LPE: April 04, 2007
Presentation and conversation with Maia Damianovic and Barbara Holub
Today we are confronted with crises of the exhibition context, largely due to the uncanny ability of our current modes of presentation to subdued rather than extend the scope of the artwork. All our traditional internal exhibition spaces, whether they are galleries or museums, are quickly becoming less and less suited for any real interaction with vibrant, innovative art. In spirit, most of our current exhibition venues closely resemble archives than forums for open-ended engagement. Many of these contemporary venues merely embrace the classical intentions of the archive as an institution set up for hunting, gathering and conserving public documents for the edification of a grateful and submissive public.
Maia Damianovic, excerpt from the text published in Terminal Souvenirs (WHAT IS WRONG WITH CURATORIAL PRACTISE TODAY (NIFCA - The Nordic Institute Contemporary art, 1998, pp. 189—197)
British-born curator and critic Maia Damianovic is on the forefront of the discussion focusing on the meaning and role of “public” space today and the development of new strategies for art in an already overly abused public space. She is currently at work on the project “Realities series” that she is developing for the cities of Birmingham, Belgrade, Bratislava, Prague and Iasi (Romania) in association with leading art institutions in each city and a group of international artists; and “Viva” for the Tanzquartier Vienna and the Plymouth Arts Centre, UK, in the Spring and Summer 2007 that will explores issues such as: group organization, consensus making, compromise, individuality and co-existence through performative interaction and cross systems collaborations. Her current exhibition “Future Systems: rare moments”, at the Lentos Museum in Linz remains on view through June 2007. Damianovic lives and works in Vienna.
Austrian architect and artist Barbara Holub investigates the relationship between the art/ institutional space and the urban space. Through installations employing photography, video, drawing and other mediums she explores various patterns of „private“ and „public“ communication, often involving people from outside the art context to participate as „actors“. Holub holds a Masters degree from the Technical University Stuttgart, Germany (1987). In 1997 she was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Art and Design; in 1999 together with Paul Rajakovics (since 2005 with Bernd Vlay) she founded „transparadiso“ developing projects transgressing the border between urbanism, art and architecture and exploring new urban methods. In 2004 Holub and Rajakovics we awarded the Schindler Grant of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles. Since 2006 she has been appointed president of the Secession, Vienna. She has exhibited internationally in numerous exhibitions including „Between Roles“/ „Enactments of the Self“, at Steirischer Herbst, Graz (2002) and “Slow“, at the Plymouth arts centre, Plymouth, UK (2007).
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