The pieces of the first internationally themed group exhibition Chat Jet, shown on the occasion of the Künstlerhaus KM- re-opening, will be dedicated to current approaches in painting that might be labelled as painting beside itself, or outside of its original frame. Chat Jet. Painting ‹Beyond› The Medium and the artwork it presents deal with questions that have proven to be virulent: How does painting respond to the challenges of a mediatised society that is characterised by (mechanical) reproduction? What are the media, structures, and surfaces employed in painting nowadays? Have we reached a point where the image is fractured into fragments? And if so, how does it remain possible to define painting if it faces greater mediatic challenges and even enters into alliances with techniques that were formerly alien to painting?
Aleksandra Vajd / Hynek Alt, from the series Untitled (caves), since 2009.
Artists: Franz Amann, Ei Arakawa / Nikolas Gambaroff, Monika Baer, Will Benedict, Andy Boot, Jana Euler, Manuel Gorkiewicz, Wade Guyton, Clemens Hollerer, Alex Hubbard, Jutta Koether, Michael Krebber, Anita Leisz, Lotte Lyon, Birgit Megerle, Chiara Minchio, Ute Müller, Reto Pulfer, Blake Rayne, Pamela Rosenkranz, Stefan Sandner, Gedi Sibony, Reena Spaulings, Lucie Stahl, Cheyney Thompson, Jessica Warboys, Alexander Wolff
The exhibition Zero Point of Meaning at Camera Austria seeks to explore photography as an experimental and research medium. Artists who have reached for a camera at a particular point in their artistic career (or have instructed others to shoot something particular, or have simply taken over—appropriated—other people’s photographs) were not interested in the technical capacities of the medium or even the quality of their shots. Instead, they considered photography as a sort of coordinate that functioned like an echo of some event or absent artwork, like a channel communicating the conceptualisation or realisation of a particular artistic idea. All of this testifies to important changes in the way photography has been understood and interpreted as art, all of which has been influenced by the political and social circumstances from the 1960s onwards.
Artists: Boris Cvjetanović, Petar Dabac, Sandro Đukić, Igor Eškinja, Ivan Faktor, Tomislav Gotovac, Boris Greiner, Miljenko Horvat, Vlatka Horvat, Željko Jerman, Antun Maračić, Enes Midžić, Marijan, Molnar, Ivan Posavec, Davor Sanvincenti, Edita Schubert, Mladen Stilinović, Slaven Tolj, Goran Trbuljak, Josip Vaništa, Mirjana Vodopija, Fedor Vučemilović
The presently dominating model of the human “management” of planet Earth has reached the end of the line. It is becoming more and more apparent that we have reached a dead end, and many of us are deeply thinking about viable alternatives. We’ll have to save the world by ourselves, each and every one of us. Critically examining your own position is the starting point for this, analysing how your own work affects the world around you.
Apart from creating utopias—or “nowtopias”—art can first and foremost communicate responsibility and protest permanently against the status quo. Starting in March, < rotor > will present artistic positions from this thematic field throughout 2013.
Artists: Lucia Dellefant, ekw14,90, Michael Heindl, Nevan Lahart, Aleksandra Vajd / Hynek Alt
The Grazer Kunstverein is kicking off its inaugural program dedicated to notions of social abstraction with an array of artwork: the very first comprehensive European solo exhibition of artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles (US); a survey on the work of Raivo Puusemp (EE/US); an ongoing group show titled The Peacock that examines notions of interior within the Grazer Kunstverein; and a permanent solo exhibition dedicated to the work of Ian Wilson (US).
The Grazer Kunstverein’s new venue by the name of The Members Library is devoted to the display and production of publications and is now introducing a permanent work by Céline Condorelli titled Things That Go Without Saying.
CMRK is a network of four independent institutions for contemporary art based in Graz: Camera Austria, Kunstverein Medienturm, < rotor >, and Grazer Kunstverein.
Chat Jet. Painting The Medium
Künstlerhaus. Halle für Kunst & Medien
operated by Kunstverein Medienturm
March 7–May 5, 2013
www.km-k.at
Zero Point of Meaning. Non-functional, Non-representational, Elementary, Experimental and Conceptual Photography in Croatia
Camera Austria
March 9–May 26, 2013
www.camera-austria.at
Measures of Saving the World _ Part 1
< rotor >
March 9–May 25, 2013
www.rotor.mur.at
Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Maintenance Art
Works, 1969–1980
The Peacock. Nina Beier, Dexter Sinister,
Will Stuart, Robert Wilhite
The Members Library. Raivo Puusemp – Dissolution
Ian Wilson
Grazer Kunstverein
March 9–May 19, 2013
www.grazerkunstverein.org