REALITIES II – Society Values The second edition of this year’s thematic focus “Realities” in the FOTOGALERIE WIEN is dealing with our societies creation of value. Values are transient characteristics within a social system. From what does a value system get constituted? Within which handed down newly defined newly created value do we move? A total of 14 Austrian and International artists have been invited for this exhibition they have approached these questions in their own unique way.
An essential trait to western democracies is the attention to and protection of private property. Martin Krenn in 2005 began his photo series “Lost History Today“ in which he acquires stories at the point where they get lost or forgotten. He photographs the places of the “Aryanization” and restitution in Vienna, Munich, and Berlin. He shows the normality of which these places were robbed of their history and the effects on today from the construction of history and the systematic repression of Aryanization and restitution since 1945.
Franz Kapfer reflects in his works Zentaur und Rom 2003 upon the notion of fatherhood and the definition of family. He plays on the conservative attitudes in especially Christian dominated societies. For this he slips into the skin of a Centaur –the embellishment of the teacher of the lawless and of the artist, to gain contact with his daughter. “Listen, listen, Daughter everything is a lie” says Kapfer and announces the failure of the parental rule.
For centuries togetherness and the search for identity have been construed through various festivities. Iris Andraschek guides us with her drawings and photographs The passion of the real into a rural domain. The often-summoned pastoral image is not to be found in her work. Rather people are seen who take on certain rolls like out of a mail order catalog.
Sabine Jelinek does field work of another kind with her video piece Aponia und Spaß nach Anleitung. She is following the traces of winter tourism, the so called leisure activities. Jelink expresses which ways the search for happiness can manifest themself and emphasizes the contrast of the actual goal in an affluent society, namely to be free and individual.
Jasmin Trabichler and Nina Bauer engage themselves with their project Auszeit – L’ emploi du temps into the relationship between work and people. Presenting identity and isolation within the modern workplace – the workplace as a location for individual and visual unification. Trabichler / Bauer are searching for traces of strategies in order to retreat, creating private niches to break through the routine agenda.
Tina Bara und Alba D’Urbano show in their large format photographs of swimmers from the 50’s till 70’s from the former DDR who at the time were very young successful top performance athletes. Award ceremonies typify not only the phenomenon of the ideal body that plays an important role in our socio-economic society but is also the formula to create role models for sport performance and success.
Oriana Fox examines in her videos Our Bodies, Ourselves und Tales of Narcissus the ideal body sexual rights and freedom. For this Fox reviews the feministic theories about the body from the 1970’s with use of the popular television series “Sex and the City” She combines the feministic art works of Judy Chicago and Hanna Wilke with the contemporary representation of women in the media.
Lisl Ponger and Tim Sharp show in their CD-R project ImagiNative, Recherche als künstlerische Strategie how a society through its images comes to its identity. By this investigation develops a story of the artistic appropriation of the exotic that would never be examined within yourself or your own country
Cultural and religious values are the topics in Soody Sharifi’s photographs Moslim Teenagers. Sharifi is interested in the tension between traditional and modern Islamic daily life, the influence of the west and the break from the handed down media images of Moslim women where inquiry and breakthrough is needed.
Marika Seidler describes the individual freedom of women between desire and reality in Syria and Lebanon in her video projects. Imagine which documents female fantasies of nonexistent places. Thereby the imaginative idea of another place is the key in her work rather than the actually existing place that women in politically unbearable situations put next to their active political undertakings.
The departure from the value system of a Euro centric worldview insinuates Per Hüttner in his photographic works. The artist proposes himself as a projection screen addressing the fear of loneliness or the burnout of the individual in an anything goes society.