Curated by_Vienna:
Since its founding thirteen years ago, curated by_vienna has evolved into a central and vital event for international contemporary art, building collaborations between international curators and selected contemporary art galleries in Vienna.
Focusing on a changing annual theme, curated by_vienna has an international outlook which is reflected by the choice of curators and the close collaboration among galleries, making curated by_vienna a unique contemporary art project of global reach.
Curated by_Vienna 2021: Comedy
(Excerpt from Essay by Estelle Hoy)
'The concepts of carnival—masks, floats, freaks, inversion, otherness— form a shell to inspect blurred lines: tragedy becoming comedy, comedy becoming tragedy, a dismantling of hierarchies—gloomy-gay imaginings of off-hand comedic maelstroms and ultraviolet mental alibis. Carnival is a short-lived parody that lives in constant relation to tragedy: a very effective political tool. Singular narratives are interrupted, systems of exchange are fluid, circulation is privileged over stasis: a lyrical comedic libido and the aphrodisiac that comes with a healthy disdain for political correctness. Satire is a way of dismantling the house, without having to go to jail for it.'
Curated by_Vienna 2021: Krinzinger Schottenfeld
On the level or the man who fell out of bed, curated by artist Jannis Varelas.
Curatorial statement:
This exhibition will be about perception, transformation and misunderstandings. I believe these are core elements of this year's topic of curated by comedy. On the level or the man who fell out of bed deals with the reverse comprehension of language as a process that starts with knowing the sounds and images of words but not being able to understand their meaning, a bit like me and German language.
This would be an ideal situation, as Roland Barthes puts it in his Éléments de sémiologie, a way to enter the magical world of the incomprehensible; like seeing something for the first time.
In this context and from a certain point of view, everything can be perceived as elusive as possible and all things possibly can become projections of oneself: the carnivalesque essence of life in all its glory, humankind at will.
On the other hand and learning from the Ovidian concept of metamorphoses, one could argue that what we see as what it is, is what it has become, a transformation that gives form and meaning to what is there according to its past. In other words, the tragicomedy of life and the hilarious drama of the misunderstanding of what one should do in order to achieve what he wants.
Curator:
Jannis Varelas (b. 1977, Greece) currently lives and works in Athens, Vienna and Los Angeles.
Selected solo shows include: Double-Blind, The Breeder Gallery, Athens (2021); The Island, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki (2020); Jannis Varelas– Tennis Elbow, The Journal Gallery, New York (2019); Anima I, curated by Polina Kosmadaki and Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, The Benaki Museum, Athens (2019); Our House, Galerie Forsblom, Stockholm (2018); Monster, Onassis Cultural Center, Athens (2017); A Duck and a Crutch, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (2016); Sleep My Little Sheep Sleep, Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati (2012); _Brown Box and the Broken Theate_r, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (2012).
Selected group shows include: Distorted Portraits, Space K Seoul, South Korea (2020); Ametria, DESTE Foundation/ Benaki Museum, Athens (2015); Paper works from the Saatchi Collection, Saatchi Gallery, London, (2013); Hell As Pavilion, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013); Skin Fruit: Selections from The Dakis Joannou Collection, New Museum, New York (2010); Lebt und arbeitet in Wien III: Stars in a Plastic Bag, Kunsthalle Wien, Wien (2010); New Orleans Biennial Prospect 1, New Orleans (2008); Destroy Athens, 1st Athens Biennial, Athens (2007).
Curatorial projects include Build Your Own House, Dyo Choria Gallery, Greece 2017, Galerie Utopia, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012).
Press release courtesy Krinzinger Schottenfeld.
Schottenfeldgasse, 45
Vienna, 1070
Austria
www.galerie-krinzinger.at
+43 151 281 42
Tues - Fri, 12pm - 6pm
Sat, 11am - 2pm