Tag: Curated by Christian Bazant-Hegemark

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Announcing “Substanz”, Künstlerhaus Wien, 2024

I will curate one of the three main exhibitions at Künstlerhaus Wien, in 2024 — together with Esther Mlenek.

“Substanz” will be a show about artists whose focus isn’t “limited” by the boundaries of their artistic practice, but who let their passion run their lives, even way outside of the studio.

Thanks to Günther Oberhollenzer (Wikipedia) for asking and trusting me in the first palce. Thanks to Esther for supporting the vision wholeheartedly. Thanks to the Künstlerhaus board for believing in this (context: the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung is an artist’s society originally founded in the 1840’s, and is currently led artistically by Günther Oberhollenzer).

Künstlerhaus Wien
(c) C.Stadler/Bwag - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91605318

Exhibition duration: October 19th, 2024 – February 9th, 2025
Curator: Christian Bazant-Hegemark
Co-Curator: Esther Mlenek

“Die Ausstellung SUBSTANZ handelt von Menschen, die ihre Themen nicht nur in ihrer Kunst verarbeiten, sondern diesbezüglich auch in gesellschaftliches Handeln gehen. Sie bilden beispielsweise Communities, Netzwerke und Räume, gehen einem erweiterten Kunstvermittlungsbegriff nach und loten die Möglichkeiten der Schnittstellen zwischen – und jenseits von – Kunst und Aktivismus aus. Den Ausstellenden gemein ist, dass sie unsere Gesellschaft über die eigene künstlerische Praxis hinaus beeinflussen. Denn Kunst und Gesellschaft sind eng und zirkulär verbunden: Kunst entsteht aus der Auseinandersetzung mit einer Welt, die durch Kunst beeinflusst wird.“

Günther Oberhollenzer announcing the 2024 program at a press conference at Künstlerhaus, April 2023 (c) Alexandra Gamrot
Press Conference Künstlerhaus, April 2023 (c) Alexandra Gamrot
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Curated Group Exhibition: “Viennese Videogame Aesthetics” (2015)

In 2015 I curated a group exhibition about videogame aesthetics. Here are links to publications from various news outlets:

“Video games are gradually embraced as contemporary artistic medium, especially known for their interactivity. Uniting a variety of media like music, sound, game and level design, they often feature strong visual aesthetics. While video games are already exhibited in their native interactive form in museums worldwide, their visual aesthetics have only been shown when focussing their production art, or when used as marketing medium. Focussing static still frames of games in the context of gallery exhibitions apparently hasn’t been established.

With Vienna being home to a diverse group of video game studios (from one-person-operations up to a team of hundred people), the HOLLEREI Galerie is pleased to invite you to its upcoming autumn exhibition, “Viennese Video Game Aesthetics” – with exhibitors including Anna Prem, Blood Irony, Broken Rules, Causa Creations, Gold Extra, IMakeGames (Maximilian Csuk), Leafthief (Stefan Srb), Michael Hackl, Mi’pu’mi, Sabine Harrer, Sarah Hiebl, Philipp Seifried, Socialspiel, Josef Who & Broken Rules, Zeppelin Studio.

The show, curated by Christian Bazant-Hegemark, exhibits a selection of still frames from local video game productions, printed in museum quality in small collector’s editions (1 + 3AP). This extends the view on the medium, which usually updates its content 30-60 times per second: detached from its other medial influences, its visual aesthetics are heightened, allowing for specific in-game moments to be viewed statically – as viewers are used from paintings, drawings, etchings or photography.”