALS BY
TSCHOERDA
SYSTEM JAQUELINDE
SELECTION AND ORGANISATION: MARTIN HOCHLEITNER AND HUBERT LOBNIG
ORGANISATION: ANDREA VAN DER STRAETEN, WILTRUD HACKL, ALEXANDER GLANDIEN
ASENA HAYAL, STEPHANIE MOLD, VALERIE OONA SCHAGER AND UFUK SERBEST
Works featured in the exhibition
JAKOB BREITWIESER, “Man will ja nichts sagen, aber...”, sound installation, 2010
This work narrates episodes about conflicts in everyday life and human coexistence. The sound quotes
lack all local, ethnic or gender identification. Thus the listener alone creates a context between
himself/herself and the audio material.
SUSANNA FLOCK, “Bezeichnungen”, 2009, 85 cm x 77 cm, 40 file cards (9 cm x 13 cm), 2009
An archive of hard-to-define “things” is compiled as part of a quest for meaning and shifts of
meaning, for the interrelationship of signifier and signified, thus thematising the complexity of a
language system and the diverse interpretations of semantic information.
“Chair, Desk, Window”, 51.14 cm x 51.14 cm, 4 photos, 2009
“Chair, Desk, Window” aims at a stocktaking of spaces and of the interrelationships between the reallife object and its image as well as between the unambiguous and the ambiguous.
ULRICH FOHLER, “Our Flags (Are the Same)”
Two folded national flags lie side by side. Shapes and colours are congruent, which makes it
practically impossible to assign them to any specific country; their significant qualities as national
flags and their representative symbols disappear in the folds and stacks of fabric. Through simple
folding, this work achieves a formal rapprochement between two states and highlights the
interchangeability of national identities.
KATHARINA GRUZEI, “Museum Babushka“, C-print, 1,85 x 2,20m
This photograph is the attempt to affiliate “working” and “not working” within a frame. It shows a so
called “museum grandmother” in Russia who transforms into the debris of an collapsed ideology.
Those women mostly still work in public transport or museum institutions because their Udssr pension
is not enough to live of these days. On one hand their bodies stand for the past communism - on the
other hand they form an essential mass of workers in public institutions. Their work consists of “doing
nothing”, guarding art and waiting for the working shift to end...
"Heimat" is a postcard series of 4 sujets that I shot at an erotic photography workshop. I was engaged
to do the workshops lighting and experienced the absurd reproduction of the erotic alpine clichè...
ASENA HAYAL,
Differences across intercultural dialogue are a tool for integration. A mutual language forming
between Linz and Istanbul makes it possible for individuals of two different cultures to come together.
The importance of languages in this interaction is definitely essential.
My project is an installation involving two static and one moving code. When the moving code aligns
in turn with the static codes, it reveals either “zusammen” or “birarada”, both of which words mean
“together” (in German and Turkish). The moving key code symbolises intercultural unity and mutual
language.
VERENA HENETMAYR, in-between, 2009, installation in public space, medium-density fibreboard
(MDF), 1.2 m x 0.4 m
A seat – e.g. a bench – transfixed by a wooden board creates two sides. To recognise and see the other
side of the board, you either look or listen through the holes, which are drilled in at head level, or you
just stand up and change places.
ELISABETH KRAMER, “...is Chichi”, 2009, Video , 16:9, 2:13 min. (loop)
“...is Chichi”, a recurring scene of a common, comedic, tragic picture. Chichi dances, gambles and
performs on-site.
ELISABETH KRAMER, HILLARY ALLEN, “On a Visit”, 2009, Video, 16:9, 1:52 min.
Study at “Drawing Restraint 7” (Matthew Barney)
SIGRID KRENNER, “Nur für Euch”
The video installation “Nur für Euch” deals with a traditional method of appropriation: insalivation.
The artist puts chocolate-coated almonds in her mouth and sucks off the chocolate, “cleaning” the
almonds meticulously with her saliva to present them to her guests with apparent liberality. This work
flirts with the very personal “signature” of marking objects with bodily fluids and the resulting
rejection.
KATHARINA LOIDL, “the man, the wolf, the sheep and the cabbage”, stop-motion animation, 2
min., loop, 2009
A logic puzzle known around the world thematises the ambivalent feelings between East and West and
their paradox incompatibility and is given shape through the quasi naive presentation technique of
shadow-play in an endless sequence of moving to and fro between the two banks. What at first glance
appears the best solution for “harmonising” this interrelationship may prove to be a miscalculation and
in fact demands a more farsighted approach.
AGNES MIESENBERGER, “A midsummer nightmare”, video/animation, 2.40 min., 2008, DV PAL
A music clip for the band “Las Venus”, whose antiquarian-futuristic equipment turns the past into the
future. A nightmare composed of digital video and historical illustrations in stop-motion technique.
“The Bumblebee Fur Coat”, video/animation, 2.00 min., 2007, DVD, DV-PAL
Do we still have to wait to get a fur coat as a present?
A story about a wish and a will, told with animated hand-drawings and assembled on the computer.
STEPHANIE MOLD, “Hallo Gümüshane”, video, 40 min.
Turks born in the East Anatolian town of Gümüshane live in Linz. The mayor of Gümüshane, who
once visited the Lentos Art Museum in Linz, was fascinated by the stools used in the museum. I know
that because I used to work as a museum warden at Lentos and watched him admire the furniture. For
this reason, I decided to travel by bus through Turkey in my warden’s uniform to visit him and present
him with such a stool. The purpose of this trip was absurdly disproportionate to the required input of
time and money; my warden’s uniform made me look grotesque outside the museum’s premises and
actually transformed me into a fictional character. Filmmaker Karolina Szmit accompanied me on this
journey.
CLAUDIA NICKL, “Contemporary Acre Art”, project, exhibition, 2009
Nine students and graduates of the programme Sculpture – Transmedial Space and Experimental
Design spent one week outside the city. The rural environment triggered a temporary fusion between
them and the local farmers. Their freshness, unbridled fun and free, sophisticated minds enabled them
to create artworks from materials found at the farmhouses involved. The exhibition took place as part
of an annual event with an audience of up to 20,000 persons.
Artists: Noemi Auer, Ulrich Fohler, Verena*Henetmayr. Simon Hipfl, Thomas Kluckner, Elisabeth
Kramer, Claudia Nickl, Stefan Pirker, Bernhard Senkmüller
Concept, idea, curator: Claudia Nickl
SANDRA OBWEGESER, PAMELA LITZLBAUER, “within my recollection” (animated film 20092010), duration: approx. 6 min., idea, production design, editors, directors: Pamela Litzlbauer / Sandra
Li Lian Obwegeser, technique: stop-motion, SLR camera, 6 animated tales
This film is based on dreams and dreamlike recollections executed in six scenes. The observer’s gaze
is drawn to a surreal atmosphere in which reality and fiction flounder like fish caught in a net, flit
across the water like shadows, and in which fitted kitchens watch themselves drown.
CHRISTINE PAVLIC, “The Bench, the Yarn and the Drill Machine ...”, C prints, 2008
The wooden slats of benches in public space are perforated by a drill and embroidered in traditional
style with needle and yarn, thereby referencing expressions of local and regional everyday culture. By
choosing embroidery in wood, the artist thematises homey domesticity between kitsch, a sense of
wellbeing and the insufferably stifling by having the benches simply invite people to sit down. The
project, which was executed in Tyrol, was documented in photographs.
HANNA PRIEMETZHOFER, GERDA HAUNSCHMID, TANJA OBERNBERGER, FRANZISKA
THURNER “Postkastell”, 2009
A project by Gerda Haunschmid, Tanja Obernberger, Hanna Priemetzhofer, Franziska Thurner
At the beginning, the “Postkastell” is full of different impressions, sketches and images by four young
women from Linz, all united on the nostalgic format of postcards. Visitors can swap items they have
brought along (preferably Turkish postcards, but also bus tickets, sketches, …) for one of our
postcards. Thus the content of the “Postkastell’” will slowly change into a Turkish collection.
“Postkastell – Posta kutusu” is an independent exhibition, installation, platform, castle, intercultural
exchange, a place of transformation & variation, take-away-art, a shifting collection.
ANTONIA PROCHASKA, “Muschihäkeln in Istanbul”, wool, needles, photos, photo album, flyer,
2010
The participants in loosely organised, communicative meetings announced by a flyer and on the
Internet crochet and talk. This feminist project by Antonia Prochaska tries to involve a great variety of
people with highly different cultural, religious and work backgrounds.
JOHANNES RAMSL, “Process Paper”, installation, 2010
Certificates are pieces of paper with printing or writing on them. Their value derives from their use by
official authorities, from symbols and signatures, all of which transform them into documents. In this
work, my collected certificates and references are torn into shreds and then dissolved in water. With a
deckle, sheet after sheet of new, “ungraded” paper is created.
NORA RIEDL, “My Friend, the Mayor of Istanbul”, poster work executed in the city of Istanbul, June
2009 (original size 1.7 m x 30 m)
The starting-point of this work was a chance group photo taken of some students (including myself)
and Kadir Topbas, the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, who during the time of my stay
was in fact featured on all municipal advertising posters. This photo and the (imagined) friendship
with Kadir Topbas formed the nucleus to which my own wishes for change in Istanbul were linked.
Instead of inaugurating parks, motorways or sports halls, the mayor – ably supported by myself – was
unexpectedly happy to inaugurate a building housing a gay rights office, a department for gender
studies and a centre training women to defend themselves against domestic violence.
Although the huge banner advertising this event was illegally hung from a bridge railing above an
eight-lane motorway and removed after just a few hours, media response to the action was very strong.
KAROLINE RUDOLF, ANTONIA PROCHASKA, “18 October 2008”, installation 2009, bed-sheets,
sewing silk, sequins, wire suspension system
In autumn 2008, right-wing populist politician Jörg Haider died in a car accident brought on by his
own fault during a stay of artists Karoline Rudolf and Antonia Prochaska in the city of Villach. Quite
unintentionally, the artists witnessed the massive mourning, despair and elevation to cultural icon that
the local press and population accorded Haider. Some compared the death of Carinthia’s most
prominent politician with the mourning for Lady Diana Spencer; even the local radio stations
continuously featured Elton John’s “Time to Say Goodbye”.
OONA VALARIE SCHAGER, UFUK SERBEST, “Simplification”, photo print on rigid foam board,
4 parts of 42 cm x 60 cm each, 2008
Ever since their introduction, newspapers, with their central role of information carriers, have not only
been employing the medium of writing but complemented their content with pictures and illustrations.
“Simplification” focuses on these concrete/figurative messages to zero in on visual language and its
effects. The daily newspaper becomes an artwork and demands its completion by the recipient.
Quotes, not dictations are the objective.
STEFAN STIPEK
Pfarrplatz is a square at the centre of Linz, situated close to the city’s main square. Its reorganisation
from a place for cars into a place for humans has created a centrally located open space that may be
adapted in a variety of ways and furthermore provides a new perspective on itself and its surroundings.
After I had moved into a flat directly on-site, the square became my eye-catcher and thus also my
object of scrutiny, which I analysed by means of stop-motion studies. In due course, I carried out
various experiments in which the surface functioned as a kind of drawing paper and/or stage in the
broadest sense. This among other factors inspired the series “front window”.