DESIRING the real. Austria contemporary

With works by
Catrin Bolt, Adriana Czernin, Josef Dabernig, Michael Goldgruber, Maria Hahnenkamp, Siggi Hofer, Ulrike Königshofer, Bele Marx & Gilles Mussard, Margherita Spiluttini, Esther Stocker, Hannes Zebedin

Curated by
Karin Zimmer

The exhibition Desiring the Real was launched by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture, Department of International and Cultural Affairs. It presents works that have been purchased for the federal art collection over the past years, supplemented by works on loan.  

At MERANO ARTE, eleven artists will present various models of reality, and reality is also what their works are centered on. The photographs by Catrin Bolt, Bele Marx & Gilles Mussard, and Margherita Spiluttini, the installation by Siggi Hofer, and the landscape by Michael Goldgruber thwart the viewers’ expectations, undermine their symbolic and linguistic associations, and make us ask ourselves to which extent our views are influenced by the media filter. The photographs by Maria Hahnenkamp, the installation by Ulrike Königshofer, the video by Adriana Czernin and those by Josef Dabernig and of Hannes Zebedin also focus on the issue of identity and of opening oneself toward a multitude of interpretations and variations, to the fact that the complexity of existence cannot be reduced to a single interpretation. Through her installation, Esther Stocker experiments with an abstract room in which she restructures meaning and reality. 

In the context of "Desiring the Real", undefinedMUSEION will successively present two unpublished works ins its Project Room. 

Following the installation "Phasenraum" by Judith Fegerl (June 22 to July 28), we will see an intervention by Lepold Kessler (August 9 to September 22).  

This focus on young Austrian art will be supplemented by the video "Decomposition" by Rainer Gamsjäger, which was developed for the media facade (projections: July 20, 21, and 23, at 10 p. m.).  

The exhibition also includes a performance by the dancer and choreographer Sebastian Prantl, which is part of the program of the festival Bolzano Danza (in cooperation with Südtiroler Kulturinstitut, July 23, 6 p. m.).  

MERANO ARTE, Participating artists: Catrin Bolt (Friesach, 1979), Adriana Czernin (Sofia, 1969), Josef Dabernig (Kötschach-Mauthen, 1956), Michael Goldgruber (Leoben, 1975), Maria Hahnenkamp (Eisenstadt, 1959), Siggi Hofer (Bruneck, 1970), Ulrike Königshofer (Koglhof, 1981), Bele Marx & Gilles Mussard (Salzburg, 1968, Paris, 1956), Margherita Spiluttini (Schwarzach, 1947), Esther Stocker (Schlanders, 1974), Hannes Zebedin (Lienz, 1976).  

MUSEION, participating artists: Judith Fegerl (Vienna, 1977), Rainer Gamsjäger (Bad Ischl, 1974), Leopold Kessler (Munich, 1976).   

Desiring the Real has been touring through various countries since April 2012. The first stations were MOCAB Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Serbia, MUAC Contemporary Art University Museum Mexico City, FIC Cervantino International Festival, University of Guanajuato, Mexico, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam in Havanna, Cuba, GAALS in Culiacan, Mexico, and Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Croatia.     

In cooperation with:  

Federal Ministry of Education, the Arts and Culture, Austria - bm:uk  Südtiroler Kultur Institut 
Deutsche Kultur und Familie Kultur