Christian Rupp - flavors of Austria - taf - Athen - 2009

   

Christian Eisenberger
Eva Beierheimer & Miriam Laussegger
Aldo Giannotti
Markus Hofer
Richard Jochum
Roman Pfeffer
Wendelin Pressl
Stylianos Schicho
Kamen Stoyanov
Nita Tandon
ubermorgen.com
Rita Vitorelli

curated by:
Christian Rupp and
Dimitris & Giorgios Giorgakopoulos (TAF)

 
  the Art Foundation - Athen
19.May to 30.June.2009


"flavors of Austria" was one of the two inaugural exhibitions of the brand-new "the Art Foundation". Throughout the opening-night we already had 2.000 plus visitors. Being part of the VIP-Programme of the Athinian artfair "ART-ATHINA", the exhibition could also attract international professional audience.
Due to the absolutely central location in the heart of Athens next to Akropolis, Monastiraki-Metro-Station and Psirri, and additionally aided by positive media-coverage the exhibition was seen by a few thousand visitors.
 
Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur cheapart galerieOlympic Airlines Austrian Embassy Athens
 
Work of Aldo Giannotti @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009

Aldo Giannottis work "Self portrait with a black telephone" had a connected phoneline for the first three days of the exhibition (it was later replaced by a video documenting those three days). With the limited choice of one button this phone will call the artists mother only, portraying him in a very unique way. It was shown together with his photo-work "An angle of 180 degrees is a straight line or half a circle", which depicts the artists mother hanging upside-down.
     

In the same room Nita Tandon showed 6 pieces out of her series "automats". These are positive concrete-casts of mats that are put under the feet of passengers in cars. The title is reflecting upon the process of casting being one of the essential techniques in industrial production. The designs that we usually encounter in soft black rubber under our feet present themselves in concrete and color-changed vertically on the wall.
 

Work of Roman Pfeffer @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009

Roman Pfeffer was showing a video-installation "ohne Titel" as well as "Monk‘s Mark Rothko", a print on canvas, which puts the linguistic abstraction of an image back into an image. The video shows the artist using a jigsaw to cut a circle around himself into the wooden floor until it breaks away together with the artist.
 
Work of Markus Hofer @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009
The sculpture "Viennese Laokoon Group" by Markus Hofer was presented centrally in the main gallery-room.
 
Work of Markus Hofer @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009
With its title and the ironic resampling use of Thonet-furniture it fit perfectly into the exhibition-concept. It also gives a good example of his way of integrating found forms into new surprising relations and contexts.
 
Work of Richard Jochum @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009
Richard Jochums first work presented was a tryptich video-installation called "IndexFinger #1-3". In these photographic video portraits which ironize the gesture of the risen index finger we reencounter motifs from our cultural heritage.
 
Work of ubermorgen.com @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009
The group ubermorgen.com (Liz Haas und Hans Bernhard) was presented with 2 pictures out of the series "9-11.gif" and the video called "[V]ote-Auction, 2000". (This video is a recording of a 30-minute feature that was broadcasted on CNN in 2000. The artist-goup created a web-platform where US-citicens could either sell their vote or buy the votes of others in the US presidential election in that year. In this TV-show the artist was live-interviewed by phone while in the studio other guests were elaborating on the leagal and political implications of this prank). Both works are showcasing the groups way of tackling highly political issues with the formal means of contemporary technology. The video also documents their ability to break out of the confines of the art-world and involve a much wider public than is usually reached by fine art.
 
Work of Wendelin Pressl @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009
Wendelin Pressl was presented with the photograph "AIRLINES" (on the left) as well as a series of 3 photos and a sculptural piece from "PANEM & CIRCENSES". His work generally deals a lot with chaos, stucture and permutations thereof - the two series from which works were chosen especially illustrate the chaos of lines which is a recurrent theme of the artist.
 
Work of Stylianos Schicho @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009
From this big painting by Stylianos Schicho it can be clearly seen how the perspective of his images suggests the position of a surveillance camera. His paintings revolve around issues of observation and self-observation. The persons depicted in his paintings are the people close to him and the artist himself. Starting out in situations of daily routine and pop-culture they are often rearranged in a slightly absurd manner. Their expressions and the composition oscillate between overly serious, hostile towards the observer and satire.
 
Work of Rita Vitorelli @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009

In the middle of the photograph you can see the work of Rita Vitorelli. Here it is not her paintings, but mirrors-fragments that she exhibits, on first impression a seemingly very unlike material. But like her paintings the view of the recipient is clipped and guided to spots that tend to be overlooked. Further mirror-fragments that were attached to the architecture outside of the exhibition-room were also part of her presentation.
The second video-installation by Richtard Jochum can be seen to the right. It shows the face of a grown-up male person (the artist) calling out for "Mama" in an endless loop.

 
Work of Christian Eisenberger @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009

The installation by Christian Eisenberger consists of 3 pieces: in the roof-structure we find one of his cocoons, a luminescent gallows hang from there and on the wall we find a swastika made up from red water-levels (more about his work - here).

 
Work of Christian Eisenberger @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009
The luminescent gallows fit perfectly with the opening in the floor where the second stairways lead downstairs out of the gallery.
 
Work of Eva Beierheimer and Miriam Laussegger @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009

Miriam Laussegger und Eva Beierheimer presented on work out of their jointly developed series which can be found in the web at www.worte.at. Ironizing the sometimes awkard role language sometimes plays in the fine arts. The emperors new coat sits on top of a long-drawn-out printed roll of words which we enounter regularly in texts that accompany art. On the website you can add your own words and get texts automatically generated for you.

 
Work of Kamen Stoyanov @ "flavors of Austria", taf, Athen, 2009

The third position dealing with the subject of language transmitting fine art (together with Beierheimer & Laussegger and Roman Pfeffer) is Kamen Stoyanovs work "Which one should I buy?". He asked two galleries to each offer one piece of art to a husband and his wife who are collectors. He limited the communication between the couple and the galleries to an internet-chat. They got no visual information about the piece of art they are going to buy. In the exhibition the decision-making process of the couple was presented to the audience with a video showing husband and wife discussion and typing into the chat as well as the chat-protocols, which were hanging from the ceiling.

 
Selected Press "flavors of Austria":

KATHIMERINI, 2009-06-06 (Bild)
KATHIMERINI (English Edition), 2009-06-09, (link / Bild)
ozon, June 09, Issue 69, (Bilder)
athinorama magazine, (Bild)
unidentified magazine, (Bild)
e-go, 2009-Mai, (link / Bild)
Kolonaki-Press, 2009-Mai, (link / Bild)
Griechenland Zeitung, 2009-06-03, (link / Bild)
Kleine Zeitung, 2009-05-19, (link / Bild)
Griechenland aktuell 2009-05-28 (PDF)