From 1 April until 13 June 2011, the Essl Museum will present the solo-exhibition >HEIMO ZOBERNIG<. The exhibition will be complemented by a comprehensive music programme, starting with the Berlin band La Stampa with frontman Jörg Heiser for the opening on 31 March.

As so often in his work Heimo Zobernig will use this exhibition to challenge institutional presentation mechanisms and the display of (artistic) objects as such. The artist turns his attention to objects such as plinths, pedestals, curtains or chairs, which used to exist invisibly within the institutional context, and grants them their own artistic context.

Concert BULBUL, CAPC Musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux, 2009 Photo Archive HZ	Untitled, 1986 20,3 x 15,6 x 6,9 cm Photo Archive HZ © VBK, Wien, 2011

The exhibition at the Essl Museum’s main hall will be planned and designed by Heimo Zobernig himself. The artist confronts the architectural elements of the hall with its wavy roofline and re-appropriates the room. With tremendous sensitivity for the impact and interplay of objects in a three-dimensional space, Zobernig revisits ideas already implemented in his work and re-presents them in a different context. A case in point is the large video-red curtain which he has used in several past exhibitions. Zobernig will also use the curtain at the Essl Museum to divide and alter the room, provide it with a theatrical setting and change its architectural structure. The visitors are both in front of and behind the curtain, leaving it open whether they are spectators or actors. The curtain serves both to conceal and emphasise, as a spatial divide, a sculpture in its own right or something in between. The curtain is suspended behind architectural models and objects placed on transport boxes serving as plinths. Zobernig invests the plinths with as much importance as the objects presented on them. A cage-like steel cube with a side length of 4m serves as something like a storeroom which holds the artist’s work from the Essl Collection, installed in a way that only part of it is visible for the viewers.

In the front part of the exhibition, the curtain divides a large pedestal. On one side of it 33 chairs are placed in an arrangement that may or may not be arbitrary. Zobernig is interested in the meaning and connotations of objects. The chairs are more than just chairs, appearing like theatre props, actors in a play or sculptures. And yet, they are neither the one nor the other, opposing any clear definition or assignment of meaning. The other side of the pedestal remains empty and will be used as a stage – at least some of the time. La Stampa, a Berlin band with its frontman Jörg Heiser, art critic, author and co-editor of the art journal Frieze, will perform the opening concert on this stage. During the exhibition, the main hall will repeatedly serve as a concert hall, the music performances being integral components of the show. At the artist’s request, the programme is a colourful mix, ranging from Electro Vox with Julienne Klein and Karlheinz Essl jr. to The Living Musicbox by Anton Tichawa and the W.U. Chor Wien.

Untitled, 1987 Oil/cardboard 10 x 10 x 5 cm © VBK, Wien 2011	Installation view of the exhibiton, 2011 © Photo Archive HZ

For Heimo Zobernig, artistic exhibition design also includes the associated printed material. The poster, the invitation and the catalogue’s cover page were designed by Zobernig. In line with his style, the artist chose a clearly minimalistic solution: the superposition of several versions of his name was created from the draft design suggestions sent to him by the Essl Museum’s graphic designers and emphasises the iconic character of script; the resulting compactness provides an interesting contrast to instances of emptiness, an issue that represents a central motif in his work.

Exhibition flyer Heimo Zobernig

The artist is also involved in the catalogue design. As exhibition views are an indispensable element of the catalogue, it will be published some time after the opening, probably at the end of April. The catalogue will feature a preface by Karlheinz Essl and several essays by authors who – not unlike the curtain – have witnessed Zobernig’s recent major exhibition and whose comments and insights will be brought together here: Yann Chateigné, Liam Gillick, Bart van der Heide and Juliane Rebentisch. These texts, now available in German for the first time, will be completed and connected by an essay on the exhibition by Günther Oberhollenzer.

Musical side events

Together with Karlheinz Essl jr., music curator of the Essl Museum, Heimo Zobernig has developed a musical programme for the exhibition. Dates are available on ZOBERNIG CONCERTS >> (german). Detailed information on the concerts will be provided on the invitation designed by the artist.

Catalogue

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with a preface by Karlheinz Essl and essays by Yann Chateigné, Liam Gillick, Bart van der Heide, Günther Oberhollenzer und Juliane Rebentisch.

Art Education

The art education team offers guided tours and workshops during the exhibition. Please access the current calendar of events at ART EDUCATION >>

Free bus shuttle

Visitors can reach the Essl Museum conveniently by free bus shuttle from Vienna city centre, Albertinaplatz 2 (Tues – Sun, 10 a.m., 12 a.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m. and return)

Press photos

Press photos are available upon request at the Press Office or via download from PRESS >>