Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2016: Margit Busch, Andrej Polukord
2016–2017 Kunsthalle wien Exhibition
Andrej Polukord
The Sarcophagus
Rather than predominantly working in traditional art spaces, Andrej Polukord instead works in and with environments that he creates or finds in an urban or landscape setting. “What especially interests me is creating a feeling of surprise and unpredictability. Equally important to me are double meanings and ambiguities, which above all play a crucial role in my performances,” says the artist, for whom absurd situations play an essential role when it comes to enriching daily life: “The absurd liberates us from the seriousness that otherwise always sets the tone in our life. And performance should have a close relationship to life; that’s the only way to make it very emotional and understandable.” For the Kunsthalle Wien, Andrej Polukord has contributed a sample of his art, which draws on painting, installation, performance and video art. During the opening performance, a cube made of bricks will reveal, under the title The Sarcophagus, something of its own inner workings. Indeed, this interior may somewhat resemble those cavities, which the artist – in his most recent video work Höhlen (Caves) – recommends as a great place to pick mushrooms. Meanwhile, mushrooms can also be seen growing down from the ceiling of the exhibition space, which the artist thus transforms into a forest floor – a real forest as a space where art takes place being, in fact, quite rare at Karlsplatz in Vienna…
Margit Busch
IF-THEN-ELSE. Welcome to Transciency
Else Sibil Somone, a researcher living in the future who was discovered by Margit Busch, likewise addresses possible configurations of art and nature. In her transcientist laboratory, for example, she raises mealworms and thereby demonstrates how, among other things, these larvae can recycle polystyrene by using it as a food source – as can the beetles (Tenebrio molitor) that develop from them. By generating ecological insights, these experiments shed light on the future and may even become relevant to securing the world’s food supply (protein-rich insects!). However, they are just one part of the extensive research domain of transciency, a brand-new discipline dedicated to phenomena implicitly pre-logical and transrational (and drawing on these phenomena as well). Such phenomena are presented in the exhibition both in the form of individual lab objects as well as collectively through a type of map – the transmap. It’s when we look at the map that we realize at the latest, that one of transciency’s major findings is: the world is not categorically logical and it therefore cannot (only) be explored using purely logical means. Here it is obvious that conventional notions of time and space may conflict with forthcoming findings produced by disciplines such as quantum physics or thermodynamics. If almost 100 years ago the DADAist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven said that “art will become a lab for ideas and concepts,” today it could be said that the transcientist art lab will become a hub for the production of scholarly, philosophical, artistic and practical ideas and concepts.
DIGITAL
Andrej Polukord: The Sarcophagus
Curator: Lucas Gehrmann
Artists:
Margit Busch
(born 1964 in Tübingen/D) lives and works in Vienna. Auto mechanic studies in Berlin, biology studies at Bremen University, art education studies at the Institute for Fine Arts at Bremen University. In 2010, she received a fine arts scholarship from the International Summer Academy in Salzburg. In 2016, she was awarded a diploma from the Institute for Fine Arts and Media Arts, which is in the Art & Science Department of the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Professor Virgil Widrich). Exhibitions include: Shedhalle, Tübingen/D (2013); AIL/Angewandte Innovation Lab, Vienna; Slade School of Fine Art, London/UK (2015); Stadtmuseum Tübingen/D (2016).
Andrej Polukord
(born 1990 in Vilnius, lives in Vienna and Vilnius) 2011–2015: studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (until 2013 representational painting with Professor Birgit Megerle and Professor Silke Otto-Knapp; thereafter, graphics and printmaking techniques with Professor Gunter Damisch), awarded a diploma in 2015. In 2014, Project Support Scholarship from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In 2015, Forum St. Severin Scholarship. In 2014, founded “Galerie Überall” (since 2015, he has run “Galerie Uberall” together with Mario Strk). Exhibitions include: Gallery Kalnas, Vilnius/LT (2014); Devil’s Pit, Aukštadvaris/ LT; HilgerBROTKunsthalle, Vienna; Hesh Halle, Baia Mare/RO (2015); Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna (2016).
Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2016
Andrej Polukord
The Sarcophagus
The publication includes a photo documentation of the project as well as a poster supplement, along with a foreword by Eva Blimlinger, an essay by curator Lucas Gehrmann, and a conversation between the artist, Lucas Gehrmann, and Nicolaus Schafhausen.
Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2016
Margit Busch
IF—THEN—ELSE. Welcome to Transciency
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition, containing an essay by art critic Roland Schöny and a conversation between the artist, curator Lucas Gehrmann, and Kunsthalle Wien director Nicolaus Schafhausen, along with installation images and a supplemental “transmap.”
A project of Kunsthalle Wien in co-operation with the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
The Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2016 is funded by HS Art Service and Deko Trend GmbH.
Within the framework of the Vienna Art Week.
As a venue “for the variety of artistic practices in contemporary art and the accompanying contemporary discourses,” and at the same time as an urban institution, the Kunsthalle Wien pays particular attention to the city’s young and increasingly international art scene. Even if Vienna is witnessing the establishment of more and more galleries and committed off-spaces, only about 5 percent of former art students may actually succeed later on in the art market. Awarded by the public sector and by established institutions, scholarships and prizes help pave the way for younger artists as they enter the art system, a complex field mutually determined by the economies of attention and money. The Kunsthalle Wien Prize serves as a point of departure, made clear by how highly regarded the prize is by Vienna’s two art universities and by the careers of many former prizewinners.
The prize dates back to 2002, however in cooperation with both the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, a graduate from each university has been awarded the prize since 2015. The Kunsthalle Wien Prize includes the following: an exhibition of the winners’ works at the Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz, a catalogue and EUR 3,000 in prize money for each artist. In 2016, HS art service austria and Deko Trend GmbH will each contribute 50 percent of the prize money.
In 2016, the jury decided in favor of art created by artists who clearly demonstrate a conceptual and aesthetic autonomy and whose art isn’t fully suited to an art market that is strictly focused on complying with contemporary trends.
The foregoing texts and images are provided and copyrighted by: https://kunsthallewien.at
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