Pierre Bismuth
Julius von Bismarck
Igor Bosnjak
Antoine Catala
Julian Charriere
Keren Cytter
Edith Dekyndt
Simon Denny
Aleksandra Domanovic
Dani Gal
Florian Hecker
Daniel Keller
Leon Kahane
Hanne Lippard
Deimantas Narkevicius
Katja Novitskova
Yuri Pattison
Jon Rafman
Adriana Ramic
Mandla Reuter
Antoine Renard
Meggy Rustamova
Augustas Serapinas
Michael Staniak
Philipp Timischl
Amalia Ulman
Ignacio Uriarte
Dragana Zarevac
Nicolaus Schafhausen
Marie Egger
Luca Lo Pinto
The exhibition presents the Pierre Bismuth's complex oeuvre, which spans all media and approaches conceptual techniques in an experimental way. 'The Future of Memory' is a group show that investigates how cultural methods of communication and historiography are currently being shaped by the virtualization of our interactions.
Pierre Bismuth. (The Curator, the Lawyer and the Psychoanalyst)
4/2 – 22/3 2015
Curated by Luca Lo Pinto
Der Kurator, der Anwalt und der Psychoanalytiker is an extensive solo exhibition
by the French, Brussels based artist Pierre Bismuth. It aims to present the artist’s
complex oeuvre, which spans all media and which approaches conceptual
techniques in a way both experimental and humorous.
The exhibition will present about 60 works created between 1988 and 2014
alongside a new piece produced by Kunsthalle Wien for the show.
Turning the act of selecting into a conceptual gesture, the works of art in the
exhibition will not be chosen by the artist himself, but by three people with a different
background each: a curator (Luca Lo Pinto), a psychoanalyst (Angel Enciso), and a
lawyer (Laurent Caretto). Bismuth asked each of them to select a number of works
and to write a short text explaining their choice. These texts will function as captions
for the works on display. With this revised process, the artist aims to question the
role of the artist and the curator as well as the framework provided by the exhibition
and thus the common curatorial scenario as such.
Pierre Bismuth considers his artistic practice a tool for examining our way of looking
at reality. Most of his works aim, both in a serious and playful way, at questioning
pre-established rules of perception and make the viewer aware of hidden or
unnoticed elements of reality. Bismuth is interested in altering regulating sign
systems and inserting uncertainty in situations that seem defined. As he once
said: “I’m not interested in the meaning of life but in how life creates meaning.” In
this sense, his work reacts to impulses from daily routine and creates ideas out of
boredom. Many of Bismuth’s works take images, objects or artefacts from popular
culture as their point of departure, alter their data and present them in a way that
does not allow for easy reading as their original information is corrupted. Hence,
they look familiar and at the same time distinct from the already known; accessible,
yet complex in their meaning. Bismuth’s exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien takes a
similar approach.
Using the whole exhibition as a medium, Pierre Bismuth will extend his conceptual
gesture also to other elements related to the exhibition, including publicity and
publications. Adopting the poster campaign for the exhibition, for example, he will
display three new pieces from his ongoing text-based Performances series, which
describe scenarios hard to distinguish from ordinary activities of passers-by, at
various public spaces of Vienna.
The catalogue will work as another extension of the exhibition. Loosely inspired by
the idea of a catalogue raisonné, it contains images of every single work produced
by Bismuth in his career so far. A booklet featuring a conversation between Luca Lo
Pinto and the artist, an essay by Dessislava Dimova and the texts by the curator, the
lawyer and the psychoanalyst, accompanies it.
----
The Future of Memory
An Exhibition on the Infinity of the Present Time
4/2 – 29/3 2015
Curated by: Nicolaus Schafhausen, Marie Egger
Digital communication and virtual interlacing shape our world today. Social
interactions are tied to smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices. An
omnipresence of the digital in our daily lives leads to a constant production and
regular – even involuntary - consumption of multimedia outputs.
These conditions have a significant effect on the way we share knowledge,
experiences and traditions, as well as an individual and collective memory. How
does this affect our current culture of communication? Which influences define how
our present will go down in history? The Future of Memory explores these issues.
Remembering the past, experiencing the present and imagining the future all meld
to become part of a seemingly equivalent imagery. Differences become indistinct
and transform into a never-ending present.
The question of how cultural heritage can emerge under these circumstances
spans over the exhibition. The selected works resort to certain narratives, breaking
away from accustomed ways of perception by critically challenging and subverting
constructions of reality.
Leon Kahane, for example, named his series of photographs FRONTEX (2009),
after a private security company. Frontex deals with illegal immigrants at the borders
of the European Union and is thus placed in a position between both political and
economic interests. Kahane‘s photographs of the company’s headquarters differ
from images of refugee flows as portrayed in the media and offer an alternative view
on political decision-making processes.
Julius von Bismarck defines his work Unfall am Mittelpunkt Deutschlands (2013)
(engl. Accident at the centre of Germany) as a fictitious history. In the federal state
of Thuringia, passers-by reported a car crash to the police who then recorded
the incident. Later on, the accident was uncovered as an artistic project, with the
artist claiming responsibility. The artwork documents a staged incident, which
was not identified as such due to our habits of perception. The artist leaves it to us
to construct a „false history“ by appealing to acquired associations stored in our
common (visual) memory.
One of the many videos featured in the show is Aleksandra Domanovic’s Turbo
Sculpture (2010-2013). Presented as a photographic documentary it depicts
an identity crisis of the successor states to former Yugoslavia, where political
memorials had been replaced with monumental sculptures of Western pop icons.
Through its aesthetics and content, the video confronts the absurdities and realities
of life today. How will our day and age go down in history? Moreover, what does the
act of remembering look like in the digital age?
The Future of Memory continues the concept of the 55th October Salon in Belgrade
(September 20 – November 2, 2014) curated by Vanessa Joan Müller and Nicolaus
Schafhausen. Entitled Disappearing Things, this exhibition investigated the role of
both collective and individual remembrance in the digital age.
Artists (a.o.): Julius von Bismarck, Igor Bošnjak, Antoine Catala, Julian Charrière,
Keren Cytter, Edith Dekyndt, Simon Denny, Aleksandra Domanović, Dani
Gal, Florian Hecker, Daniel Keller, Leon Kahane, Hanne Lippard, Deimantas
Narkevičius, Katja Novitskova, Yuri Pattison, Jon Rafman, Adriana Ramić, Mandla
Reuter, Antoine Renard, Meggy Rustamova, Augustas Serapinas, Michael Staniak,
Philipp Timischl, Amalia Ulman, Ignacio Uriarte, Dragana Žarevac.
Image: Pierre Bismuth, Most Wanted Men – Dan Flavin, 2006, Courtesy the artist and Jan Mot, Brussels/Mexico City,
Press Contact:
Katharina Murschetz, katharina.murschetz@kunsthallewien.at
Stefanie Obermeir, presse@kunsthallewien.at
Opening: Tuesday, February 3, 2015,7 pm
Kunsthalle Wien GmbH
Museumsplatz 1
1070 Vienna, Austria