Ursula Hansbauer & Wolfgang Konrad
Bio Databases / Living Archives
Hansbauer & Konrad’s work deals with questions of biopolitics and genetic colonialism. The desire for global genetic resources is one that has been around for many centuries. European nations in particular began to appropriate crops from various continents as early as the colonial era and have continued to archive them in genetic libraries ever since. Meanwhile, patent laws have propelled the commercialization of natural resources. At the heart of Hansbauer & Konrad’s research are bio-databanks and their comprehensive data archives, but also the international commerce with biometric data. The project, in other words, is about the possibility of constructing and reconstructing nature.
Hansbauer & Konrad continued to develop the Living Archive project at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen. One of the starting points for their research was the central Austrian Central DNA Database Laboratory at the University of Innsbruck, which compiles databases for forensics, population and medical genetics applications.
In 2007, Ursula Hansbauer and Wolfgang Konrad were awarded the Stipend of the City of Innsbruck at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen.
Ursula HANSBAUER (*1973 in Salzburg) and Wolfgang KONRAD (*1974 in Graz) are visual artists and filmmakers who live and work in Vienna. Both studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (class of Renée Green). Their collaborative projects include, among others: Forst (2004, film, prizewinner at Diagonale 2005), Niemandsland (2005, exhibition at Galerie 5020 Salzburg) and Koloniale Saat (2008, exhibition at MUSA, Vienna).