06.12.2012–27.01.2013
Kabinett

Elisabeth Schmirl
…In the Context of Uncertainty

Opening: December 5, 2012, 7 p.m.

The exhibition is closed from Dec 24-26, on Dec 31, 2012 as well as on Jan 1, 2013!

...In the Context of Uncertainty, Elisabeth Schmirl addresses the individual’s view of virtual existence in cyberspace as well as strategies of (self) reflection and appropriation of the world. She summarizes the results of her visual navigation through these worlds of images in studies. In the process, classification systems are formed in the context of uncertainty and doubt.

In the two rubber transfer prints Elisabeth Schmirl combines historical photographs with images from the Internet showing people wearing masks. In the process, staging patterns in photographs from 100 years ago are broken with today’s online photos of self-portrayals.

For this exhibit, Elisabeth Schmirl offers a look into her archive dedicated to online self-portrayals for the first time. As a result of extensive online research, this archive of countless photographs has accumulated in recent years. At a certain point, Schmirl’s pieces emerge from this constantly growing collection of images. She doesn’t sort her photos according to simple formal, chronological, or geographic criteria, but rather by content associations.

This approach is reminiscent of Aby Warburg’s (1866-1929) Mnemosyne picture atlas. With this atlas, the art historian and cultural scientist from Hamburg developed a picture classification system. The atlas was a collective visual memory that he researched in the 1920s but was unable to complete by the time he died in 1929. It was a collection of pictures of forms of human expression: emotional gestures, affective gesticulations at moments of great agitation in extreme situations or crises.

Which “pathos formulas” (specific gestures) is Elisabeth Schmirl interested in? What crises and borderline situations cause people to be greatly agitated today?

Elisabeth Schmirl, born 1980 in Salzburg, lives and works in Salzburg. Co-founder of the offspace periscope, Salzburg.