Asier Mendizabal

It comes as a surprise to the non-Portuguese speaker that the word normally used for chain is corrente, current. There is something counter-intuitive in this idea of displacement which, in turn, denotes a displacement in language itself. It is surprising that an image that evokes subjection, that even symbolizes generic concepts such as oppression or slavery and that makes one imagine the impediment to something or someone moving, would share its name with that which flows, with that which runs. And it denotes a displacement of language itself, as I say, because it is easy to reconstruct, backwards, the chain of phonemes that in their progressive transformation (sound shift, linguists call it) form its etymology up to the Latin currere and, from there to the voice*kurs in Pre-Indo-European, both naming the simple act of running. The displacement of the sounds made into words along languages and times, takes us, reversing the [...]

Chin Tsao, Foreign fine girls, how low you can go?, 2019

Perhaps you have experienced it yourself before: A situation was so painful and unbearable that you burst out laughing uncontrollably. It is a defense mechanism of the mind that may seem grotesque and even inappropriate to those around us, but its function is to protect us from feelings of sheer despair, if only at least for a short time.

The group exhibition Bliss, bliss, bliss is guided by the theme of such bizarre laughter. Against the backdrop of an increase in apocalyptic scenarios, the persistence of wars and terror as well as an unimpeded climate crisis that is only escalating further, the show examines conscious and unconscious coping mechanisms of the mind. What impact does the experience of a "declining world" have on the way we feel, desire and relate to ourselves and to others?

Six artists engage with questions like these from a personal as well as societal perspective, exploring moments of ecstasy, desire and excess. Their works show [...]

Nilbar Güreş, BILINMEYEN SPORLAR (KOMPOZIT) / UNKNOWN SPORTS (KOMPOSIT), 2009

Play is a special way of experiencing the world. It is a metaphor for social coexistence and a driver of cultural transformation. Enjoyable play helps us discover ourselves, our individual qualities, and abilities. Free play, meanwhile, can often turn bitterly serious. Playful contests let us experience social cooperation and competition. We learn how rules and systems operate and what it means to bend and break them.

The exhibition Playing Rules! centers on the theme of play in art. From nature, the body, and sport to communication and media imagery, these are just some of the areas artists explore through play, transforming them by way of interaction and improvisation. They show how art uses imagination to expand the limits of the possible and the potential of play in representing and, not infrequently, subverting social relationships.

With works by Marc Adrian, Josef Bauer, VALIE EXPORT, Harun Farocki, Nilbar Güreş, Hans Haacke, [...]

Werner Feiersinger in Breaking Down Walls! The Collections, exhibition view, Museum der Moderne Salzburg 2024, Courtesy Museum der Moderne Salzburg, photo: wilbild/Herbert Rohrer

The Museum is taking the 20th anniversary of its site on the Mönchsberg as an opportunity to place a focus on increasing the visibility of the collections entrusted to it. For most of the year, two levels on the Mönchsberg (1 and 3) will be used for four exhibitions from the collections, though strictly speaking these are two exhibitions that will be modified halfway through their run to create new presentations with new focal points. The concept and content of these four parts are revealed in their titles.

The exhibitions for the anniversary year are presented by the Museum der Moderne Salzburg in cooperation with the Generali Foundation.

The exhibition Breaking Down Walls! reflects on the insights of the intellectual movement known as the spatial turn, which emphasizes the vital importance of space or the conception of space as an analytical instrument. Its focus is not just on the static space of geometry but on space as a phenomenon shaped, [...]

Werner Feiersinger, Untitled (Kollegienkirche. Salzburg, 1696–1707), 2022

The Karlskirche is regarded as the most important baroque structure in Austria and is a Viennese landmark. Its architect, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656–1723), is the focus of the first special exhibition in the reopened Wien Museum. Almost 70 years after the last major exhibition of Fischer’s work, and with the help of Werner Feiersinger’s exhibition design, his extraordinary buildings and projects are reassessed and placed in a contemporary artistic context.

Fischer’s architectural oeuvre ranges from summer and city residences for the Viennese nobility, to church buildings for the Archbishop of Salzburg and the major imperial monuments of baroque Vienna. By eloquently referring to antiquity while being unmistakably modern, his buildings complied with the notion of noble representation, with its roots in tradition and history.

“Entwurff Einer Historischen Architectur,” which Fischer published in 1721, was the first [...]

Chin Tsao, Souls in Cables, 2023, porcelain, epoxy

“Dream Time” explores the themes of will, hope, memory, and imagination. Through the investigation of complex meanings of dreams (both as reveries and aspiration), fifteen individual artists and/or art collectives around the world are invited to showcase works across various forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and performance, and to delve into the exploration of subjectivity and empowerment. Their works are often interwoven with subjective perception, mechanisms of desire, intimate experiences, gender and cultural identity, and collective memories, forming intricate narratives that traverse spatiotemporal dimensions in the interplay of emotional textures. In this exhibition, what is dreamt of at present is from time to time transformed into a dreamscape steeped in psychological and socio-historical fiction, while projecting an emotional and imaginative vision of the future world. In a challenging present, what can art reveal to us? [...]