Aglaia Konrad participe à l’exposition Während alle fotografieren können sich manche mit der Fotografie beschäftigen (alors que tout le monde prends des photos, certains s’engagent dans la photographie) à Fotohof, Salzburg.

The exhibition curated by Ruth Horak marking the 30th anniversary of the Friedl Kubelka School of Artistic Photography in Vienna illustrates in an exemplary way how artists from within the ambit of this private school think of photography both as an image and a medium, and what their personal tribute to the medium looks like.

In 1990, when Friedl Kubelka founded the School of Artistic Photography, photography was in the process of consolidating its status as an artistic discipline. Since then, some 170 teachers have been contracted to pass on their personal working methods, motifs and materials to around 580 students.Each year brings with it the many diverse facets of photography: those of 1990 different to those of 2010, with Anja Manfredi took over as the school’s new director.

What remains the same is the fascination for a medium whose applications are more diverse today than ever before, a medium that is both sophisticated and banal, elaborately produced or incidental; a medium that belongs to everyday life, but also to science and art, and therefore always needs to be re-evaluated, sounding out where photography begins, how far it extends, and what influence its omnipresence has on artistic photography.

If one wanted to tag Aglaia Konrad’s interest in architecture, the following terms would appear: demolition, gentrification, urbanisation, brutalisme, economies, material transformation, fassadisme, lifespan reduction, glassarchitecture, failed architecture, contemporary ruins. Specifically, in the photomontage MakeUp II are photographs of the current unemployment office in Brussels (built in 1870 as the first large department shop in Belgium), and of the demolition of a Flemish ministry (Boudewijngebouw). The latter was built in 1990 by the successful team of architects Jaspers-Eyers. Their office buildings are known for their short lifespan. After 20-25 years they will be demolished and new ones built in their place by the same architects.

In her Undecided Frames she expresses a profoundly photographic theme: which of the two photographs is the better one? Which section, which distance from the motif, etc. are decisions that every photographer has to make. Aglaia Konrad: « It deals with the problematic, which is inherent to the photographic practice, the choice of the absolute best picture. To me that choice is quite often difficult to make because one step to the right or to the left or at least 5 sec. later the situation becomes different enough to justify the photographic standpoint, by offering the dilemma of choice to the onlooker, the demand for reflection is inherent in the perception process.

(…) In refusing to choose, Konrad also reclaims her position as an intermediary between image and viewer. Bringing the differences between the two images (however small they might be) to the notice of the viewer, she makes clear that every photographic image is the result of her subjective choices. Moreover, by naming these double takes « undecided » she manoeuvres the viewer into a situation he normally never has to deal with, the moment of choosing being a solitary moment, safely hidden from the prying eyes of the public. Now the question of choosing becomes our problem: are we supposed to make the choice Konrad didn’t want to make? Maybe, but for us, this idea of choosing is even more senseless than it was for her, because we have no stake in this choice. The only option we are left with is to nod our head from left to right (and back again), searching in vain for a way out of this either/both/neither dilemma. We find ourselves forever stuck in the impossible logic of the photographic system. (…)

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Aglaia Konrad participe à l’exposition The Unruly Apparatus à l’Académie des Beaux-Arts d’Anvers. Exposition du 16 au 31 octobre.

The exhibition The Unruly Apparatus presents the outcome of a six months long research project organized at the Royal Academy of Arts Antwerp. The aim of the research project is to bring a group of sculptors and photographers together to explore the possible meeting points between the two art practices. Starting from a survey of historical and contemporary artistic practices where sculpture and photography meet, the researchers were asked to respond in kind to these collected examples. After a careful study of the key concepts at work in the artistic practices of renowned artists like Walead Beshty, Noémie Goudal, Liz Deschenes, Bernard Voïta, Thomas Ruff, Asta Gröting and several others, the group of 11 researchers jointly developed a conceptual framework for their own exhibition. The works of the participating researchers will be shown next to some reference works of artists that inspired the project.

The exhibition will feature work by Thomas Ruff, Sine Van Menxel, Ine Kools, Filip Vervaet, Bram Rinkel, Spiros Hadjadjanos, Anton Cotteleer, Elias Asselbergh, Walead Beshty, Fabien Silvestre Suzor, Athar Jaber, Liesbet Grupping, Bernard Voïta, Aglaia Konrad, Kaat Somers, Azuli Peeters, Geert Goiris, Alix Manon, Seth Price, Bernadette Zdrazil, Miguel Cipriano and Wade Guyton, e.

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Aglaia Konrad expose à Vienne. Headers and Footers @ Scheule

D’autres images ici

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Aglaia Konrad participe à l’exposition Cartes postales, nouvelles d’un monde rêvé au musée départemental Arles Antique dans le cadre de l’édition 2019 des Rencontres de la Photographie

Aglaia Konrad
Concrete City, 2012
cartes postales sous verre, cubes de béton

La carte postale est l’image qui circule par excellence, soumise à une constante impression de déjà-vu. Tout au long du XXe siècle, elle a accompagné la mise en boîte du monde visible, l’essor de la mondialisation des images et le tourisme de masse. Collectionneurs, accumulateurs, retoucheurs, les artistes iconographes s’approprient des images existantes pour leur donner un nouveau sens, éclairer leur statut ou leur contexte. En confrontant des regards et des gestes d’artistes à la fabrique des cartes postales photographiques, l’exposition déploie, à la manière d’une anthropologie visuelle, une réflexion sur ce que ces images nous montrent et nous disent de l’ailleurs. Quel point de vue ont-elles véhiculé tout au long du XXe siècle, leur période de gloire ? Quelle vision du monde ont-elles créée pour tous ceux qui les recevaient à leur domicile, envoyées par les proches et les amis ? Vectrice d’imaginaires à la fois intimes et collectifs, la carte postale est l’illusion faite image, toujours à portée de main. Elle montre le monde tel qu’on l’a rêvé, et dans lequel on se projette, comme dans une fiction désirable.

Eric Baudart & Thu-Van Tran (1972 et 1979), Fredi Casco (1967), Moyra Davey (1958), documentation céline duval (1974), Renaud Epstein & initiative urbane kulturen (1971 et créé en 2014). Jean Geiser (1848-1923), Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige (1969), Roc Herms (1978), Susan Hiller (1940-2019), John Hinde (1916-1997), Katia Kameli (1973), Aglaia Konrad (1960), Valérie Mréjen (1969), Martin Parr (1952), Mathieu Pernot (1970), Brenda Lou Schaub (1993), Stephen Shore (1947), John Stezaker (1948), Oriol Vilanova (1980), William Wegman (1943). Commissaires de l’exposition : Anne Reverseau et Magali Nachtergael, lauréates de la Bourse de recherche curatoriale des Rencontres d’Arles.

Musée départemental Arles Antique
du 1er juillet au 25 août 2019

Concrete city
Pour cette installation, Aglaia Konrad s’inspire de la célèbre scénographie muséale créée en 1968 par l’architecte italo-brésilienne Lina Bo Bardi pour le Musée d’Art de São Paulo. Les peintures y sont présentées sur des supports transparents en verre, dans un socle en béton. Le visiteur peut ainsi voir l’avant et l’arrière du tableau. Dans Concrete City, Aglaia Konrad a pris ce principe pour modèle.
Elle y présente des images de sa collection de cartes postales. Il s’agit de cartes postales touristiques typiques des années 1950-1990, représentant les landmarks architecturaux des villes. Depuis ses premiers voyages, l’artiste collectionne les cartes postales des différents endroits qu’elle visite. Elle présente les cartes postales sous verre, posées sur de petits blocs en béton. Concrete City devient ainsi un monument à l’architecture moderniste en béton, à cette architecture qui fut jadis moderne et pionnière, à ses idéologies sous-jacentes entre-temps (peut- être) dépassées.

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Aglaia Konrad
Iconocopycity, 2011
Copies laser marouflées sur mur, 420 x 210 cm, dimensions variables suivant installation, édition 3/3

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