calendario eventi  :: 

X

24/1/2007

Leopold Kessler

Galerie Andreas Huber (old location), Wien

Import Budapest-Wien

Leopold Kessler's field of agitation is the public and urban space:

For instance, he laid a 1.2 km long electric cable between his studio and his nearby flat at the Praterstern in Vienna, and designed further interventions in cities like Vienna, San Sebastian, London, Paris, New York, and Bratislava that base on changing, repairing, or extending public fixtures such as road signs, benches, or street lamps. Usually, these interventions are not registered, and persist until they are discovered and dismantled by the local authorities.

In 2005, for example, Kessler mounted the litter boxes on the Praterstrasse in Vienna at a height of 3 metres. And on the event of his first exhibition in New York, he bypassed the ban on consuming alcohol in public spaces by installing birdhouses throughout the city that contained liquors, "offered" for free. The interventions can be placed between the notion of service and taking the law into one's own hands. What the artist is interested in are the contexts of power, bans, conflicts of interests: the role of the government, and the limits of individual responsibility.

Kessler intervenes with common social urban processes, and explores the mechanisms of the functions and regulations of public life.

Recently, Leopold Kessler has had solo shows at Lombard-Freid in New York City (2005), at the Stadtgalerie Schwaz (2006), and at the Neue Galerie in Graz (2006).

His work was represented in shows like, a.o. the Manifesta in San Sebastian (2004), at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2006), and at the Sharjah Biennale in the United Arab Emirates (2007).

In February 2007, the Secession in Vienna will show a new work by Leopold Kessler (opening on February 21).

Opening: Thursday, January 25th, 2007 7 pm

Galerie Andreas Huber
Capistrangasse 3 - Wien

stampa

permanent link