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Liu Xiaodong
The Process of Painting
Opening: Tuesday, 5 June 2012, 7pm
Space01
Curator:
Günther Holler-Schuster
The painter Liu Xiaodong is one of
the most well-known representatives internationally of a generation of
Chinese artists who grew up in a new society marked by rapid and frequent
shifts in perspective. He uses the language of form of Socialist Realism
and conventional documentary media to lend a voice to daily life against
the background of radical change. Earthquakes, changes in landscape, and
human-made ecological disasters, as well as social formation based on
economic transformation: all this has been captured by Liu Xiaodong. He
confronts the developments by visiting the places concerned and attempting
to capture the significance of events in visual form.
For the
exhibition Liu Xiaodong. The Process of Painting in the Kunsthaus
Graz, the artist has chosen Eisenerz in Upper Styria, Austria, as the
location for his latest project where he lived and worked for a month with
a team of assistants and camera operators. The situation with the
centuries-old industrial and cultural landscape bears a striking
resemblance with conditions in China. Eisenerz, exposed to an enormous
process of change, is suddenly transformed into a global model. The
degeneration caused by structural shifts and the accompanying social
transformation have created clearly visible problems; attempts to overcome
them are varied. As a painter Liu does not tackle events and historical
developments in a combative way, rather as a chronicler. He attempts to
express the transition from one form of society to the other through
pictures.
media.art.collecting
Perspectives of a Collection
Opening: Friday, 15 June 2012, 7pm
Space02
Curators:
Katrin Bucher Trantow, Günther Holler-Schuster, Katia Huemer
With works by: Vito Acconci, Thomas Baumann/Josef Dabernig/Martin
Kaltner, Jordan Crandall, Sonja Gangl, Caroline Heider, Richard Kriesche,
Mike Kelley/Paul McCarthy, Muntean/Rosenblum, Nam June Paik, Manfred
Wolff-Plottegg/Hartmut Skerbisch, Pipilotti Rist, Susanne Schuda, Peter
Weibel a. o.
How does media art define itself in the course of
an almost 40-year-old collection? What changes, what comes to form a whole,
what was overlooked, and where does it go from here?
Audiovisual Messages—the 1973 edition of the Trigon
Biennal—placed a major emphasis on media art, putting local artists
in direct relation to international developments. This exhibition marked
the beginning of a dynamic that made Graz appear a special place for media
art. The exhibition media.art.collecting deals with collecting
activities at the Neue Galerie Graz in the area of media art, the essence
of which becomes evident in the spectrum of exhibitions held over the past
40 years. Building on the 2009 exhibition Rewind/Fast Forward at the
Neue Galerie Graz and its first-ever survey of the institution's video art
collection, the current exhibition media.art.collecting. Perspectives of
a Collection will offer a broader view of other parts of the collection
such as installation and photography, but also of what is missing and
desired. Changing every eight weeks, the exhibition will manifest as an
evolving structure of relationships and historical as well as current
desiderata. At a time when media pervades all aspects of everyday life, the
exhibition will keep its focus trained on the question of the changing
notion of media art as it relates to the collection's own
structure—both in retrospect and with regard to its own outlook for
the future. In doing so, it aims to provide a comprehensive look of what
has previously been neglected, while at the same time pointing to expansion
opportunities as they become evident with regards to the historical
situation of new media in Graz.
Guided tours
German: Tue–Fri, 3:30pm; Sat, Sun, and public holidays, 11am
and 3:30pm
English: Sat, 2pm
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