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Sujet KUNST ⇆ HANDWERK

ARTS ⇆ CRAFTS

Between tradition, discourse and technologies


Kunsthaus Graz, Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz

 

Curated by: Barbara Steiner
Press tour: 13.11.2019, 11 am
Opening: 14.11.2019, 7 pm
Duration: 15.11.2019–16.02.2020

 

Info exhibition: +43-316/8017-9200
Info press: +43-316/8017-9213 and DDI -9211
presse@museum-joanneum.at


About the exhibition

 

This exhibition showcases the artists’ interest in old handcraft methods and production techniques, in experimenting with materials and techniques, and also in arts and crafts.

 

Recent years have seen a marked increase in interest among contemporary artists in materials, in (arts-and-)craft methods, and in experimenting with materials and techniques. These works reference arts-and-crafts, folk and artistic traditions, while at the same time relating to contemporary and technological discourses. The way they handle premodern/traditional/local knowledge, materials and processes does not seek to isolate them, instead it opens them up – towards other cultures, towards modern and contemporary art, to current discourses and digital developments.       

 

Culture is understood as a flow of diverse influences and elements, which are fed synchronously and diachronically, and are intertwined; a process in which local forms of knowledge and global knowledge transfer are interwoven. The importance and appreciation of craft as an essential component of material culture and cultural identity, and above all the community-creating potential of arts-and-craft traditions, are associated with social and economic conditions in a globalised world. This approach means that artists also challenge – almost as a by-product – current political instrumentalisations of homeland, nation, folk art and tradition. The works show just how much local identifications and global developments have been telescoped together for a long time now. They go beyond this, however, to ask – without any sense of romanticisation – how, under the current economic conditions, it could still be possible to imagine and implement an “artisanal” relationship between those working and the objects of their work. This approach not only goes beyond cultural boundaries but also creates a connection between analogue and digital worlds. It even seems  – according to the hypothesis – that the globalised view is raising awareness of the particular qualities of craft and the potential loss of old and local knowledge.

 

With works by Azra Akšamija, Olivier Guesselé-Garai, Plamen Dejanoff, Olaf Holzapfel, Antje Majewski, Jorge Pardo, Slavs and Tatars, Haegue Yang and Johannes Schweiger.​

   

Press material

Images

Publication is permitted exclusively in the context of announcements and reviews related to the exhibition. Please avoid any cropping of the images. Thank you for crediting the photographs according to the enclosed indications.

 

Subject

Photos of the artists are available here Expand Box
Installation views are available here Expand Box
Images of exhibits are available here Expand Box

Press contact

 

Universalmuseum Joanneum
Marketing & Communications

 

Mariahilferstraße 4
8020 Graz, Austria
Mobil +43-664/8017-9214
presse@museum-joanneum.at

Marketing & Communications