Exhibition text, Adrian Buschmann, Gabriele Senn Galerie, Wien, 2018

Spannen wir das Pferd von hinten auf. Adrian Buschmann sagt Sachen wie: “Genauso wie ich die großformatigen (Bilder) letztendlich für Menschen male, die denen in den Bildern ähneln, male ich die kleinen Bilder für die großen”, und deklariert somit kurzum die Legitimation des Bilder-anderen-Bildern-Widmens. Mit derselben Souveränität schlüpft er in das Schaffen jener verstorbenen Kollegen, in wessen Werken er Nähe zur eigenen Arbeit erkennt.
Die Deleuz’sche enculage heraufbeschwörend, macht Buschmann seinen Vorgängern sozusagen posthum Bastarde. Womöglich schwingt das beiläufig im Titel der Ausstellung mit, der auf Italienisch fröhlich klingt, sich aber ins Deutsche mit “befleckt” übersetzen lässt.
Die Werke anderer Künstler benutzt er jedenfalls auch als Urlaub von der eigenen Person. Weitere Formen von Distanz bewirkt er beispielsweise indem er die schon erwähnten kleinformatigen Bilder mittels Herauslösens bestimmter Linien, die in den großen bereits vorkommen, herstellt.
Entscheidend sind für ihn in dieser Hinsicht rein ästhetische Gesichtspunkte.
Anhand solcher Dekontextualisierung werden Teile seines Oeuvres gleich in das Genre der Abstraktion verortet.
All diese Facetten von Entfremdung eröffnen dem Betrachter einen Spielraum, der die Hemmschwelle zur Eigeninterpretation bedeutend verringert. Unterstützt wird dies ferner durch den Verzicht auf Autorenschaftsansprüchen, der seiner Herangehensweise innewohnt.
Signifikant ist, dass er seine 2015 begonnene Auseinandersetzung mit den Arbeiten des polnischen Künstlers Leon Chwistek wieder aufgreift. Ein Gedanke, den er erstens gerne zu Ende gedacht haben möchte, und welcher zweitens angesichts des eigenen Szenenwechsels, vom ligurischen Meer zurück in die Stadt, neu herangezogen werden darf.
Chwistek’s Zeichnungen illustrierten eine privilegierte Gesellschaft zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts, die sich wohl hauptsächlich in Vergnügungen zu zerstreuen sucht. Buschmann’s hyperminimale malerische Cover-versionen tragen die bei Chwistek implizierten feingesellschaftlichen Gebärden in die Gegenwart. Kontemporäre Signa wie Geräte oder aktuelle Mode unterlässt er, weil er findet, dass sich ohnehin wenig am Wesentlichen geändert hat. Er hat eher Interesse an bezeugbaren Affekten und an Formen, als an Äußerlichkeiten auf dieser Ebene. Die Gegenwartsfähigkeit der Bilder, die er okkupiert ist also schon gegeben.
Die Rolle des Striches ist dermaßen übergeordnet, dass sich Referenzen hierzu gelegentlich im Titel in Form von Wortspiel finden. So zB beim “SS2018” betitelten Bild, ein zu Modemedien gehörendes Kürzel für Spring/Summer, hier eingesetzt um auf S-förmige Linien in der Silhouette der beiden im Bild dargestellten Figuren hinzuweisen.
Adrian Buschmann makes statements such as: ‘Just as I paint the larger ones [sic paintings] for people who look like those in them, I paint the small ones for their big siblings.’, thus legitimising the dedication of paintings to other paintings.
With the same sovereignty he slips into the opus of passed away fellows in which he detects vicinage to his own works. Evoking Deleuze’s enculage, Buschmann produces in a manner of speaking their posthum bastards. This resonates perhaps incidentally with the title of the exhibition, which sounds cheerful in Italian (macchiato), but whose meaning, translated to German or English (maculose), reveals a more sinister and awkward tone.
To Buschmann, works of other artists resemble a holiday from himself. By dislocating particular lines from the large paintings onto the smaller ones as another method of distancing, and with aesthetic considerations alone as criteria, such decontextualisation shifts parts of his oeuvre to the genre of abstraction. All these facets of separation and estrangement beget a space with diminished barriers to the onlooker’s own interpretations.
This is further being supported by the disclaimed authorship inherent in the artist’s approach.
Significant for this exhibition is Buschmann’s revisit of Leon Chwistek’s works, an endeavour the artist was already occupied with in 2015. Given his change of residence, from the Ligurian Sea back to the city, Buschmann sensed that there were contemplations that still called for completion, especially in the now “new” environment.
Chwistek’s drawings depict socialites at the early 20th century, a privileged circle on the quest for pleasure above all. The gestures in Chistwick’s illustrations imply refinement. Buschmann transports them via hyper-minimalist pictorial cover versions into the present. Contemporary insignia, such as fashion and devices, are missing completely, as essentials never have seemed to have changed anyway. The artist’s attention is therefore more geared towards affects and forms than this kind of formalities, which further assures the even transference of the pictures he occupies to the current.
Lines bear such a weight in Buschmann’s body of work, that references can be frequently found in the titles of the paintings, sometimes as puns: i.e. the painting titled “SS2018”, in the world of fashion commonly used to abbreviate Spring/Summer, but used here to hint at the silhouette of the figures depicted in the painting.

Exhibition text, Hanna Putz, Parasol Unit, London 2017

In 1971 the first woman aquired a professional motocross rider license, but had to return that license once it was disclosed that she wasn’t male.
Motocross is a sport that requires extreme amounts of mental resilience and incessant pushing of one’s limits. Surpassing restrictions, i.e. physical givens, is simply routine.
During her stay in Yekaterinenburg Hanna Putz met „Sasha“ a female motocross rider. Adopting characteristics that are deemed male, rumbling through the grid of common social constructs, this woman with a rather boyish, fragile body shape seems to conquer several male domains in one strike and with remarkable implicitness.
Her also present partner retrieves into the background and assumes an assisting role, perhaps becoming something like her extension when her physical strenght does not suffice, an astonishing, inversion of all the preceding surprises in this series. He also holds one of her dogs, fighting dogs with fear inducing frames.
Putz catches moments in which qualities that are distinctly perceived to be feminine are still appearing, a wariness in the handling of the machine, an almost fostering kind of taking control of the comparatively massive vehicle. As if faced with the care of the circus rider towards its animal, the woman retains grace in the midst of the sludge she is plunging into, like a gentle choreography.
There are two photographs that amplify the manifold of this series. In one, she stands with her partner, and while the bond between the lovers is almost tangible, a distance remains, probably being aware of the need to maintain independence during the race. In another one, her big dog overwhelms her with love, but not without the automatic reigning in of its physical power, which, in this frame, works like a mirroring of what Sasha is undertaking.
Perhaps the most striking fact is that during the race Sasha is not identifiable as a woman. In addition, her nickname, derived from Aleksandra, is used for both, men and women in Russia. Her suit, plastered with advertising, evolves from mere protective measure to a standard bearer uniform, as it is common for any sportsperson. But this just further underlines the contrast between the utilisation of a person for commercial purpose and its egalitarian handling beyond sex and the otherwise accentuated gender oriented contextualisation in our society. Human advertising colums are the traditional heroes of the present era, standing out as the best seems to naturally grant you such honors. Nowadays we have induced this rite of persona as status and currency into various areas, having spread gradually from celebrities to social media phenomenon. Personal preferences become assets, one day they might replace what we call soft skills today.
Following Sasha through the race the series ends in a rave, a mass with male nudity on display. In this light the precursory photographs almost seem to be a preparatory act, a dulling, that leads to this apparently harsh event.
This series contains fundamental dichotomies, incorporating tenderness and the raw, finesse and impetuosity, often in one photograph. The effortless reconciliation of opposites urges us to question obsolete assumptions and the need for categories.

Jean Recoura, Futur II, Vienna, Exhibition text, June 2017

Jean Recourage uses jobs (a layer of his work functioning in terms of a personal protest against the glamourous, frenzied art world hype bubble) to dive into the marginalised peripheries of society. Having previously worked at a fairground, his exploration of forgotten and neglected strata continues at elderly homes. The endeavour to gain input for his oeuvre, required his art practice to serve as a psycho-hygienic tool in the end, having had to witness terrible scenarios, such as abuse of the inhabitants by employees, portrayed in a painting of a nurse kicking a wheelchair with an old person sitting in it, a frequent occurrence in the early days of his caretaker career. His particular interest in elderly homes has been sparked during the catastrophic heatwave in France, the canicule in 2003, that resulted in a devastatingly high amount of deaths among elderly people in homes. The upside of the misfortune was that the French government was forced to investigate and found itself confronted with pressing issues such as poor hygiene and unattended mental health of the inhabitants. This politicization of elderly homes led to improvement, today the status of the residents has been bettered immensely since heaving the matter out of indifference. Daily life in a home in France now includes highlights such as themed days (i.e. the painting of a “British day”, featuring british food, british music and decoration). This kind of entertainment strikes one as random and would be rather somewhat ignorant to events in the political sphere, and this is what renders it inherently macabre, for one cannot dodge comparisons to nurseries. Both, elderly homes and nurseries reflect the insignificance of their dependents via utter disregard of current events and a naive approach to distraction (the opposite, of course, would be observed in regimes). When you get old, you turn into a child again, and often this saying proves true by way of a deteriorating mind, if not that then by a common involuntary loss of majority experienced in old age that affects most. If you are of no use for labour - categorically too young or too old - you are literally deprived of the right to dictate your everyday life. But there are also those, for whom the withdrawal from the labour market harvests a thorough liberation, as in the case of the painted baker who now functions as the editor in chief of the magazine, published by the elderly home.
Even though the rhythm of an old person has been slowed down due to diminishing bodily capacity, the artist mentions to what extent the elders have to endure waiting, and how they bear it with accepted boredom. It might be this abeyance, that also seems to  saturate the paintings, along with high age, that stirs and urges thoughts of one’s own approaching death. Jean’s painting of an elder’s contemplation about their own fatality is held in black and yellow, the expression on the face is as so often indeterminately somewhere between anxious, stale and glum. A plethora of sights, some of which one wouldn’t wish to recall, are on display. Facets of rage, sheer panic, dullness, boredom, apathy, absurdity as well as scenes of abuse, extradition, illness-induced profanities and decay are balanced by depictions of occasionally nightmarish but often close to idyllic spontaneous inner visions. The expressionistic tenor accentuates the gravity of the topic, even in those works that reveal an amusing incident. Accounts of the daily rut such as meal time, a machine for cleaning or the work environment bring to attention the operational aspects and the corporate substratum. Using, inter alia, sheets that are typically used for company meetings further underline the fact that such homes have to be run efficiently, and hopefully increasingly to the benefit of their residents. A demand for a more holistic approach regarding elderly care might be indicated in the sheet with notes taken at a meeting, with an elder in a wheelchair scribbled on the bottom right corner, almost in the manner of a jolly conqueror.

Hanna Putz & FC Thallo for unu o unu, April 2017, text

So very delighted to announce this fantastic project:

http://www.unuounu.org/workshop/hanna-putz/

Julian Mullan, Galerie Nathalie Halgand, Vienna, Exhibition text, February 2017

This could be anywhere. Trying to locate Julian Mullan’s motives is thoroughly precluded by his accurate cropping of the image, the proximate step after deciding on the motive in the process of a geminated selection routine. The immanent calm evokes notions of emigration and deserted sites, the numerous towns left for better economic opportunities. Present fears due to the ever-growing industrial automation, including our means of transport, i.e. cars, and its impact on human work force emerge.

In the face of the upcoming changes technological progress enables, Mullan’s sculpturalisation of the everyday object can’t be read as merely aesthetic or as sheer capitalisation of shape and color for artistic purposes. Nor can it be considered as the means to force the audience to a more acute perception and focus (for instance, a reflecting puddle on concrete – simple but a fortiori radiant). It is rather a massively accelerated crescendo leading to the eve of the crisis, a documentary of the soon-to-be-discarded, a stroll through the still-there, which, in a not so far fetched future, can be viewed in museums only.

Mullan took some of the images years ago, as if intuiting the preciousness and fleeting of what we call commonplace now. The frequently occurring interruptions via diagonal lines are echoed in the selection of works for the exhibition, the “haunted” images are contrasted by images of somewhat untouched nature, resembling a different sort of human absence.

Simultaneously, he seems to present a possible pastime, for a future humanity: within the time won due to automatisation lurks the possibility of a return to delight in the given, the pristine.

His works might as well be diagnostic of a strange nostalgia, already somewhat palpable but yet to come, about the wistful enjoyment of apparently unaffected spots in growing awareness of the Anthropocene, the age in which one species has induced profound consequences by its various interventions on this planet.

I also have to think of the filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, who, like Mullan, valued color and contrast as an important element of his work. Both are incorporating architecture. Either are fond of ambiguity too. Like a string, from one to the other, one is confronted with the rise of classic industrialisation, while the other works in times of the fall thereof. The buildings depicted, respectively sections of, are in either case constructed for maximum utilisation, featuring nothing ornamental or too inviting, bleak and mistakable: a photograph is a copy after all, and the photographed buildings are, due to the schematic and simply viable repetition regarding structure, too.

But not only the death of a major portion of the work force and general conditions of a first world existence as we know it is surfacing as a theme, there are increasing rumors about the demise of photography. Well-known is the threat that photography at its advent posed to painting, and the following reinvention of the latter medium. Now the tables have turned and the time has come for photography to find ways to re-establish itself and secure its place in the wake of an egalitarian, more instant and less conscious practice of it.


Unflinching, Mullan is continuing to embrace the slowness of the trade. The indeterminable, cropped-away surroundings of the image he presents conjure intrigue. The gaze that his minute precision encourages could be the very essential characteristic that might translate into a new appreciation and survival of the medium in the end.

Rade Petrasevic, Soart @ Sofiensäle, Exhibition text, January 2017

Rade Petrasevic’s Gemälde orientieren sich an den Gesetzmäßigkeiten von Zeichnungen und erlauben so das Ineinanderfließen spezifischer Merkmale verschiedener Medien. Durch das artungerechte Benutzen traditionellen Malwerkzeugs steigert er jene Entfremdung noch, die in bislang unentdeckten Pfaden innerhalb der Malerei resultiert. Die Gewaltigkeit dieser überproportionalen Nicht-Zeichnungen hebt die durch die Maße unserer Körper gegebenen Sicherheiten gewohnter Perspektive auf.

Der Fokus liegt auf Interieur und Kunstwerken, Fragen zwischen Fetisch, Eigentum, Handelsware und einem sich dem Anthropozentrismus entziehendem Blickwinkel werden aufgewirbelt.

Curatorial project "Neoteric" at Parallel Art fair, Vienna 2016

Artists: Esther Vörösmarty & Elena Kristofor

FROM THEIR VERY EMERGENCE HORROR MOVIES PROVED TO BE A GREAT TOOL FOR EMPHASISING FEARS AND LATENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SOCIETY. RECENTLY, A CHANGE HAS TAKEN PLACE IN THAT THIS GENRE IS BECOMING EVER MORE PRESENT IN THE MAINSTREAM, POSSIBLY DUE TO AN INCREASE OF PEOPLE PRACTICING CRITICAL AND SOPHISTICATED THINKING.
IN THE 1970S SIGMUND FREUD’S DAUGHTER ANNA HELPED CHISEL OUT A NEW, MORE REFINED SELF-CONCEPT THAT HAS BEEN VIGOROUSLY SUGGESTED TO THE INDIVIDUAL: BY DELIBERATELY CREATING A NEED FOR INDIVIDUALITY, COMPANIES COULD SELL A MORE VARIED RANGE OF PRODUCTS, AND THOSE MORE OFTEN. THEREFORE, THIS NEW “NEED” COULD BE MONETISED.
AS A RESULT, A FEAR OF TOO MUCH CONFORMITY EMERGED, WHICH HAS BEEN VIRTUOUSLY REFLECTED IN HORROR MOVIES SUCH AS “INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS” FROM 1978.
SIMULTANEOUSLY, THERE WAS ONE SUBGENRE OF HORROR NAMED “GIALLO”, FEATURING A MAXIMUM OF STYLISATION AS ONE OF ITS MAIN ELEMENTS. GIALLO STUDIO MOVIES CONCENTRATED WITH A LYNCH-ESQUE HYPERBOLE ON THE REALM OF THE BEAUTIFUL AND PRIORITISED DESIGN AND FASHION ONLY IN ORDER TO ATTACK THIS WORLD WITH PRONOUNCED BRUTALITY.
GIVEN THAT INDIVIDUALITY AS A CONCEPT WAS BEING ENTWINED WITH CAPITALISM, WE CAN WATCH THE MARKET REACTING WITH EVER GROWING ACCELERATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL’S ATTEMPTS FOR DIFFERENTIATION. A SPLENDID EXAMPLE WOULD BE THE RAPID “SWALLOWING” OF ATTRIBUTES BELONGING TO SUBCULTURES AND THE SUBSEQUENT PROVISION OF AN EASIER DIGESTIBLE IMITATION THEREOF, ADAPTED TO THE MAINSTREAM’S TASTE. IT STILL WORKS, EVEN NOW THAT SELF-CONCEPTS ARE COMMONLY THOUGHT OF AS MORE FRAGILE AND IN A STATE OF FLUX, AND AT LEAST PARTIALLY ASSEMBLED AT WILL, WITH A POSTMODERN MIX-AND-MATCH MENTALITY.
THE TENSION BETWEEN THOSE TWO APPROACHES OF THE 1970s GENERATION OF HORROR MOVIES REGARDING IDENTITY, CONSUMER BEHAVIOuR, THE DAZZLING WORLD OF FASHION AND THE INHERENT DORMANT UNCANNINESS IS THE PRIMARY CONCERN OF THIS EXHIBITION, WHILE ALSO SIMPLY BEING A HOMAGE TO THE GAUDY EXAGGERATION IN GIALLO MOVIES. 

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