Hans Schabus
dal 21/6/2007 al 15/9/2007
Segnalato da
21/6/2007
Hans Schabus
SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe
Deserted Conquest. Renowned for disrupting and reconfiguring space in unexpected ways, the Austrian artist has produced site-specific installations that rely upon the effects of spatial displacement to demythologize cultural symbols. The exhibition consists of 2 new videos, sculptures, drawings, and a variety of found objects, Schabus takes the New Mexico landscape as his subject matter and uses it to create a series of confrontations.
Santa Fe, NM-SITE Santa Fe is pleased to present the work of Austrian artist Hans Schabus
in his first museum exhibition in the U.S.
Renowned for disrupting and reconfiguring space in unexpected ways, Hans Schabus has
produced site-specific installations that rely upon the physical and psychological effects of
spatial displacement to demythologize cultural symbols. For his first solo museum exhibition in
the United States, Schabus will realize Deserted Conquest –a new 15,000 sq. ft. installation
commissioned by SITE Santa Fe. In this multifaceted exhibition, which consists of two new
videos, sculptures, drawings, and a variety of found objects, Schabus takes the New Mexico
landscape as his subject matter and uses it to create a series of confrontations (artifical vs. natural; permanence vs. mobility) that tackle the conceptual underpinnings of our cultural
romanticism of the desert landscape and idealizations of “the West.” Grounded in mapping and
geography, Schabus will transform SITE’s interior, in effect creating a new topographical
representation of the West. The installation will include a dismantled, then partially
reconstructed mobile home, and more than 200 tons of soil will be deposited in SITE’s galleries.
Viewers will be encouraged to freely navigate the terrain, their pathways slowly transforming the
space over time.
A central component of Schabus’s installation at SITE is East, West, South, North (2007), a
new, high-definition (HD) video that the artist shot on location in Yeso, NM. The town, which is
now classified a “ghost town,” was named after the Spanish word for gypsumthat lies in
abundance in Eastern New Mexico. Yeso was established in 1906, when the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe Railway came to the area, and it became a trading center for cattle and sheep
ranchers, and a few farmers in the area. Over time, commerce and industry in the town
dwindled and the farmers, despite their best efforts, conceded that the land proved inhospitable
to most agricultural endeavors. In the mid-1950s, the train ceased to stop in Yeso, which
caused the mass exodus of over 400 citizens from the town within a few years. Today, Yeso
claims only a handful of residents; yet the freight trains that are operated by BNSF (Burlington
Northern & Santa Fe) –one of the largest transporters of coal, consumer, agricultural, and
industrial products in the United States –continue to barrel through the town every half hour or
so. The continued presence of the train stands in stark contrast to what little life remains in
Yeso.
A second video, entitled In Search of The Endless Column (Santa Fe Trail), 2007 (HD video, 20
hours, 29 minutes, and 46 seconds), captures the artist’s recent road trip following the original
Santa Fe Trail from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe.
Schabus was selected to represent Austria in the 2005 Venice Biennale with his mountainous
installation Das letzte Land (The Last Land) that engulfed Josef Hoffmann’s modernist-inspired
Austrian Pavilion. Schabus has also had solo exhibitions at the Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel,
Germany (2006); espace d’arts contemporains, Geneva (2006);Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz,
Austria (2004); the Secession, Vienna, Austria (2003 and 1996); and the Kunstverein Bonn,
Germany (2003). His work has been included in group exhibitions at MuMok, Museum of
Modern Art, Vienna; Art Metropole, Toronto; the Liverpool Biennial; the Turin Triennial; and
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA. He is currently represented
by Engholm Engelhorn Gallery, Vienna.
Schabus was born in Watschig, Austria in 1970; he lives and works in Vienna.
Art & Culture
SITE is pleased to present a series of Art & Culture programs in conjunction with the Hans
Schabus exhibition. On Tuesday, June 26, at 6 pm, Laura Heon, SITE’s director/chief curator,
will present a lecture on Schabus’s work. Other special events and musical programs will be
scheduled to further interpret and illuminate the artist’s examination of the mythology of the “Old
West.”On Saturday, June 30, SITE will host a “Wild West Film Fest” featuring screenings of
The Wild Bunch (d. Sam Peckinpah, 1969) at 11 am, and The Searchers (d. John Ford, 1956)
at 2 pm. Schabus’s short video Western (2002) will be screened prior to each feature. Films are
free with museum admission. At 8 pm, SITE will screen Forty Guns (d. Samuel Fuller, 1957) at
Center for Contemporary Arts Cinematheque. On Friday, August 17, 5–7 pm, Bill Hearne, one
of the greatest flatpickers ever, and his Roadhouse Revue, will deliver retro country/honky-tonk
classics in a free concert at SITE Santa Fe.
Catalogue
SITE will publish a catalogue, Hans Schabus: Deserted Conquest, to accompany the exhibition,
featuring essays by Laura Heon and others. The hard bound, full color catalogue will feature
installation photographs of the exhibition, as well as art historical texts, and historical
photographs.
SITE Santa Fe is located at 1606 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501. Hours: Wed–Sat, 10
AM–5 PM; Friday, 10 AM–7 PM; Sunday, 12 PM–5 PM. Museum admission is $10 for adults and $5 for
students, teachers and seniors; members are free. Free admission is offered on Fridays, made possible
by a grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston. Tours by SITE Guides are available free of
charge to the public with paid admission and are also regularly scheduled on Fridays at 6 pm, and
Saturdays & Sundays at 2 pm. SITE Santa Fe gift certificates are available. Call 505.989.1199 for more
information.
This exhibition is made possible in part with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and
Engholm Engelhorn Gallery, Vienna, as well as by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of
Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. This announcement is partially funded by the
City of Santa Fe Arts Commission and the 1% Lodgers’ Tax.
Image: Stills from East, West, South, North, 2007
Three screen HD video installation with sound
6 min and 58 sec.
SITE Santa Fe Commission; Courtesy of the artist and Vienna Austrian Cultural Forum New York and Engholm Engelhorn Gallery, Vienna.
Press & Marketing
Anne Wrinkle tel. 505-989-1199 ext. 22. Fax: 505.989.1188 wrinkle@sitesantafe.org
Members Opening: Thursday, June 21, 5-7
Public Opening: Friday, June 22, 5-7
Site Santa Fe
1606 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 (located downtown)
Hours:
Wednesday–Saturday, 10am–5pm
Friday, 10am–7pm
Sunday, 12pm–5pm
Closed Monday & Tuesday
Admission Fees:
General Admission: $10
Students and Seniors: $5
SITE Santa Fe Members: Free
Fridays: Free