Hellbrunner Straße 3
Salzburg 5020
Austria
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 12–7pm
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office@salzburger-kunstverein.at
In 2019, the Salzburger Kunstverein, under the direction of Séamus Kealy, presents cutting-edge contemporary art, and will commission a new film by Omer Fast. Our program altogether reflects upon our collective future. We will realize exhibitions that sometimes examine darker topics, such as the potential collapse of civilization. Notions of censorship and cultural erasure are also backdrops this year. Likewise, ancient fairy tales shall re-emerge, re-told and woven into today’s context. Lastly, individual stories depicting political realities shall be presented.
Main Gallery
Alona Rodeh. DARK AGES 2020 (February 8–March 31, 2019)
Alona Rodeh presents her first institutional show in Austria. DARK AGES 2020 refers to a looming future; one already discernible. This commissioned exhibition draws upon current technologies of illumination produced for road works, emergency services, airport runways and more. DARK AGES 2020 continues her “Safe and Sound” series, exploring off-the-shelf reflective, phosphorus and illumination technologies, their origin in magic, and their adaptation in safety industries. Rodeh constructs technical performances without performers, set to original soundtracks, bringing life to objects in a new ontology.
A Flower in My Mouth (April 12–July 7, 2019)
A Flower in My Mouth is a collaboration between Mehraneh Atashi, Sara Giannini and Jacopo Miliani. The project brings together their research on the language of flowers, censorship, and occultism from different socio-political contexts. Across centuries and geographies, flowers have been employed to speak about the unspeakable. The language of flowers is a metaphorical praxis aimed at concealing, but also used to circulate forbidden words, images and ideas. Evoking the encrypted semiology of flowers, the exhibition is conceived as a speculative maze leading to an area called “the bar,” a platform for visual and oral presentations by the artists, curators and invited guests.
Omer Fast. The World Is a Golem (July 26–October 6, 2019)
Omer Fast is world-renowned for his films that blend fictional and documentary processes. The Salzburger Kunstverein will produce a new film by Omer Fast, called The World Is a Golem, shot and then premiered in Salzburg this summer. This and other new work will be presented in the main and Kabinett galleries of the Salzburger Kunstverein. The artist’s politically charged subject matter has covered topics ranging from race and pornography to historical and contemporary conflicts, with films such as 5000 Feet is the Best and Continuity. In 2015, Fast made his first feature film Remainder, based on Tom McCarthy’s celebrated novel. The artist has recently expanded his work to include architectural interventions and theatrical mise-en-scènes that explore social issues.
Adrian Paci (October 18–December 1, 2019)
Adrian Paci was born in Shkodër, Albania, in 1969. In 1997 he left for Milan, escaping the violence of the armed uprising in Albania. Paci’s position as an exile holds a central place in his oeuvre. His work frequently addresses themes of geographical separation, nostalgia, and memory, and conveys a keen sense of the mutability of life and art. In this exhibition, Paci presents new sculptures and powerful new videos of refugees he has interviewed in Lebanon, Palestine and other regions.
Ring Gallery
Per Dybvig (April 12, 2019–February 2, 2020)
Based in Stavanger, Norway, and Berlin, Germany, the award-winning artist Per Dybvig has worked as a cartoonist for Norweigan newspapers and has illustrated more than eighty books. Per Dybvig has been invited to make a portrait of Salzburg and its inhabitants, which will be presented together as a long drawing-montage in the Ring Gallery.
Kabinett
We will present the duo Gabriele Fulterer & Christine Scherrer, Borjana Ventzislavova, Johanna Binder, and Renate Hausenblas & Katharina Gruzei in the Kabinett in 2019.
Sunset Kino
Omer Fast’s summer exhibition is complemented by Sunset Kino, Austria’s only avant-garde, outdoor cinema.
About Salzburger Kunstverein
The Salzburger Kunstverein is a leading organisation for producing and exhibiting international and Austrian contemporary art. Founded in 1844, the Salzburger Kunstverein owns and is housed in the historic, notoriously-red Künstlerhaus building, which includes exhibition areas (in total 500 m²) and 22 studios for artists and art initiatives.
