Private Investigations
Research, Acquisition and Processing of Knowledge in Contemporary Art Practices
Innsbruck, 10.11.2005 to 03.02.2006 and 13.12.2006 to 26.01.2007
Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, Stadtturmgalerie, Kunstpavillon
Exhibitions by Judith Fischer & Claudia Hardi, Cătălin Gheorghe, Kristina Inčiūraitė, ixi software (Enrike Hurtado and Thor Magnusson), Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, URTICA Art and Media Research Group, Alexander Vaindorf, Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor
Presentations and lectures by BAVO, Geoffrey Garrison, Natascha Hagenbeek, Meta Haven Research Group, Hinrich Sachs, Stevan Vuković
Curated by Andrei Siclodi and Ingeborg Erhart
In cooperation with the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
Private Investigations was a research project on contemporary art practices. It employed various individual (non-scientific) research methods and strategies as a means of gaining information and processing it into bases of knowledge, which could then be used as material for artistic work in itself. Since these strategies are fairly common to artistic research and production in artist residency and postgraduate programs, the project also aimed to analyze the specific working conditions within these institutions.
The exhibition and lecture series was held in Innsbruck from the beginning of November 2005 to early February 2006, and was followed by an addendum exhibition from mid-December 2006 to end of January 2007. Works by former fellows from the previous three years of the büchsenhausen.air international residency program for visual and media arts were presented and discussed at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, the Stadtturmgalerie and the Tyrolean Artists’ Association Kunstpavillon. Using particular strategies and forms of artistic research, artists and theorists were invited to investigate topics such as the spreading of cultural patterns (URTICA Art and Media Research Group), collaborative artistic production and generative software (ixi software), serial architecture and its influence on human behavior (Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor), the idiomatic behavior of an artists’ community in a context of transition, social and psychological changes in society as examined in notions of female identity (Kristina Inčiūraitė), models of language and image perception through cinematographic and computerized knowledge acquisition and organization (Judith Fischer & Claudia Hardi), fieldwork as an artistic practice (Alexander Vaindorf), and finally, hegemonic-seeming concepts of love and interpersonal relationships in pop music (Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay). The project also focused on and more closely examined research and production conditions in the post-academic context of the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. Within this framework, researchers and advising researchers from the three departments (fine art, design, and theory) presented and discussed their ongoing projects.
Enrike HURTADO (*1973 in Bilbao) lives and works in San Sebastian and Bilbao. He completed a degree in Fine Arts at the University of Bilbao (1991-97) and an MA in the Design of Interactive Media, Middlesex University, London (2000/01).
Thor MAGNUSSON (*1972 in Reykjavik) lives and works in Copenhagen and studied philosophy at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik (1996-97). He received an MA in Electronic Arts from Middlesex University, London, studied Comparative Literature at the University of Copenhagen (1998-2002) and completed a diploma on the subject of Currents in Process-Oriented Works of Generative and Software Art.
Enrike Hurtado and Thor Magnusson have been collaborating as ixi software since 2001. Starting in
2002, they have held lectures and workshops at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, the Faculty of Art and Design of Hull, the Department of Electroacustic Music at the University of Huddersfield, at ICA in London, the MIT-Medialab in Dublin, the Media Lab Uiah Helsinki and at Arteleku Center in San Sebastian.
www.ixi-software.net
Mona Vătămanu (*1968) and Florin Tudor (*1974) have been collaborating since 2000. Their work has been shown in numerous international exhibitions since 2004, including solo presentations at the Frankfurter Kunstverein (2013), the Vienna Secession (2009) and BAK Utrecht (2009). The duo has participated, among other things, in the 5th Berlin Biennale (2008) and the Venice Biennial (Romanian Pavilion, 2007). Vătămanu & Tudor live and work in Bucharest.
www.monavatamanuflorintudor.ro
Kristina Inčiūraitė (*1974) lives in Vilnius/LT. In thematicizing personal memories and notions of female identity, her video works record and reflect social and psychological changes in post-Soviet Lithuanian society.
www.inciuraite.lt
Cătălin GHEORGE is an author and curator based in Iaşi, Romania. Gheorghe teaches theory and the history of art criticism at the University of Iaşi and has co-curated several events at the Vector Gallery. He has been writing articles about contemporary art practices for different publications since 2000.
www.periferic.org
Judith Fischer (*1967, Hallstatt/A), writer and artist, works conceptually and artistically in the fields and context of literature, philosophy, (horror) film, theory and visual art and completed postgraduate studies at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht and at the Bauhaus Kolleg, Dessau. Publications and projects include Vampiric, 2002; I saw her. I saw her, 2003; Predator & Prey, 2004. Film: Dark.Reading, 2005, SOME—Women, Hauses, Phantoms 2000-2010, 2010.
Claudia Hardi (*1969, St.Gallen/CH) worked at that time as a computer artist, information designer and internet researcher in Maastricht. Her exploratory mode of research is focused on the correlation between popular culture, computer science and the comic and game culture. She studied urban planning, fine art and new media. Projects include As We May Think Database, 2004/05 and Dream Machines, 2005.
Alexander VAINDORF (*1965 in the former USSR) lives and works in Stockholm. He received an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University in New York. Vaindorf has participated in numerous international exhibitions since 1996 including Manifesta 7 (South Tyrol/Trentino, 2007).
www.alexandervaindorf.com
Benny Nemerofsky RAMSAY (*1973 in Montreal) created video, text and sound works using song, self-reflexive performance and pop music lyrics as vehicles for examining the singing voice, the (un-)translatability of emotions into language and the influence of technology and popular culture on our emotional expression.
www.nemerofsky.ca
Location
Künstler:innenhaus Büchsenhausen