Neringa Naujokaite GOLZHEIM, Still, 2022
Neringa Naujokaite, Riki Schwab , Christian Prünster, Alfred Resch-Díaz
call for debate. Different priorities culminate in an essential common ground: Our life on our planet.
Curated by Irmi Horn
Opening with City Councillor Dr. Günter Riegler and art historian Mag.a Marlies Schöck, MA.
The death of art historian Dr. Edith Risse in July 2023 is a sad blow for us and the local art scene. As originally planned, she will no longer take over this opening. With her, not only a lovable, helpful, art-savvy and competent advocate of contemporary art and human rights, who lived with art and for art, has passed away: she was also a committed organiser of transnational art events, dedicated not only to the public but also to many women artists. Here is a small memorial tribute to Edith Risse: ATEM HOLEN!
Neringa Naujokeite deals with the juxtaposition and desirable coexistence of different societies in exciting reduced and form-emphasising colouring fixed on sensitive aesthetics: GOLZHEIM, 2022. HD Video, S/W, Ton. 19:00 min
Christian Prünster confronts both civilisation, evolution and hybridity of mankind with a log installation. On this FIREPLACE with “metal-wood” he negotiates “dreamy” futures as well as “untenable” exploitation.
With his installation “Is technology flexible enough?” Alfred Resch-Díaz questions the drifting apart of society. The denial of science by devout sects, self-interpretation of experiential phenomena of all kinds by the rejectionists of the state, wine-addled drug societies and head-in-the-sand citizenship and historically measurable facts vie with each other for the favour of humanity and the survival of the world.
Friederike Schwab’s fine, colourful, glazed landscape paintings are inventories of life experience, stories of wanderings, discoveries, departures and endings, of realisations, happiness and melancholy and the opportunity that everyone must recognise for themselves if they are prepared to approach a being, an object, an apparition, a real and fictitious experience with understanding by means of attention.
Born 1966 in Kaunas, Lithuania. Lives and works in Düsseldorf.
Education
2000 – 2003 Postgraduate studies in Audiovisual Media at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
(KHM). Diploma under the supervision of Prof. Valie Export, Prof. Marcel Odenbach and Prof.
Siegfried Zielinski.
1992 – 2000 Studied free art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Prof. Günther Uecker and
Prof. Magdalena Jetelová. Academy diploma. Master student of Prof. Magdalena Jetelová.
1985 – 1991 Studied free graphic art at the Vilnius State Academy of Arts (VDA). Diploma
under the supervision of Doz. Saulius Valius.
Neringa Naujokaite will show a video.
The video “Golzheim” depicts the contentious atmosphere in one neighborhood to the north of Dusseldorf. The different architectural structures – the monumental Nordpark (North Park) built by National Socialists, the “white settlement” Golzheimer-Siedlung with its high-priced one-family homes for the wealthy, the Jewish retirement home and the temporary refugee camp made of containers – are all located side-by-side on a single axis along the Rhine to the north of Dusseldorf. The contrasts live side by side. The architecture of the settlement and the park was designed for the 1937 exhibition Schaffendes Volk (The Creating Nation). Nearby, on the left side of Nordpark, where until three years ago there used to be a dog walking area, a temporary camp for refugees has recently been built out of containers and enclosed by a high fence. On the other side of the park is the Nelly Sachs Jewish Elderly Home, permanently guarded by the police. The connecting link is Nordpark, where all the inhabitants of this neighborhood, who live next door to each other yet in different worlds, meet one another.
Sound by Austrian composer Thomas Amann, using motifs of his music compositions mixed with the original sound of the video takes.
Friederike Schwab, born 1941 in Graz. Studied painting. Works and teaches in the field of visual arts and as an author. Writes radio plays, stories, novels and poetry. Publications in literary magazines, anthologies and on the radio.
Exhibitions in Austria, Ireland, Germany, England, Istria, Hungary.
Friederike Schwab „von hier nach dort“, 2019, Acryl / Kohle/ Pigmente auf Leinwand 80 x 80 cm
Collaboration on the editorial board of LICHTUNGEN, magazine for literature, art and contemporary criticism
1992 Literature Prize of the City of Graz 1996-2000 Board of the Atelier Künstlerclub (promotion of authors) 1998-2005 Curator of Schloss Retzhof Bildunghaus
2006 Christine Busta Lyric Prize, Vienna
Seminar leader for painting and graphic arts in adult education Numerous publications: e.g.: Verliebtes in Paris, Hyperion-Verlag, 1971
Vienna in Love, Hyperion-Verlag, 1972
Letters to van Gogh, Leykam publishing house, 1992
Indian Love, novel, Verlag Leykam, 1992
…so I travel daily, poetry, Steirische Verlagsges., 2002
bis hin zum Blickrand, poetry, audio book Verlag Leykam, 2006
The Island in the Corn Sea, novel, Verlag Leykam 2010
Editor of the anthology Verführung zum Staunen (2016) Verlag Leykam.
Most recent publications: Geburtstag mit Magritte, novel (2016) Edition Keiper, luftglück und knisterpapier, Verlag Löcker (2019) Nora. Ein Tanz, Keiper Publishing House (2021)
Self-description
I live by the conviction that creativity is the greatest wealth a human being possesses. There are many ways to find this wealth more and more within oneself and to realise it in one’s life. This principle is also my motivation for teaching artistic subjects. In writing and painting, I find opportunities to express myself critically, to integrate myself socially in the broadest sense, whereby the identity of the personal is extremely important to me.
Christian Prünster, Born 1990 Lienz/East Tyrol
Lives and works in Graz
Working as a freelance artist since 2019
2022 Master craftsman for metal and mechanical engineering
2016-2018 Diploma Master Class for Sculpture Ortweinschule Graz
2015 Studies in art history, architecture
2010 Maturity Diploma PHTL for Mechatronics Lienz
Christian Prünstster
Christian Prünstster
Christian Prünstster’s artistic practice is shaped by his technical background and formulates itself in the interweaving of natural and artificial structures in objects, sculptures and graphic works.
The examination of resources and raw materials and the associated thoughts on consumption, extraction, as well as the geographical and social distribution of these, expands his artistic discipline to include (spatial) installations, accompanied by video game performances. Process-like, long-term groups of works and permanent interventions in public space unite his artistic working method with the desire to be outside.
Christian Prünster: FIREPLACE, 2023
FIREPLACE is the name of the installation by Christian Prünster conceived for the exhibition Hinwendungen.
The work could be seen as a kind of barbecue area or fireplace in the idyll of the kunstGarten. The focus is primarily on the word part of the exhibition title, Hinwendungen. The formal language of bodies, as well as their function and terminology, is turned and changed.
Born 1962 in Graz; visual artist; since 1981 active in the fields of painting, graphics, objects, sculptures, photography, installations, videos, mixed media. Parallel to this, until 1991, training in electronics and completed studies in architecture. Since 2002 he has worked exclusively as a freelance visual artist. Lives in Graz and Havana.
Countless exhibitions worldwide.
Alfred Resch-Díaz
“Is technology flexible enough?”
Bambus, Metall
Höhe ca. 8 m
Fotomontage:
Alfred Resch-Díaz, 2023