BAROQUE BAROQUE | OLAFUR ELIASSON

OLAFUR ELIASSON | BAROQUE BAROQUE With works from Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) and the Juan & Patricia Vergez collections November 21, 2015–March 6, 2016 Roundtable: Creating Worlds: November 20, 5–6:30pm, with Olafur Eliasson, Aurélien Barrau, Mirjam Schaub, and Daniela Zyman Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy Himmelpfortgasse 8 1010 Vienna Austria www.olafurbaroque.at www.olafureliasson.net Facebook / Instagram: Belvedere Museum / Instagram: TBA21 / #OlafurBaroque

Belvedere and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) are pleased to announce their upcoming exhibition with the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. BAROQUE BAROQUE is an ambitious venture that brings together and reconnects some of Eliasson's most significant works from the holdings of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) and the Juan & Patricia Vergez collections. The overview of artworks from two decades of Eliasson's artistic practice will explore the affinities between his work and the extraordinary baroque setting of the Belvedere's Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy in Vienna. Alongside these works, new site-specific interventions will activate and articulate the historical ensemble, establishing a dialogue between the volubility of the baroque architecture and the modulating perception provided by Eliasson's artworks. Eliasson states, "I find it inspiring that the baroque exhibited such confidence in the fluidity of the boundaries between models of reality and, simply, reality. The presentation of my works at the Winter Palace is based on trust in the possibility of constructing reality according to our shared dreams and desires and on faith in the idea that constructions and models are as real as anything." Over the last decades, Eliasson has probed the cognitive and cultural aspects of seeing, stressing the relativity of reality. Transcending the confines of art, his heterogeneous, thought-provoking body of work ranges from discreet interventions to large-scale installations and employs diverse frames of reference from the natural sciences, psychology, and philosophy to challenge the normative and internalized ways in which we perceive our surroundings. In works that make use of motion, projections, shadows, and reflections, Eliasson renders visible the elliptical relationships between body, perception, and representation. Ephemeral materials—including light, reflections, water, wave patterns, and air—are brought into conversation with the spaces of the exhibition and with viewers, who become protagonists of the engaging scenarios. Eliasson plays elegantly with visual illusion, with the liminal and the ephemeral, and with the material and the immaterial, using extroversion and introspection to resonate with cosmological ideas; his works relate strongly to notions of transformation and artifice inherent in the concept of the baroque. As an epoch of great turmoil, the baroque saw revolutionary optical and scientific discoveries as well as a blossoming of interest in the phantasmagoric and the occult. The baroque is here understood as a prolific process of constant reformulation; the tension between light and dark, knowledge and speculation, and rationality and spirituality opens up unexpected, "other" spaces of potentiality and transformation. The commissioner and original inhabitant of the Winter Palace, Prince Eugene of Savoy, was a visionary with magnificent taste and unrivaled interests in architecture, design, and art that were matched by his passion for the sciences, including mineralogy and astronomy. The exhibition catalogue is edited by Belvedere and TBA21 and published by Sternberg Press, with essays by Irmgard Emmelhainz, Paul Feigelfeld, Georg Lechner, Sandra Noeth, and Mirjam Schaub. Roundtable: Creating Worlds with Olafur Eliasson, Aurélien Barrau, Mirjam Schaub, and Daniela Zyman Friday, November 20, 5pm, Marble Hall at Upper Belvedere (Prinz Eugen Straße 27, 1030 Vienna) On the occasion of the opening of OLAFUR ELIASSON: BAROQUE BAROQUE, Belvedere and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary are hosting a roundtable discussion in the lavish Marble Hall of Prince Eugene's Upper Belvedere. At the event, which will explore different notions of "world-making," Eliasson, physicist Aurélien Barrau, philosopher Mirjam Schaub, and TBA21 chief curator Daniela Zyman will come together to discuss creativity and knowledge production, as well as the expressive transgressions of reality and illusion that are evident both in the Baroque and in Eliasson's work. #OlafurBaroque Follow us on Twitter (@olafureliasson, @belvederewien, @tba21), Facebook, and Instagram. Please share your images and respond to the exhibition on social media under the hashtag #OlafurBaroque. Press contacts: Belvedere Iris Mickein : T +43 1 795 57 185 / i.mickein@belvedere.at / press@21erhaus.at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Ema Kaiser-Brandstätter: T +43 01 513 98 56 55 / ema.kaiser@tba21.org / press@tba21.org

FREIRAUM QUARTIER21 INTERNATIONAL

freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL MuseumsQuartier

Joachim Seinfeld, WKI 1917, Luftabwehr from the series "When Germans Are Having Fun—Docufiction," 2014. Photograph.

Notes on the Beginning of the Short 20th Century 3 June–16 August 2015 Opening: 2 June, 7pm freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL/MuseumsQuartier Wien Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna Austria Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 1–4pm & 4:30–8pm Admission free www.quartier21.at#notesWW1

The exhibition Notes At The Beginning Of The Short 20th Century, curated by Andrea Domesle and Frank Eckhardt (GER), features current works by European artists on World War I, and opens at freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL in the MuseumsQuartier Wien on 2 June. Notes on the Beginning of the Short 20th Century pursues the historical traces of the First World War in the present, and reflects on their treatment. What does that period of time, those events a long time ago, mean to us? What is behind current engagement with the subject? What are the intentions and the image politics behind different forms of engagement with the past? The exhibition explores the extent that contemporary art can expand the cultural memory, correct or even contribute to a finding of the facts. At the same time, the exponents show altered rather than socially compliant images of history, highlighting differences between national narratives about the war and cultures of commemorating it. The slideshow Reparatur. 5 Akte (2012) by Kader Attia (France) links, inter alia, the European treatment of the World War I and the history of colonialism with current policy on immigration. Deborah Sengl (Austria)shows the sculpture In-Chlor-Ious Basterd, in allusion to the "father of chemical warfare," chemist Fritz Haber. While Olga Alia Krulisova & Jana Morkovska (Czech Republic) have filmed a re-enactment of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo. The New York-based Austrian Nin Brudermann (Austria) engages with her own family history for her installation Clash of Giants, as well as for a short film of the same title. The Russian artist group San Donato (Russia) have re-installed an iron soldier made of nails that was popular during the Great War as a patriotic sculpture. The exhibition also includes new works completed by the quartier21/MQ Artists-in-Residence during their stay in Vienna, among these are an installation by the group ETAGE (Germany), who reflect on images of the war.Beate Passow (Germany) engages with the writings of Gottfried Benn and Georg Trakl, and uses embroidery as a metaphor for the combination of otherwise incompatible elements. In contrast, Joachim Seinfeld (Germany) manipulates historical documentary material in his series of photographs "Wenn Deutsche lustig sind – Dokufiction." The artistic play on identities is intended to encourage viewers to reconsider their own individual social frame of reference for history. A program of lectures, screenings, artist talks and guided tours accompany the exhibition, as well as events for children and teenagers. Artists: Kader Attia (France), Simone Bader (Austria), Marcin Berdyszak (Poland), Nin Brudermann (Austria), Martin Chramosta* (Switzerland), ETAGE (Germany) (Stefan Bombaci & Daniela Dietmann)*, Karen Geyer – Grauton* (Switzerland), Sabine Groß* (Germany), Group San Donato (Russia) (Oleg Blyablyas, Alexey Chebykin, Evgeny Umansky), Thibaud Guichard* (France), Ruppe Koselleck* (Germany), Martin Krenn (Austria), Olga Alia Krulisova & Jana Morkovska* (Czech Republic), Anton Kuznetsov* (Russia), Jerôme Leuba (Switzerland), François Martig* (Belgium), Radenko Milak (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mladen Miljanovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Beate Passow* (Germany), Joachim Seinfeld* (Germany), Deborah Sengl (Austria), Belle Shafir* * quartier21/MQ Artist-in-Residence Curated by Andrea Domesle (Germany) and Frank Eckhardt (Germany) Notes on the Beginning of the Short 20th Century is organized in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, "Motorenhalle. Projektzentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst Dresden." and Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council. Guided tour for the press: 2 June, 10am Director of the MuseumsQuartier Wien: Dr. Christian Strasser Enquiries to MQ Press: Irene Preissler T [+43] (0)1 / 5235881 1712 / ipreissler@mqw.at Artistic director, freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL: Elisabeth Hajek T [+43] (0)1 / 5235881 1717 / ehajek@mqw.at

CARSTEN HOLLER | VIENNA

Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Carsten Höller, "Aufzugbett" (Elevator Bed), 2010. Installation. Photo: Attilio Maranzano. © Carsten Höller / Bildrecht Vienna 2014. Carsten Höller: LEBEN July 10–November 23, 2014 Press conference: July 9, 12:30pm Opening: July 10, 7pm Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary–Augarten TBA21–Augarten Scherzergasse 1A 1020 Vienna, Austria Hours: Wednesday–Thursday noon–5 pm, Friday–Sunday noon–7 pm, Free admission Belvedere Prinz-Eugen-Straße 27 1030 Vienna, Austria Hours: Monday–Sunday 10am–6pm T +43 1 513 98 56 24 augarten@tba21.org www.tba21.org Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21-Augarten) in cooperation with the Belvedere, Vienna, presents LEBEN, an exhibition of the Belgian-German artist Carsten Höller.LEBEN pivots around a selection of works, drawn from TBA21's collection of contemporary art and others commissioned and conceived especially for the exhibition—that invite specific forms of interaction, induce moods and affects, and generate "oriented" behaviors. The exhibition visitors encounter an ensemble of familiar devices, tools, constructions, and objects that have the uncanny capacity to orient, model, and intercept, creating both a physical and conceptual space of experimentation.  The central element within the exhibition space—Elevator Bed (2010)—is as much a proposition as it is an installation. The bed is mounted on a hydraulic rotating platform, which raises to different heights, up to a maximum of 3.5 meters. It can be booked on a nightly basis through Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom and offers guests a unique and solitary overnight experience in the foundation's exhibition grounds in Vienna's lush Augarten Park. Before going to sleep, guests are instructed to brush their teeth with Insensatus Vol. 1 Fig. 1; a dream-inducing series of toothpastes based on an original recipe devised by Höller and the perfumer Ben Gorham. The water in High Psycho Tank, a newly devised flotation tank for two, contains a high concentration of Epsom salts. Visitors must undress and float on the water's surface to experience a sense of weightlessness and sensory equilibrium. Half Clock accompanies and structures the current exhibition—it is a newly created work that functions as both a utilitarian time display and a seemingly illogical conundrum, with its apparent ability to alternately speed up or slow down the passage of time. High above the heads of viewers, two pairs of trained bullfinches housed within a set of balanced aviaries form the Bullfinch Scale, and whistle a melody that becomes part of the soundtrack of the exhibition. The newly created film installation Fara Fara features auditions and rehearsals for a musical clash between two stars of the vibrant Congolese music scene. The work introduces themes of duality and juxtaposition. Similar themes of duplication and division are prominent throughout the exhibition but specifically in Höller's Vienna Twins. Here, two identical siblings lead a completely logical, and at the same time confusing, conversation sung in a rhythmic and repetitive structure. Outside, on the Augarten grounds, a moment of visual dissection is captured sculpturally in the Giant Multiple Mushrooms. The two oversized fungi, one mature and the other still developing, are composed of four split mushroom bodies and constitute a surreal moment of hybridity.  One of the highlights of the TBA21 collection by Höller, titled Y (2003), is installed in the spectacular Marble Hall of the Upper Belvedere. This amusement fair-like tunnel spins around the visitor like a vortex. Y-shaped, it articulates the dilemma of individual choice as a question of contingency, with which visitors can also decide, or not, to continue their parcours of the exhibition at TBA21–Augarten.  TBA21 Founded in Vienna in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) represents the fourth generation of the Thyssen family's commitment to the arts. The foundation's projects promote artistic practices that are architectural, context and site-specific, performative, and often informed by an interest in social aesthetics and environmental concerns. Since May 2012 Vienna's Augartenpark has been transformed into a revitalized center for the arts under the aegis of the foundation. TBA21–Augarten marks the inception of a four-year collaborative relationship with the Belvedere and presents artists' individual stances and artistic dialogues through works drawn from the foundation's collection. The aim of TBA21–Augarten is to fill its project space with complex and critical programming, as well as to breathe new life into the Augarten as a social and cultural meeting place.

Press Karim Crippa, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary T +43 01 513 98 56 18 / press@tba21.org Gudrun Landl, Bureau N T +49 306 273 61 04 / gudrun.landl@bureau-n.de Booking Elevator Bed Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom, Volker Klier T +43 1 90616 6102 / guestservices.vienna@sofitel.com

HYPER REAL | MUMOK | VIENNA

Richard Estes

Chuck Close

Don Eddy

Ralph Goings

Robert Bechtle

Robert Cottingham

Tom Wesselmann

William Christenberry

Hyper Real - MUMOK - Vienna - 22 October 2010 - 13 February 2011