February 27 - May 26, 2014

VIENNA COMPLEX

Austrian Cultural Forum New York

Artists: EI ARAKAWA & SHIMON MINAMIKAWA, JOSEF DABERNIG, VERENA DENGLER, ANKE DYES & NIKLAS LICHTI, HARUN FAROCKI, TONIO KRÖNER, ULLA ROSSEK, ASTRID WAGNER, FRANZ WEST, HEIMO ZOBERNIG
Curator: COSIMA RAINER

About The Show

This international group exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, titled Vienna Complex, is being presented in conjunction with Carnegie Hall’s three week-long festival, Vienna: City of Dreams.The show takes the transformative psychoanalytic momentum of Vienna in 1900, and the resulting entwinement and fascination of the proponents of modernist abstraction with this therapeutic revolution as a point of departure. Based on the hypothesis that the culture of self-improvement that permeates all spheres of society today is also a result of the artistic dissemination of therapeutic ideas into the mainstream, the exhibition presents contemporary artistic reflections on the phenomenon of our modern meritocracy.

This exhibition is part of the Austrian Cultural Forum’s Vienna Complex Festival 2014. The ACFNY is partnering with New York’s Carnegie Hall to present the large-scale Vienna: City of Dreams (carnegiehall.org/vienna) festival in Spring 2014. The Austrian Cultural Forum opens the mind and senses to Vienna today. Building upon the vast artistic, intellectual, and cultural legacies of Vienna in 1900, the ACFNY explores the vibrant creative fabric of the ‘city of dreams’ in the 21st century with this exhibition, as well as a festival of contemporary music, a symposium, and a film series.

[Image: Verena Dengler, The Verena Complex (2014)]

Images

EI ARAKAWA & SHIMON MINAMIKAWA
Paris Adapted Homeland (2013)
11:16 min
Courtesy of the artists

JOSEF DABERNIG
Handwritten copy of Dr. Franz Xaver Mayr’s book “Schönheit und Verdauung oder die Verjüngung des Menschen nur durch sachgemäße Wartung des Darmes”, 5th edition – 1975 (first edition 1920), published by Verlag Neues Leben Bad Goisern, Upper Austria (1977)
ballpoint pen on paper
109 pages
Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Andreas Huber, Vienna and Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam

VERENA DENGLER
Untitled (2013)
Carpet
55 1/8 x 78 3/8 inches
Courtesy Carol Greene, New York
Photo: Martha Fleming-Ives

ANKE DYES & NIKLAS LICHTI
The Critical Ass Nummer 2: Im Netz der Psychopathologien der Kunst (2013)
Wallpaper
Dimensions variable
Courtesy thecriticalass.at

HARUN FAROCKI
Still from Worte und Spiele (1998)
Video-BetaSP, color
68 min
Courtesy Harun Farocki Film Production

SHIMON MINAMIKAWA
Question (1999)
Acrylic on canvas on panel
40.3 x 28.7 inches
Courtesy MISAKO&ROSEN, Tokyo

SHIMON MINAMIKAWA
Blackboard (2000)
Acrylic on canvas on panel
40.3 x 28.7 inches
Courtesy MISAKO&ROSEN, Tokyo

ASTRID WAGNER
Untitled (2013)
fired clay
14.5 x 12.5 x 3.5 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Photo by fotowest.com

ASTRID WAGNER
Untitled (2013)
paper, varnish
46.6 x 68.9 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Photo by fotowest.com

FRANZ WEST
Liège (1989)
Iron, wood pedestal, paper, glass
Divan bed 25.7 x 63 x 24.4 in
Pedestal 6 x 71.2 x 36.2 in
Courtesy Sigmund Freud Foundation, Vienna
Exhibition View at the Austrian Cultural Forum
Photo: David Plakke

HEIMO ZOBERNIG
NR. 24 (2007)
Video and one sculpture, video: 14 minutes, 22 seconds
Sculpture: blue screen material , styrofoam
18.5 x 129.53 x 74.02 inches
HZ 08/017
Courtesy of the artist and Petzel, New  York.

Press Release

Credits

Curator Cosima Rainer
Exhibition Design Astrid Wagner
Exhibition Coordinator Natascha Boojar
Exhibition Assistants Verena Jurkovic, Stefanie Salfinger

Supporting Institutions of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York: AirBerlin, Esterházy Winery, RB International Finance (USA) LLC, Stiegl, Zumtobel

Special thanks to Franklin Castanien, Alexander De Maria

Tue ‒ Thu: 09am ‒ 07pm
Fri ‒ Mon: 09am ‒ 05pm

Adults: $25
Children & Students free

673 12 Constitution Lane Massillon
781-562-9355, 781-727-6090