06.12.2007–27.01.2008
Main Hall

The Wall
Annual Exhibition 07/08

Opening: December 5th, 2007, 7 p.m.

Art Talk with the curator and artists of the exhibition (Christine Scherrer, Gabriele Fulterer, Thomas Hörl, Elisabeth Czihak )
December 13th, 2007, 7 pm

Art Talk with Annette Südbeck, art historian and artists of the exhibition (Nabila Irshaid,
Elisabeth Schmirl, Stefan Heizinger,
Bernhard Gwiggner) January 17th, 2008, 7 pm

A poster series, which showed all wall views, has been printed. The posters could be taken for free in the exhibition.

Participants: Elisabeth Czihak, Bernhard Gwiggner, Thomas Hörl, Nabila Irshaid,
Matthias Klos, Marianne Lang,
Annelies Oberdanner, Isa Riedl,
Christine Scherrer/Gabriele Fulterer,
Elisabeth Schmirl/Stefan Heizinger

What underlies “The Wall ” – the annual exhibition 2007/2008 of the members of the Salzburg Kunstverein – was the basic question of what expectations and needs are associated with the members’ exhibition. In keeping with the curatorial concepts over the past two years of “staging a scene, ”this series engaged with the idea of a “playfully collaborative ” approach. At the same time, the conceptual focus was on the artistic gesture in wall painting and the way its inherent tension between original and reproduction, ephemerality and permanence, chance and concept is manifested. The mural works by the participating artists, in their unique, processual and performative diversity of form and appearance, addressed the relationship between remembrance, body and space. The site-specific space design, conceived especially for this exhibition, made tangible the tension, dominant in the 20th and 21st centuries, between that which is “live ” and that which is mediatized. The wall that holds everything together is a window into another world, and becomes the site for a game of “Cadavre Exquis ”.* The Salzburg Kunstverein was again presenting the 3,000-euro Award of Sponsorship together with the Province of Salzburg. The jury consisted of Barbara Clausen, curator of the annual exhibition, Fritz Rücker, artist as well as Anselm Wagner, art historian and critic. The prize was awarded during the exhibition’s opening ceremony.

* Cadavre Exquis is a game-like technique developed by the Surrealists that allows random factors to play a role in the creation of pictures.

Curator: Barbara Clausen Born in Salzburg in 1970, lives and works in Vienna. Barbara Clausen is a curator and art historian. From 2004 to 2006 she was a Fellow at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna and a Visiting Scholar at the New York University in NY. From 1997 to 2000 she worked as Curatorial Associate at the Dia Art Foundation in New York. In 2001 she took part in the De Appel curators’ programme in Amsterdam and in 2002 she organised the film progamme, the artist archive and the media coordination for Documenta 11. Since 1997 she has written for various art publications and curated exhibitions and film screenings. In 2005 she curated the performance and lecture series “After the Act: the (Re)Presentation of Performance Art“, and in 2006, together with Achim Hochdörfer, „wieder und wider: performance appropriated“ for the Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK) in Vienna. Recently, she edited the publication “After the Act: The (Re)Presentation of Performance Art“ as Part 3 of the MUMOK’s theoretical series. The work of Matthias Klos was kindly supported by Kunstverein Baden.