Gallery Run: Borderline Order
Mar 15, 2013
Sabine Maier and Michael Mastrototaro present slideshow projections (Photo: Photo: Machfeld)
At a 2010 TED conference in Washington, D.C., American scientist Amber Case suggested that we may be already living in an age where time travel is possible. Connected with friends all over the world, our lives encompass several time zones at once – which was what our predecessors believed time travel was like.
How does this mash-up of time affect our sense of space? How are artists trying to make sense of, or put an order to, this jumbled perception of space?
Galerie Raum mit Licht: Machfeld,
Überblicke Unterteilungen
(Overview Subdivision)
Galerie Raum mit Licht sits on Kaiserstraße, an unusual area for a gallery – in a room that used to be a small key factory. At the entrance to the gallery, an analog slide projector gently clicks away. "Remember the excitement you felt in front of these projectors when you were a child, to hear the clicking sounds of the slides?" asks Sabine Maier, part of Austrian artist duo Machfeld. "To me, those were moments of magic. Now, people feel like they need to zap pictures and instantly share everything. I think this totally kills the poetry."
Maier is an avid collector of old projectors, including one dating back to 1895. Beside the projector hangs a series of photographs, which first look like abstract painting but in fact are photographs of dust bits magnified by the projector, collected from the duos’ atelier. "We have traveled to Guatemala, South Africa, Zimbabwe – but then realised that in our very own atelier was a small universe, a space that was maybe a better portrait of ourselves than anyplace else," says Michael Mastrototaro, the other half of Machfeld.
The exhibit showcases a compact overview of the pair’s major works since 1999, including recent and earlier pieces. Gallery director Josephine Wagner envisions a space that showcases conceptual contemporary art that transcends genres, as in the small movie screenings she holds in "Room No. 2" at the back. The exhibit runs through 9 March.
Galerie Raum mit Licht
7., Kaiserstraße 32
Tue.-Fri. 13:00 – 18:00
Sat. 11:00 – 14:00
(01) 524 04 94
Lukas Feichtner Galerie: Fabian Patzak,
In Lieu Of
Felix Krämer, in his book Das Unheimliche Heim, describes that in the early 20th century, people’s living spaces rather than their faces, were painted as a portrait upon death. 28-year-old artist Fabian Patzak was intrigued, allowing this sense of a "cultural death mask" to shape his muted paintings of architectural landmarks in Vienna.
Born in Vienna from an American mother and an Austrian father, Patzak attended international school up until college. He says that entering the Austrian system was a culture shock for him, although he was still living in the same city he had lived in all his life.
"I think I’ve always longed to be somewhere else, because wherever you are, you feel like you’re missing something from where you’re not," says Patzak.
Maybe that is why his paintings emit a different aura from usual architectural paintings – the houses and buildings seem somehow familiar but also removed from all forms of identity. Buildings are among the things that last through generations and don’t move around, and Patzak takes great pains to paint these buildings so that they become a blank canvas on which people can project their own thoughts and feelings. Show runs through 17 March.
Lukas Feichtner Galerie
1., Seilerstätte 19
(01) 512 09 10
Tue.-Fri. 10:00-18:00
Sat. 10:00-16:00
Albert Schweitzer Haus: Werner Anselm Buhre, Passionsraum Jerusalem
The Albert Schweitzer Haus doesn’t host many art shows. With an exhibit of photography that looks at multiple dimensions of Jerusalem and its varying spectrum of visitors, the space – with strong Christian roots – seems to be opening up to wider possibilities of cultural and social discourse.
Werner Anselm Buhre is an Austrian photographer who used to work as a magazine editor. Born Christian, he converted to Buddhism and at age 58 followed his life-long dream of becoming a full-time photographer. In 2012, when Roman Catholic and Orthodox Easter were only four weeks apart, Buhre saw Jerusalem was a space full of the many perceptions and forms of passion, all bubbling up at the same time. He has photographed Christians, Jews and Muslim pilgrims from all over the world, brought together in the same confined and holy space of Jerusalem.
"Passion, in its roots, means suffering," the photographer explains. "All of a sudden, I found myself, a foreigner, bewildered in a place where such strong passions were crossing and submerging with each other." Buhre captures the sometimes brutal, sometimes uncanny human moments in narrative triptychs, which are exhibited around the Albert Schweitzer Haus. The show runs through 14 April.
Albert Schweitzer Haus
9., Schwarzspanierstraße 13
Mon.-Sun. 08:00-21:00
(01) 408 34 09