Galerie im Taxispalais

Romana Scheffknecht

1982 / 2013

Galerie im Taxispalais is delighted to present the exhibition 1982 / 2013, a first comprehensive retrospective of work by Austrian media artist Romana Scheffknecht (*1952 in Horn/Lower Austria, lives and works in Vienna), a second-generation video pioneer who aroused international interest during the 1980s. The exhibition will show a wide spectrum ranging from early abstract video works to media installations laid out narratively, incorporating a wealth of associations, and finally to recent works being presented for the very first time.

Among Scheffknecht’s key work complexes are the extensive series of philosophical studies and pieces dealing with war that she has been developing since the early 1990s. A selection of video sculptures and large-format video and sound installations will be shown, in which Scheffknecht examines the mediatisation of the world in relation to themes such as war, money and religion, or the social structuring of time. In the space-consuming installation Die Börse, die Zeit, das Geld (1994) [The Stock-Exchange, Time, Money] she connects images of huge letters showing the developing stock-exchange rates, time and money to the monotonous sound of Tibetan monks praying. An entire room in the exhibition, entitled Warburgzimmer (2012) [Warburg Room], is dedicated to a work several years in the making that she conceived following a visit to the Warburg Institute in London. In several material collages and a video, Scheffknecht investigates the famous Mnemosyne Atlas and the systematic book collection made by German cultural scientist and art historian Aby Warburg. In addition, we will be presenting a table-top installation developed especially for Innsbruck, in which the book “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” by Sigmund Freud will be transported through the exhibition space using a four-metre-long miniature cable lift.

The extensive installations or simple, reduced devices that Scheffknecht presents in such ingenious arrangements express her ideas about image production in the media and society while radiating a suggestive power.