Heimo Zobernig

Heimo Zobernig

Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Photo: Georg Petermichl.

May 11, 2015

Heimo Zobernig
9 May–22 November 2015

Austrian Pavilion
Giardini
Venice

www.austrianpavilion.at

Commissioner: Yilmaz Dziewior

Heimo Zobernig’s work is characterized by a high degree of formal and thematic precision. Since the start of his career he has made a point of exploring the fundamental premises of art, critically and with gusto, by using the respective presentational frameworks and modes of artistic expression themselves as tools for analytical reflection, which often endows them with a stage-like presence. In this spirit art’s miscellaneous constitutive aspects can themselves become the actual work.

Heimo Zobernig’s contribution to the 56th International Art Exhibition responds directly to the existing exhibition situation in the Austrian Pavilion designed by Josef Hoffmann and Robert Kramreiter and built in 1934, a structure that, with its classical rounded arches and majestic visual axes, on the one hand, and clear rational forms and modern construction materials, on the other, moves between the poles of historicism and modernism. With a black monolith that appears to hover under the ceiling casting its shade on the entire floor space of the pavilion, as well as a black floor construction that aligns the pavilion’s different floor levels, he renders invisible the historicizing architectural elements. At the same time, Zobernig’s complex intervention relativizes the bounds between architectural space and nature, inside and outside. His architectural intervention, whose isometric planes recall Mies van der Rohe’s Nationalgalerie in Berlin, together with the garden and rear wall that bounds the courtyard, constitutes an enclosed site where one can linger and reflect on art’s presentational modes and on human presence in space.

The “Patio for Heimo Zobernig” by the landscape architects Auböck + Kárász, a mellow grove, mingles with the architectural object. Midpoint of the “Journey of the Trees” begun at the Architecture Biennale 2014 as the “Gathering of the Trees” and ending in 2016 scattered over the exhibition grounds as abiding “Jewels for the Giardini”: Acer burgerianum, Acer viridis, Cercis siliquastrum, Gleditsia sunburst, Lagerstroemia indica, Liquidambar styraciflua, Nerium oleander, Parrotia persica vanessa, Punica granatum.

The Venice Biennale itself, no less than the specific site, is the starting point for Heimo Zobernig’s deliberations. How can one adequately contribute to an environment based on nation-states representativity where individual voices constantly compete for maximum attention? What phenomena are meaningful in such a context? And for precisely such purposes the Austrian Pavilion, with its classical as well as its modern formal language, offers an ideal exhibition space.

Contact
Austrian Pavilion
Biennale Arte 2015
c/o section.a
art.design.consulting gmbh
Praterstrasse 66/7a
A-1020 Vienna
info [​at​] austrianpavilion.at

Press officer: Kathrin Luz
Kathrin Luz Communication
Greesbergstrasse 5
D-50668 Cologne
press [​at​] austrianpavilion.at 

Team
Commissioner: Yilmaz Dziewior
Curatorial Assistant/Project Coordination: Leonie Radine
Production: Katharina Boesch, Christine Haupt-Stummer (section.a)
Public Relations: Kathrin Luz, Jule Laerz (Kathrin Luz Communication)
VIP Manager: Christina Bartosch
Event Manager: Tomas Ewald (Solmarino)
Team Heimo Zobernig: Maria Huber, Eric Kläring, Georg Petermichl, Michaela Rapp-Zobernig
Architecture and Technical Coordination: Troels Bruun, Luca Ugolini (M+B studio)
Garden: Auböck + Kárász Landscape Architects
Design: Dorothea Brunialti
Website: Leopold Šikoronja
Catalogue Editing: Katrin Sauerländer
Tax Consultant: Georg Geyer, Kanzlei Geyer & Geyer

In 2015, the Austrian Pavilion was generously supported by: Ameon GmbH, Amt der Kärntner Landesregierung, ARTELIER COLLECTION GRAZ, Barta & Partner / AON Fine Art Risk Management, BIG – Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft m.b.H., Galería Juana de Aizpuru, Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Galerie Meyer Kainer, Galerie Nagel Draxler, Petzel Gallery, Phileas – A Fund for Contemporary Art, Privatkäserei Rupp, Russmedia, Simon Lee Gallery, Stefan Stolitzka, Vorarlberger Landesregierung, and other anonymous donors. 

On behalf of the

Heimo Zobernig at the Austrian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale
Advertisement
RSVP
RSVP for Heimo Zobernig
Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
May 11, 2015

Thank you for your RSVP.

Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale will be in touch.

Subscribe

e-flux announcements are emailed press releases for art exhibitions from all over the world.

Agenda delivers news from galleries, art spaces, and publications, while Criticism publishes reviews of exhibitions and books.

Architecture announcements cover current architecture and design projects, symposia, exhibitions, and publications from all over the world.

Film announcements are newsletters about screenings, film festivals, and exhibitions of moving image.

Education announces academic employment opportunities, calls for applications, symposia, publications, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Sign up to receive information about events organized by e-flux at e-flux Screening Room, Bar Laika, or elsewhere.

I have read e-flux’s privacy policy and agree that e-flux may send me announcements to the email address entered above and that my data will be processed for this purpose in accordance with e-flux’s privacy policy*

Thank you for your interest in e-flux. Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.