Ab_bilden

29.9.2020 - 18.6.2021, Österreichische Kulturforum Berlin / Ge

Artists: Gregor Eggenberger, Claudia Larcher, Sinta Werner; curated by Jan Stradtmann

The architecture of the Austrian Embassy, designed by Hans Hollein, is the starting point for the exhibition "ab_bilden". With their photographic and video works, the three artists invited by Jan Stradtmann and EIKON go beyond the mere status of a likeness and show alternative paths both medially and technically. At the same time, the "spirit" of the 1990s, imbued with postmodernism,
which characterises Hollein's architecture, is to be traced in different ways.

Fauna by Claudia Larcher
site specific installation (Video, 2 taxidermied rabbits)

Fifty percent of the species that biologists call animals have become extinct in the last 50 years. To counteract this, according to philosopher Timothy Morton, we need an ecological intimacy between humans and non-humans. Here, non-human means nature. We have developed a very one-sided way of perceiving life forms. We perceive them mainly aesthetically. My experimental film „Fauna“ works out these contradictions and asks the question why man does not see himself as part of nature?
The Austrian Cultural Forum in Berlin by Hans Hollein is located vis à vis the Tiergarten Berlin, where according to the signage there is a plague of rabbits. Now these rabbits have apparently overflowed into the exhibition space and also appear in the video „Fauna“ by Claudia Larcher, which has the Haus für Natur (by Hans Hollein) in St Pölten as its setting.