Exhibitions 2015

 

PROOF - Michael Huey

Opening: December 3, 2015 at 7 p.m.
Exhibition duration: December 4, 2015 - February 20, 2016

Archives are storage places for all manner of evidence. The exhibition Proof zeros in on the discrepancy between what can be documented through archival records and objects, what can be (falsely?) interpreted, and what can – despite all best efforts – simply no longer be evinced. What news, what clarifications can be drawn from material(s) at hand? What remains immanent to the source but nevertheless trapped within, not extractable? A new series of Proof images based on photographers’ proofs surviving in the family files, together with a half dozen objects – some presented as objets trouvés, others reworked as artist objects – make up an elegaic Kunstkammer of the archive.

 

Kiesler and Bartos. The Shrine of the Book

Opening: June 9, 2015 at 7 p.m.
Exhibition duration: June 10 - October 3, 2015
Extended until November 22, 2015!

The Shrine of the Book is the only realized building by Frederick Kiesler. Together with the architect Armand Bartos he worked on the planning since 1957. After eight years of mapping and constructing with a delay caused by repeated relocations, the Shrine of the Book was completed in 1965. To celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the opening in April 1965, the Frederick Kiesler Foundation presents an exhibition that includes blueprints, sketches, photographs and other documents.

Curated by Jill Meißner and Gerd Zillner

( Booklet here )

 

Bruce Nauman

Opening: March 3, 2015
Exhibition duration: March 4 - May 23, 2015

The presentation of the 9th Kiesler Prize laureate Bruce Nauman (*1941 in Fort Wayne, USA) is dedicated to one of the most extraordinary artists of the present. Large-format "drawings for installations" from the years 1970 to 2002 will be exhibited. The last designs for "mapping the studio" from 2002 will be accompanied by the according video.

Curated by Chris Dercon and Peter Bogner

 

Studio and Workshop
Frederick Kiesler as a Master of Self-fashioning

Exhibition duration: November 7, 2014 - January 11, 2015
EXTENDED UNTIL FEBRUARY 14, 2015!


The estate of the Austrian-American architect, set decorator, and designer Frederick Kiesler (1890–1965) contains more than 5,000 photographs. One major segment of this collection consists of portraits. By the drawing board, in the art foundry, or in the carpenter’s workshop—Frederick Kiesler was a master of dramatization of his art and himself.

The exhibition shows Kiesler at work: with his assistants or with craftsmen, in solitary immersion in the design in front of him, facetiously directing his team in a moment of high spirits in his studio. Kiesler turns his atelier, the intimate space of production, into a theatrical scene. The process of creating his art, the making of, is recorded for the public eye; apparently casual snapshots complement meticulously staged pictures. On the one hand, these photographs help us understand how Kiesler saw himself as an artist; on the other hand, many of them shed light on how certain projects came into being.

Of particular interest in this regard is the work on the Endless House models in the winter of 1958–59. The large number and artistic quality of the photograph documenting this process suggests that the creative act, the labor of modeling the objects out of wire mesh and cement, matters as much as the finished products.

The exhibition features vintage prints of pictures by renowned photographers of the time who captured the artist at work, including Adelaide de Menil, Arnold Newman, Hans Namuth, Irving Penn.

Curated by Gerd Zillner

( Booklet on request )

Cooperations with other museums:

Frederick Kiesler: Visions at Work Annotated by Céline Condorelli and Six Student Groups

Exhibition at the Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm

Opening: February 10, 2015
Exhibition duration: Feburary 11 until May 2, 2015

In collaboration with the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation in Vienna, Tensta konsthall shows the first exhibition in Sweden of Frederick Kiesler's genuinely transdisciplinary work. The exhibition will feature models and documentations of Kiesler's designs for exhibitions, buildings, interiors, shop-windows, etc. from various periods. The exhibition will also include prototypes, including those of his Mobile Home Library and the mass-produced so-called correalist furniture, among others. The focus will be on Kiesler's interest in the intersection between art and life and how this manifests in his works.

The artist Céline Condorelli, who has a long-time interest in exhibition design and modes of presentation, will contribute to the project. Student groups from KTH Tensta, KTH School of Architecture, Mejan Arc at the Royal Institute of Art, Interior Architecture & Furniture Design and CuratorLab at Konstfack, and a fifth grade at Askebyskolan in Rinkeby will be involved with the exhibition.

Cureated by Maria Lind and Dieter Bogner
In collaboration with The Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation

Frederick Kiesler. Artist, Architect, Visionary

Exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest
Opening: February 23, 2015
Exhibition duration: February 24 - March 30, 2015

Further station: Austrian Cultural Forum Bratislava
Exhibition duration: April 9 - 24, 2015

On the occasion of Frederick Kiesler's 125th birthday and 50th day of death the Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest presents a photo exhibition on life and work of the significant Austrian-American artist-architect. About 40 large-format photo reproducations give insight into the highlights of his multifaceted oeuvre. The journey leads from Vienna and Berlin to Paris, New York and eventually to Jerusalem. The exhibition will be accompanied by a booklet in German and Hungarian.

Display of the Centuries. Frederick Kiesler and Contemporary Art

Exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York

Opening: March 31, 2015
Exhibition duration: March 31 - July 2015

16 contemporary artists examine strategies of representation and display, not only referencing the works of Frederick Kiesler, but also grappling with Raimund Abraham's intricate design of the building that hosts this exhibition. They will investigate questions of art production and its subsequent presentation.

Artists: Ona B., Josef Dabernig, Wolfgang Geyer, Richard Jochum, Michael Huey, Doris Krüger & Walter Pardeller, Karl Heinz Klopf, Hans Kunitzberger, Christoph Meier, Ute Müller, Eva Petric, Hani Rashid, Gregor Schmoll, Gerold Tagwerker, Josef Trattner, Heimo Zobernig

Curated by Peter Bogner

Frederick Kiesler's MAGIC ARCHITECTURE

Exhibition at the School of Architecture Gallery, Princeton University
Exhibition duration: April 20 - June 5, 2015

The first public view of Frederick Kiesler's book manuscript entitled Magic Architecture (ca. 1947) telling the "story of human housing" from the caves and animal habitations of prehistory to the technological shelters of the post-atomic age. The exhibition will showcase parts of Kiesler's original typescript, the complete set of maquettes for the sixty composite illustrations prepared by the architect, as well as manuscript drafts, sketches, and newspaper clippings documenting his multi-year research in anthropological, ethnographic, and scientific sources.

Curated by Spyros Papapetros and Gerd Zillner

The Architecture of the Shrine of the Book

Exhibition at the entrance hall of the Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Exhibition duration: April 20 - December 31, 2015

Marking the Shrine of the Book’s 50th anniversary, this exhibition is devoted to the design of the Shrine itself – an icon of modernist architecture – and to its architects, Frederick Kiesler and Armand Bartos. On display are preliminary sketches of the Shrine by Kiesler, shown to the public for the first time, as well as examples of his “correalistic” furniture that illustrate his distinctive approach to design and architecture. The exhibition also features photographs documenting the Shrine’s building process and its early years, when it served as a site of pilgrimage to photographers and to the public at large.

Curated by Osnat Sirkin

Function Follows Vision, Vision Follows Reality

Exhibition at the Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz
Exhibition duration: May 27 - August 23, 2015

This exhibition, in cooperation with the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation in Vienna, centres on issues of display and brings works by Kiesler into a dialogue with relevant contemporary artists. Particularly in cases where the artistic work itself becomes a display and addresses its own act of being exhibited, one encounters intriguing interfaces with questions of reception and communication, with the institutional space as a social space and with the general aspiration of contemporary art to influence social spheres.

Artists: Frederick Kiesler with Leonor Antunes, Olga Balema, Céline Condorelli, Morton Feldman, Annette Kelm, Charlotte Moth, Francesco Pedraglio, Luca Trevisani, Nicole Wermers

Curated by Luca Lo Pinto and Vanessa Joan Müller