Artists
Andrea Bischof, Norbert Brunner, Ernst Caramelle, Josef Dabernig, Georg Decristel, Lucas Drexel, Thomas Feuerstein, Heinz Gappmayr, Herbert Hinteregger, Christoph Hinterhuber & Werner Möbius, Claudia Hirtl, Peter Kogler, Annja Krautgasser [n:ja], Helmut Mark, Gregor Neuerer, Walter Obholzer, Christine S. Prantauer, Norbert Pümpel, Peter Sandbichler, Eva Schlegel, Nikolaus Schletterer, Esther Stocker, Beatrix Sunkovsky, Ernst Trawöger, Rens Veltman, Herwig Weiser, Margret Wibmer/Günther Zechberger

Opening
Tuesday, June 4, 2002, 7 p.m.

Concert
Philipp Quehenberger, F. X Randomiz, 10 p.m.

The title of the exhibition refers to the concept art of the Seventies, to the “variable pieces“ by Douglas Huebler whose work was shown in the “situation concepts” exhibition that took place at the Galerie im Taxispalais in 1971. Variability was one of the general structural elements characterizing the context-specific practice of concept art. In this sense it forms the thematic framework for the 27 artistic pieces to be presented in the exhibition VARIABLE PIECES. Structures. References. Algorithms.

From today’s perspective — looking back on the Sixties and Seventies — this project brings together pieces from the past four decades: from the early Sixties with works by Heinz Gappmayr, a concept artist of the first generation, to more recent pieces by younger artists. Within the broad spectrum of concept art that has emerged from the beginning the idea is to reveal lines of development and interrelationships between ideas, formal principles and thematic positions and to show how conceptual thinking has conquered and penetrated art on all levels.

All of the participating artists have a direct or indirect relation to Tyrol, with a large number of them ranking among the top artists internationally. Without seeking to construct a genealogy, the exhibition here will present Innsbruck artists associated with the “avant-garde scene“ of the Seventies in attempt to sharpen the beholder’s gaze for the different approaches in artistic thought and work, for the transition resulting from the new media technologies and for the high quality that is so typical of these works.

The artists shown here share an interest in the formal aspects of modules, grids and patterns. Here form can be used playfully to become a formula and vice versa. They have all developed their formal structures and sign systems by means of different references: writing and language, ornament, architecture, natural science, urban and social contexts, etc. with the reference to the specific givens of the forms of production and reception playing a crucial role. Artistic production thus reflects its own means and laws — be they of a formal, thematic or institutional nature, while grasping its own reality in an abstract sense as an interactive, performative scenario that is again and again constructed in a different way. The construction of reality thus merges with the reality of construction.

The connection with the methods of natural sciences or the incorporation of models from disciplines such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, optics, linguistics, cybernetics or computer science has ushered in a mutation of art beginning with modernist movements leading to the conceptual positions of the Fifties and Sixties and to contextual and media art. This paradigm shift, which broke with traditional conventions of meaning and social practice invariably met with resistance. At the time it was shown the “situation concepts“ exhibition even triggered off a small “culture shock“.
In those years, Innsbruck had a very active art scene that involved not just artists but also a significant discursive and institutional environment associated with figures such as Peter Weiermair, Ursula Krinzinger, Oswald Oberhuber, Krista Hauser, Heidi Grundmann and others. Here the Galerie im Taxispalais played an important role as an institution, along with Galerie Krinzinger und the Forum für aktuelle Kunst, where the concept art of the international and Austrian avant-garde was presented. The texts in the exhibition catalogue make direct references to this period.

The productive (and provocative) aspect of conceptual art and the approaches and formal solutions developed by the artists in “the exploration of modes of constructing reality“ (S.J. Schmidt) has to do with the fact that they merge with other disciplines. Yet given their unorthodox way of relating to them they arrive at completely new insights that are not accessible to science and at aesthetically, socially and ultimately also politically effective practices.

Catalog
Variable Pieces
Structures. References. Algorithms
Ed. Silvia Eiblmayr, Galerie im Taxispalais
Contributions by Reinhard Braun, Silvia Eiblmayr/Thomas Feuerstein, Krista Hauser, Tereza Kotyk, Ursula Krinzinger, Marc Ries, Siegfried J. Schmidt, Peter Weiermair
Triton Verlag, Vienna 2002
64 pp., 69 ill.
€ 14,-
ISBN 3-85486-138-9

Catalogue Presentation
at the symposium on Thursday June 27, 2002

Symposium and Catalogue Presentation
Thursday, Juni 27, 2002, 7 p.m.

Panel 1
Ernst Caramelle, artist; Heinz Gappmayr, artist; Ursula Krinzinger, gallery owner; Rüdiger Schöttle, gallery owner, Munich; Ernst Trawöger, artist; moderator: Silvia Eiblmayr

Panel 2
Peter Kogler, artist; Annja Krautgasser [n:ja], artist; Marion Piffer-Damiani, free-lance exhibition curator; Christine S. Prantauer, artist; Eva Schlegel, artist; Esther Stocker, artist; moderator: Thomas Feuerstein, artist and theorist.

Party
Sunday, August 11, 2002, 9 p.m

Werner Möbius live
Christoph Hinterhuber, DJ

Georg Decristel, "Performance in San Francisco", 1978, s/w Foto
Ernst Caramelle, "Fourty Found Fakes (Vierzig vorgefundene Fälschungen)", 1976-1978, Arbeit in Katalogform, s/w, Auflage 1000, 27,8 x 43,1 cm, Hg. Thomas Way & Company, New York
Eva Schlegel, "o.T.", 1997, 22-teilige Serie, Detail, Öl/Lack auf Kreidegrund, 17 x 25,5 cm
Esther Stocker, "Ohne Titel", 2001, Acryl auf Molino, 140 x 160 cm
Peter Kogler, "Ohne Titel 98/02", Videoprojektion mit Sound, in Zusammenarbeit mit Franz Pomassl