Schön Aufgetragen
Two projects, two artistic methods—a joint exhibit featuring works by Reinhold Bidner, Robert Abt and Stefan Mittlböck-Jungwirth undertakes an encounter with innovative possibilities of expression in a traditional graphic artform.
The exhibition entitled “Schön Aufgetragen” (beautifully applied) that will open this coming Thursday at Ursulinenhof, the cultural center of the Province of Upper Austria, experiments with new approaches in the area of visual culture. A pictorial series and a short film represent examples of new approaches to traditional graphic media.
Exhibition Vernissage
The exhibition will be opened on Thursday, May 19, 2005 at 8:30 PM by Anneliese Geyer of the Province of Upper Austria’s Department of Cultural Affairs, and will run May 19-29 in Ursulinenhof.
Pictorial Series
Robert Abt and Stefan Mittlböck-Jungwirth have taken kitschy or idyllic images as their points of departure. By omitting selected visual information, they accentuate certain elements of the images and, by utilizing industrial production mechanisms, transform them into material transporting new content.
Their pictures represent a blend of human creativity, programming and mechanical processing. The 40 works that make up this pictorial series deal in kitschy or idyllic visual motifs, which are scanned into a computer and then undergo graphic processing. On the basis of these images and with the help of special software, the artists generate a model that serves as a set of instructions for an industrial robot. The robot then applies electronic components to epoxy resin plates. In this way, the electronic elements become the bearers of visual information.
This method opens up new possibilities of visual expression; moreover, it calls upon the viewers of these images to undergo a haptic experience.
This project has been made possible by the gracious support of the Fronius Company.
Short Film: Schnellschuss (Quick Shot)
The classic way to exhibit a picture in private premises is to hang it on the wall. An animated film by Reinhold Bidner and Stefan Mittlböck-Jungwirth confronts this process and suggests a new idea to enhance visual culture in the private sphere. The result is a sort of video collage that also establishes a connective link to the owners of such pictures, their lifestyles and their individual philosophies.
Producing and shooting this film took the two artists into hundreds of private homes, in which they employed stencils to spray one or more individual images of a movie onto a surface that the homeowner made available. These images, were, in turn, photographed and edited together into a film.
In addition to this “main level,” there is a second, background level of equal importance: namely, details, materials and the individuals residing in the private premises in which the stenciled images were created. They relate a second narrative, and endow the film with a visual language all its own.
In addition to screening the film, the exhibition will also feature a display of the still photos taken on the set during filming.
All three artists have “day jobs” on the professional staff of the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz.
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