From Up in the Valley 

Simon Baptist – Archive Franz Göttfried 

13.06.2025 - 06.01.2026

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Duration

13.06.2025 - 06.01.2026

Location

History Museum

Curators

Margit Neuhold

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About the
Exhibition

It was from up in the valley that the farmer Franz Göttfried (1903–1980) began photographing the people of St. Lambrecht. Starting in the 1920s and extending into the early 1940s, he took their portraits on festive days, during their work, and in everyday situations. The remarkable photographs have survived on approximately 500 glass negatives in the 9 x 12 cm format, stored in the attic of his home in Upper Styria.

 

Together with the FOTOHOF>ARCHIVE, Simon Baptist has secured this photographic legacy and is now developing it into a substantial archive. What is hidden in it, and how can knowledge be generated from this archive? Involving local people, particularly the relatives of those portrayed by Franz Göttfried, Simon Baptist approaches the roughly hundred-year-old photographs: He exposes them anew, enters into the structure of the images and their interstices, seeks out places and people, records what has been told, remembered and handed down and takes this as the starting point for his filmic work, which he places alongside the archive. In this way, he transfers the photographic legacy into the present and questions the collective visual memory of a local community.

 

From up in the Valley presents excerpts from the historical archive together with Simon Baptist’s video works.

Glimpses

The curator of the exhibition “From Up in the Valley” Margit Neuhold with the artist Simon Baptist at the History Museum

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Maria Froihofer, Chief Curator of Multimedia Collections, Bettina Habsburg-Lothringen, Director of the History Museum, Margit Neuhold, curator of the exhibition “From Up in the Valley” and artist Simon Baptist, from left

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Exhibition view ‘From Up in the Valley. Simon Baptist - Archive Franz Göttfried’ at the History Museum

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Franz Göttfried, Ohne Titel, o. D. (St. Lambrecht)

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Franz Göttfried, Ohne Titel, o. D. (Pinter Moitz)

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Franz Göttfried, Ohne Titel, o. D., (Hirtl Mitzi und Lisl)

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Franz Göttfried, Kerschbaumer Pferd, o. D. (Kerschbaumer Hans mit Kindern Hans und Lipp)

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Franz Göttfried, Wallach Toni, o. D.

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Simon Baptist, Still aus: Kammerspiel (2021), 2021. 5-Kanal-Videoinstallation (Farbe, Ton) 33´.

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Simon Baptist, Stills aus: Kammerspiel (2021), 2021. 5-Kanal-Videoinstallation (Farbe, Ton) 33´

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Simon Baptist, Stills aus: Kammerspiel (2021), 2021. 5-Kanal-Videoinstallation (Farbe, Ton) 33´

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Simon Baptist, Still aus: Kammerspiel (2023), 2023. 5-Kanal-Videoinstallation (Farbe, Ton) 66´

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Simon Baptist, Still aus: Kammerspiel (2023), 2023. 5-Kanal-Videoinstallation (Farbe, Ton) 66´

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Simon Baptist, Still aus: Kammerspiel (2023), 2023. 5-Kanal-Videoinstallation (Farbe, Ton) 66´

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Simon Baptist, Still aus: Kammerspiel (2023), 2023. 5-Kanal-Videoinstallation (Farbe, Ton) 66´

Image Credits