17 Nov 2014

]a[ Academy of Fine Arts Vienna: Parallel Traces/Párhuzamos nyomok. Budapest–Vienna 1914–2014

Opening | 20.11.2014, 7.00 p.m.
Welcome address: Eva Blimlinger, Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Introduction: Martin Guttmann and Michael Höpfner, Studio for Art and Photography, Institute for Fine Arts and Christian Reder, essayist, Prof. em. Kunst und Wissenstransfer, University of Applied Arts
Exhibition dates | 21.11.2014 - 11.01.2015
Venue | Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Main Buliding, Schillerplatz 3, 1010 Vienna, xhibit

Artists: Žarko Aleksić, Maurizio Cirillo, Olivia Coeln, Judit Fischer, Katalin Haász, Péter Hecker, Sebastian Hoch, Tamás Kende, Maria Muhar, Martina Šimkovičová, Stephanie Stern, Lellé Szelley, Kamilla Szíj, József Szolnoki, Csaba Vándor
Curatorial Team: Martin Guttmann, Michael Höpfner, Réka Nemere, Valéria Sass

'Parallel Traces/Párhuzamos nyomok. Budapest-Vienna 1914-2014' explores the two cities as models of the rapidly changing social, urban and geopolitical structures at the dawn of the modern age and their relationship in the year of remembrance 2014.

The project groups from the Department of Art and Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Doctoral Program of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts based their approach on situation-related practices, first investigated the urban space of Budapest and Vienna, and then derived their individual works from the insights resulting from this exchange and their experiences. This process allowed for other, unexpected views of urban (hi)stories, of Modernism, and collective remembrance and led to a reflection of the relationship between the two states whose historical developments in the twentieth century could not have been more different.

In her photo works, Olivia Coeln reduces monuments to their cubic forms and makes all information of memory disappear. It is exactly this invisible representation Stefanie Stern searches for at the border between the two states. József Szolnoki tries to determine a kind of demarcation line across Europe in his interviews with Serbs in Vienna. Katalin Haász takes up the issues of Modernism in Wittgenstein's and Malevich's works in her paintings - arriving at observations which are also reflected in Maria Muhar's photographs of modern cities' light phenomena. Both Kamilla Szíj and Lellé Szelley draw on first-hand memories from their relations in their large-format drawings and installations. Maurizio Cirillo's casual notes on his daylong wanderings intervine with the search for Viennese and Budapest streets in Martina Šimkovičová's video.

Sebastian Hoch's video of a drone flight across the US Embassy in Vienna deals with the strained relationship between city and transnational politics - an issue also examined by Žarko Aleksić, who confronts mounds of earth from Hungary, Serbia, and Austria with a text analysis of the presentation of the First World War in contemporary textbooks for schools. Tamás Kende's 'Franz Josef Land,' on the other hand, has turned into a science fiction utopia of Lego bricks. Whereas Judit Fischer has chosen war games from after 1914 as her subject, Péter Hecker's fetishes carved in wood - beards sported by the artist - recall personalities from around 1900. Comprised of lamps and piano parts, Csaba Vándor's installation is, comparable to a shooting gallery, activated by the visitors.

The collaboration between the young artists has been initiated by the Austrian Cultural Forum in Budapest and supported by the RD Foundation Vienna, Aktion Österreich-Ungarn, Balassi Institut - Collegium Hungaricum Wien, as well as by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest.

PARALLELprogram
(in German and English)

Fri, 12.12.2014, 4.00 p.m. | PARALLELrelationships

Fri, 09.01.2015, 4.00 p.m. | PARALLELworks

Further information
www.akbild.ac.at/resolveuid/24c20000fc23b1916b4f51a39565edd4