28.04.2009
Great Hall

Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Bank-Group
Lecture with Walter Seidl, Curator of the collection

Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 7 p.m.

Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Bank Group
Lecture with Dr. Walter Seidl, Curator of the collection

Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Bank Group explores art production in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe with a special emphasis on contemporary art discourses and critical theory. Kontakt reflects the political transformation in Europe and the significance of art before the background of specific cultural, social and economic developments in the post-socialist countries. Its aim is to develop a collection with a sound art-historical and conceptual basis that deals with artistic positions rooted in a specific location and context that has long been neglected by many museums despite this art’s international credentials. The collection’s intention is to reflect the forms of art production within Europe’s transformed and self-transforming political geographies. It is essential that the art of the former Communist countries be subjected to international comparisons and that attention be drawn to its reciprocal connections and varied practices. In many of the countries governed by real socialism, artists often had less contact with one another than with exponents of the international art world. This unusual phenomenon resulted from the absence of a unified infrastructure promoting artistic production and intensive communication. Erste Bank Group’s new art collection aims to present works that play a decisive role in the formation of a common and unified European art history.

www.kontakt-collection.net

Walter Seidl, born 1973 in Graz, PhD in contemporary cultural history (studies at the universities of Graz, Seattle, New York and Paris). He works as a cultural manager, curator, art critic and fine art photographer. He has already realised projects and exhibitions e.g. in Bulgaria, Hongkong, the USA, Germany or Slovenia and writes reviews for magazines like Camera Austria, Praesens and springerin.