Foreword

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This summer, Kunstraum Lakeside, an international exhibition and discussion space, will be presenting diverse artistic practices involving the theme of work. The geographies of inequality in wage labor are revealed in Sascha Reichstein’s visual investigation “Be my Guest.” She takes the Hilton Hotels as her model, which, with their standardized offers worldwide, are regarded as a globalized brand for those enjoying a higher standard of living. Sociologist Klaus Ronneberger will speak on changing working conditions in our “Post-Fordist” age. In “Non Public Spaces,” Ernst Logar looks at the concentration of protected locations and power complexes in which work usually takes place behind closed doors to which only a privileged few have access. The artist sets himself the challenge of gaining entry to these premises as one of the non-privileged masses using various strategies, and then photographing the inner sanctum.

In the aftermath of decades of dictatorship, South America is regarded as a test laboratory for global social justice. In his work “The New Ideal Line” (T.N.I.L.), a line that manifests itself in various aesthetic forms and figures, Mario Navarro explores the path toward overcoming underdevelopment and accessing the modernity enjoyed in the first world. The present political reality in Europe evinces a number of contradictory viewpoints. New front lines and subjugation scenarios are emerging along European borders, especially between Spain and Morocco or the boundaries shared with the new EU member states in Eastern Europe. In “Economies on the Borderline,” which takes up the theme of a project conducted by the “European Civic Forum” in Lobnik near Eisenkappl, researchers, artists and activists will be talking at Kunstraum Lakeside about migration, working and exploitation situations in borderline economies. The exhibition of the same name, featuring contributions by Ursula Biemann & Angela Sanders, Gülsün Karamustafa and Michael Zinganel/Hans-H. Albers/Marusˇa Sagadin/Michael Hieslmair, spotlights both the structural framework conditions of today’s borderline economy as well as the experiences and viewpoints of the migrant workers themselves.

Also on view will be photographs taken by Gisela Erlacher of permanent works by Alice Creischer/Andreas Siekmann, Andreas Fogarasi and Dorit Margreiter on site at Lakeside Science & Technology Park, which can be viewed by appointment.

Christian Kravagna, Hedwig Saxenhuber