March 20 until May 8
Nicole Six & Paul Petritsch
«The Monument»
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Two of the elements constituting the artistic methodology of this artist duo are the human body and movement. To travel the distance of the circumference of the earth on a two-kilometer-long race track in northern Spain seems to be an absurd undertaking. Where do we end up when we set ourselves in motion? Are we just turning in circles, or is the journey itself the goal? For their project “The Internal Border” (2008), Six and Petritsch walked the length of the border considered by the 1920 Carinthian plebiscite and took photographs of the border at regular intervals. The pictures generated on their route are void of people and result from the random division of the whole stretch into individual sections. What happens here is a denial and a destruction of popular imagery and political rhetoric, opening up the possibility for rethinking this exceedingly fraught chapter of Carinthian history from square one.
In their new project, the artists again raise questions of memory and history. Six and Petritsch are shooting a film about Carinthia. Which symbols or monuments are suitable for expressing the lasting impression of human suffering that comes from war and displacement? How is it possible to escape the perpetuation of political propaganda and the fragmentation of remembrance along the lines of the respective ideological groupings? Sometimes it takes a radical gesture. Art has the freedom to make room for a new memorial culture by overwriting and draining of meaning existing forms of commemoration.
Nicole Six & Paul Petritsch
«The Monument»
camera and editing: Robert Schabus
cooperation: Peter Petritsch & Andreas Krištof
Nicole Six (*1971) and Paul Petritsch (*1968) are based in Vienna and collaborate since 1997 on performative, filmic, photographic, displays and sculptural works.
Recent solo exhibitions are “Nicole Six & Paul Petritsch, Sea of Tranquility”, Landesgalerie Linz 2014 (Kat.); “Aussicht kann durch Ladung verstellt sein”, Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz, 2012 (Cat.); “Raum für 17 Minuten 6’23’’, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, 2011 (Cat.); “Atlas”, Secession, Wien, 2010 (Cat.); “Nicole Six / Paul Petritsch”, Gesellschaft für aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, 2006.
Their investigation of space and human condition were part of „Archives, Re-Assemblances and Surveys, On Austrian Contemporary Photography“, Klovicevi dvori Gallery, Zagreb 2014 (Kat.); „Suicide Narcissus", The Rennaisance Society, Chicago, 20013; „Keine Zeit, erschöpftes Selbst", 21er Haus , Wien, 2012 (Cat.); „Reading the City”, ev+a 2009, Limerick 2009; „unterwegs sein”, Kunstraum Düsseldorf, 2008; „Temporally”, The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, 2007; „Tu Felix Austria…Wild at Heart”, KUB Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2005 (Cat.).
They are regularly invited for displays and interventions in public space and realised projects like "Places of Transition“, Freiraum, MuseumsQuartier Wien 2014 (Kat.); „Das Bauhaus in Kalkutta", Bauhaus Dessau, 20013; „Art is Concrete", Camera Austria, Graz, 20012; „Peter Zumthor, Bauten und Projekte mit einer Filminstallation von Nicole Six & Paul Petritsch", Experimentadesign Lissabon, 2008; „Film ab", Universität für darstellende Kunst, Wien, 2007; „Kontakt Belgrad....aus der Sammlung der Erste Bank-Group", Museum moderner Kunst Belgrad, 2007.