Galerie im Taxispalais

Jana Gunstheimer

„Ich bin ein Schwein. Macht mich heilig.“

"I'm a pig. Canonise me"

Jana Gunstheimer (* 1974 in Zwickau, lives in Berlin) creates parallel worlds and makes mockery of social conditions using the style of docu-fiction. In the conflict area of reality soaps like Big Brother and social measures of surveillance and discipline, these seem uncanny and even frightening, but certainly not impossible.
In her work Heiligsprechung (Canonisation), which can be seen in the Galerie im Taxispalais for the first time in Austria, she presents an Austrian federal governmental project: a state office for canonisation set up in 1976, echoing the process of canonisation according to Catholic Church law. Austrian citizens, having made a considerable financial contribution, could apply to this office to set in motion their own or anyone else's "canonisation". Personal vanities, religious fanaticism and other motives prompted applicants to subject themselves to an eligibility procedure that delved deep into their private sphere and involved a rather dubious state voyeurism. Although the office was closed again in 1981, a total of 8,625 applications had been submitted during this period. However, only three people were elevated to the position of national heroes.
A quasi documentary archive presents supposed evidence of the fictive office. Applications, letters and deceptively real, drawn newspaper reports as well as watercolour works resembling black and white photographs convey authenticity and lend the narrative an appearance of reality. The story seems absurd – and yet not so far off the truth in the jungle of Austrian bureaucracy and administration, and in a country where the Catholic Church makes a decisive contribution to cultural socialisation.
 

born 1974 in Zwickau, lives and works in Jena. Studied Ethnology and Art History at the University of Leipzig as well as Fine Arts at the Hochschule für Kunst und Grafik in Halle, in Athens and in Ohio. Awards/residencies: Villa-Massimo Rome, Marion Ermer Price. Exhibitions: Galerie Römerapotheke, Zurich (2010), Galerie Charlie Smith London (2009), Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf (2008), Kunsmuseum Bonn (2008), Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2008), The Art Institute of Chicago (2007), Brandts Kunsthallen, Odense, DK (2006) etc.