CORNELIUS KOLIG. Paradise
15/05 – 11/10/09, Large Hall and Rotunda
Curator: Cornelius Kolig together with Herbert Gras
Exhibition management: Isabella Kossina, Andreas Hoffer
As a first in Austria, the Essl Museum presents a comprehensive
individual exhibition of Cornelius Kolig and his "Paradies"
– a Gesamtkunstwerk he has created over the past three decades.
Working in the tradition of Vienna Actionism, the object artist,
painter and sculptor Cornelius Kolig ruthlessly obliterates the
demarcation between art and life.
In 1979, he started to build his own paradise on a plot of
land in Vorderberg (Gailtal Valley), Carinthia. It combines
a garden with various buildings designed to enhance the effects
of his objects, an assemblage of his life’s work created
over five decades by bringing together different art forms.
The outcome of this never ending process is a site where the
surrounding natural environment merges with artistic design
and utilisation. Kolig is his own architect, as well as painter,
draughtsman and composer rolled into one.
Cornelius Kolig’s art revolves around the human body
and addresses taboos and obsessions of our society in a variety
of ways – by undermining and challenging them and, time
and again, by giving them an ironic twist.
The public response triggered by Kolig’s work has frequently
been controversial: He has been discredited as a faecal artist,
and his works shake the foundations of society’s attitude
to morality. Actually, all he does is expose everyday phenomena
and parade reality before the observer’s eyes.
The public response triggered by Kolig’s work has frequently
been controversial: He has been discredited as a faecal artist,
and his works shake the foundations of society’s attitude
to morality. Actually, all he does is expose everyday phenomena
and parade reality before the observer’s eyes.
From "paradise" he has now taken a selection of large
metal objects, videos and photographs to the Essl Museum.
The art education team offers guided tours through and
workshops on the exhibition: weekly guided tours of >Cornelius
Kolig. Das Paradies< every Sunday at 1.00 p.m. For the current
calendar of events please access www.essl.museum / Art Education.
German and english.
168 pages with numerous color images.
With articles by Karlheinz Essl, Hermann Nitsch, Cornelius
Kolig, Hildegard Fraueneder, Petra Henninger and Peter
Gorsen.
The Essl Museum can easily be reached with a free bus-shuttle
from Vienna City Centre, Albertinaplatz 2 to the Essl Museum (Tues
– Sun, 10 a.m., 12 a.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m.)
bauMax AG / Café + Co International Holding
/ Donau Versicherungs-AG – Vienna Insurance Group / Siemens
AG Österreich / Telekom Austria AG / ZuklinBus Wien-Umgebung
