Johanna Kandl
dal 11/4/2002 al 12/5/2002
Segnalato da
11/4/2002
Johanna Kandl
Galerie fur Zeitgenossische Kunst - GfZK, Leipzig
Kandl's works, resulting from collaborative projects, personal contacts and research in Yugoslavia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Rumania, the Republic of Georgia and the Czech Republic, deal with the West's different political, economic, social and cultural perceptions of the East and vice-versa.
Johanna Kandl's solo exhibition opens at Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst
Leipzig at 7 p.m. on 12 April 2002. Kandl's works, resulting from
collaborative projects, personal contacts and research in Yugoslavia,
Azerbaijan, Russia, Rumania, the Republic of Georgia and the Czech Republic,
deal with the West's different political, economic, social and cultural
perceptions of the East and vice-versa.
In 1994, Johanna Kandl began to work on a project looking into the
withdrawal of troops from the Russian (former Soviet) garrison in Wünsdorf.
Kandl, herself raised in a Vienna quarter that was under Soviet occupation
from 1945-55, remembers the anecdotes circulating about the Russians,
although the occupying forces had already long withdrawn. In these accounts
the Russians were always mysterious figures. In the Wünsdorf project that
includes paintings, photographs and installations, Kandl focuses her
attention on life in a secluded enclave, and the moment in which the people
living there encounter others. Her works capture both the Russians' gradual
opening-up towards the Germans as well as their resettlement in areas north
and northwest of Moscow. Whilst the photographs at first serve to document
this process in snapshots, they are also methodically incorporated into
critical notes and paintings.
In a work realised in collaboration with her husband, Helmut Kandl, Johanna
Kandl concentrates on the Austro-Czech border region. Inextricably linked
for centuries, Laa and Znaim were hermetically separated for the past 40
years. The period of post-war renovation was thus experienced in different
ways: English was taught on the one side of the border, Russian on the
other; Austrians preferably spent their holidays in Italy, the Czechs in
Bulgaria or Rumania. The Kandls used vacation photographs firstly to
investigate definitions of the foreign and the exotic, and secondly to
promote communicative exchange in the areas where the project took place.
In her various projects, Johanna Kandl consciously exposes herself to
foreign people and situations in which she is also perceived as a foreigner:
"It is important for me to learn things about people who don't belong to my
social class and who don't share my opinions. I see this looking into a
different context as my primary task as an artist" (J. Kandl). Her paintings
and collaborative works with Helmut Kandl deal with the collision of
different cultures and modes of perception, but also economic predicaments.
She evolves in word and image a variety of scenarios reflecting social
coexistence, thereby investigating the role of the artist and his/her
position in society.
Curated by Barbara Steiner
Image: JOHANNA KANDL Untitled, 1999 (Der Eingang zur Baustelle...) Tempera on wood, 120 x 170 cm Courtesy: Christine Koenig Gallery, Vienna
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst
Leipzig