Jetztzeit

Jetztzeit developed out of an invitation by the Austrian Ministry of Culture to curate an exhibition on Austrian art for the Kunsthalle Wien. Aim was to provide a fresh perspective on the national art scene, seen by a foreigner: Saskia Bos. As national boundaries are not capable of providing any meaningful framework for art, a limited number of Austrian artists were selected, taking up distinct positions in contemporary art, who would invite in their turn a foreign artist for the show. The choices made by the invited Austrian artists brought some surprises. Franz West, for instance, chose the Iranian artist Bizhan Bassiri - long a resident of Italy - not just for reasons of friendship but because both artists share a passion for literature. A fascination for language and literature also formed the common ground between Franz Graf and Svetlana Kopystianksky. Gerwald Rockenschaub gave priority to kinship of attitude and clearly found in Thomas Locher the right partner for his critical analyses. Matta Wagnest Sound Box was, like Elke Krystufek's invitation to the rock musician Kim Fowley a striking link to contemporary music. Peter Kogler's invitation to the Japanese Tatsuo Miyajima was the outcome of an affinity to media-based spatial research which goes further than pure technology: they are both fascinated, on philosophical grounds, by a vertiginous blend of elapsing time, computer processing and the functioning of the human brain. The experiment carried out by Heimo Zobernig with the perceptibility of paintings by Albert Oehlen could only have arisen out of the friendship the two artists had had for many years. The title Jetztzeit was a request to the artists to reflect on the concept of contemporariness - 'être de son temps' - as Gustave Courbet put it. (Based on the invitation text by Saskia Bos) Catalogue: Jetztzeit. Bizhan Bassiri, Kim Fowley, Franz Graf, Peter Kogler, Svetlana Kopystiansky, Elke Krystufek, Thomas Locher, Tatsuo Miyajima,Albert Oehlen, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Lincoln Tobier, Matta Wagnest, Franz West, Heimo Zobernig, 1994. Text: Saskia Bos, Jimmy Durham, Burghart Schmidt, Toni Stooss. German & English. 200 pages: 25 f.c., 33 b.w., 19 x 24 cm. Hardcover. Design: Studio Anthon Beeke (Elizabeth Pick). Best Book Design Award 1995. ISBN 3 90322 666 4. SOLD OUT