Friday, January 16, 2015

Hugo Canoilas: 'Lesen' Kunstraum Niederosterreich, Vienna, AUT

Image: Hugo Canoilas, Was life that beautiful?, 2013, Mixed media, 30 x 26 x 12 cm, 11 3/4 x 10 1/4 x 4 3/4 in (HC0048)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Lesen (Literatur)

Kunstraum Niederosterreich, Vienna

Exhibition:
16 - 01 -2015 to 14 - 03 -2015

Assunta Mohamed Abd El Azim, Hugo Canoilas, Clemens thought, Petra Egg, Simon Häußle, Barbara Kapusta, Ute Müller, Annelies Oberdanner, Bernhard Rappold, Dorothea clatter, Jakub Vrba, Flora Watzal


Information is everywhere, knowledge effortlessly available. On many, if not all levels, simultaneity, networking, multitasking and the pressure to succeed seem unavoidable. If not directly serving one's personal positioning in the universal competition, it has become increasingly difficult to be deeply engaged, to sink into a contemplative state, to focus exclusively on one topic. Time is money, efficiency essential.

Language, literature, poetry, stories, novels-also for artists, reading literary texts has become a frivolous luxury if not done for some project-related research, not absolutely useful, not immediately needed. Text and a book, not text and the internet, not text and a Kindle-a different kind of attentive luxury. To hold a book in one's hands, "analog"-the weight, the haptic feeling of turning the pages, the paper, the smell-the world of production and design.

In this sense, the exhibition addresses reading (literature) with a major focus on books read and selected by the artists containing texts by twelve authors. Twelve short text citations in the original language form the basis of each artistic work in the exhibition. These attempt at enveloping an atmosphere, they do not appropriate or illustrate. Tones that are related, a brush with the contents, concrete, abstract, poetic.

The selected books are provided on a table for viewing and inspiration. The graphic artist and font designer Willi Schmid has provided the graphic design of the text-citations for the exhibition and the catalog. In addition to contributions of the artists, the catalog contains an essay by the author and musician Martin Kubaczek.

 

Kunstraum Niederoesterreich Herrengasse 13
A-1014 Vienna
Tel +43 1 90 42 111
office@kunstraum.net
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