2005 2006 2007
mr. glober visits the collection dichter in 2006:
but let’s enter the exhibition, mr. glober.
first stop: entrance fee 2 euro, for 1400 m2 exhibition space – quite expensive, isn’t it? a little bit too much for a journalist, or is that just another allusion to oskar seidenglanz’ slogan “das beste, billig” (“the best, for cheap”). a little bit of sparkling wine, a little bit of a bite, and the text ready-made – that would be so much more interesting, wouldn’t it, mr. glober? glober remains silent. well, you don’t have to pay the entrance fee to get the tour, of course. we’ll gladly put in 2 euro for you. and we are inside the building – the foyer presents the protagonists and their amazing (hi)story.
the so inclined can stay here for a while and delve into the lives of edith (social scientist) and walter (composer and music critic, la times). you will also find out about ernest dichter, founder of motivation research, who studied in vienna and paris (1930-38). ernest dressed the windows for his uncle; now they are revitalised as exhibition space (see grundstein). this part of the exhibition requires time and quietness, which we grant you wholeheartedly. we now leave the historical part of the exhibition.
let’s have a look at some of the pieces of artwork that the dichters’ have collected over the last 50 years.
we see a group of white, dwarf-like sculptures. is this another conference? – wir unter uns (we among ourselves) – a work by julie hayward. we don’t want to interrupt her any longer. a little bit further away, zos de wit shows us what it means to be a man.
there is a beautiful staircase where an artist of the larry fortansky foundation is questioning the meaningfulness of a holy war. downstairs we encounter claudia-maria luenig’s work. dubious terrain. rent an artist, rent an artist... a deep voice draws us to the next station. ursula nicolussi (trixi goldstein) wants to scrape up some money for herself and her kids. in english? all right, one or two journalists surely won’t have a problem understanding her. otherwise, please contact us. thank you.
we turn around and see a huge exhibition hall. real or not real? – mirrors are truly brilliant. no cameras on the wall, only mirrors that pull us through the ground floor. osei bargain bins, also part of the collection. quite interesting, what this family has collected over the years. one painted by michael vonbank, the other one decorated with irish landscapes by heinz grosskopf, and paul roza`s “golden times” takes us back to the end of the 30s and back to irrationality. we move on alongside the mirrors and end up in front of a looking-glass (osei) enwrapped by a silk worm. thank you, harald grünauer. we turn to the left now. – a tree house? how cute… it is a model by behruz heschmat, persian, who was banished from his country by the shah’s henchmen.
no land in sight. the tree is home, the tree encased in metal; but its inhabitant, made of wood, lives on. behruz heschmat’s first tree house will soon be exhibited in kufstein, austria. it seems behruz heschmat understands the dichters well, and they him. we move on and see elizabeth mcglynn standing in front of a celtic cult site in ireland (black & white, 1991). a good choice, my dear dichters. vis-à-vis abandoned rooms. where are we? – this is the old building, where the dichter family worked and lived. black & white photography by heinz grosskopf. puppet show. what’s the point of all this. bitte schütz mich vor dem was ich will (- please protect me from what i want – quote jenny holzer). but it’s quite a magnet, this puppet show. that makes happy. a short turn and we see paintings by leslie demelo (...) to our left. next to him is roland schütz, thinking about the year 1999. filip gregorowicz looks over his wife’s shoulder and nilbar güres presents her woman enwrapped in cloth and a clip from her performance. worth seeing, this is. opposite of this we see large-format paintings by michael vonbank. it is time to deal with them. i hope you have enough time left, mr. glober.
what is youdontski doing in this collection? is he polish or not? christof gantner speaks english. doesn’t matter, we move on. another glimpse of behruz heschmat’s tree house. what is this thing appearing behind us? it’s peter sandbichler’s new sculpture. is this a boat or a stealth bomber? the explanation is on the opposite wall. thanks, peter. a glance to the left. is this the künstlerhaus? where are we? entrance fee again?! no, calm down, it is a photo art work by ursula janig.
well, let’s see what else is waiting for us. upstairs we see a child. insideout by hiroko inoue, photos black & white, very personal. peace and contemplation in here. a wooden screen separates this work from the main room. let’s have a look, mr. glober. an assemblage of small-format exhibits is presented on the opposite side of the room (james clay, gustav böhm, oliver marceta, alina kunitsyna, markus orsini-rosenberg, richard schütz, kurt mayr, cynthia schwertsik, hans jörg zauner, therese schulmeister, sabine groschup, christoph theiler, horst thaller, moana stemberger, christian stock). so this is how the dichters enjoyed their collection privately. nice!
in between, hans scheierl displays his own past. what a strange kind of music, what is this? – our attention is called for. south african performers elu and steven cohen deliver thought-provoking 15 minutes. after that, we make our way to the second floor. we meet expatriates from the 60s (…………… 2006). black & white photo by ralf marsault (paris), a punk from the early days and a photographer sensitive to his environment. ralf also understands the dichters, and they him. on the opposite wall we see a picture of ralf taken by andrea lambrecht, also in black & white. we move on, accompanied by ono’s sound collages, put together during the exhibition “das beste, billig” ( “the best, for cheap” – may 2005). we meet up with a painter/filmmaker/performer… - well, an artist. stop! mara mattuschka allows us a look over her shoulder and draws our attention to abstract paintings by martin kaltner. around the corner. works in paper by thomas baumann. a rare thing. his neighbour, hermann staudinger, takes us into the sky (3 photos). next to him is heidrun widmoser, testing our acuteness of mind. a quick look into the courtyard, a turn to the left – massive metal shelves covered in cardboard. thanks for this installation go to a colleague who doesn’t want to be named.
do you still have time, mr. glober? this way, please. we see forgery-proof portraits, black & white, by martina gasser. next to it, atem-.......-........- a work by plank poschauko. mr. glober has a last, good look around until he asks us to go upstairs, to the third and last floor. we hear strange conversations. rubbish!?
who went berserk in here? a whisper in our left ear: is this part of the collection, asks mr. glober smilingly. a few beams of light fall through the window and show us the way. soldiers in the trenches, ranting and rambling. irony of fate? no! greatings from wwi. two folding chairs invite us to sit down and watch this 12 minutes long spectacle on video. christof parzer and mischa gutmann, congratulations – well done! dear mr. glober, kindly follow us back down into the present, down to the ground floor. after you, mr. glober. not at all, it’s a pleasure! we walk downstairs from floor to floor and encourage mr. glober to remain in the entrance hall for a while and browse the memoirs of the dichter family. glober takes one of the catalogues lying on florian harmer’s shelve-sculpture and looks at the tuwien (relief: ingo seefeld), installed above one of the windows facing grundsteingasse. we turn into the brunnenmarkt. – a glass of water after this long journey, mr. glober? suddenly he sees “austria is flying” – what does that mean? we move closer to maya yonesho work and try to solve her austria-quiz. mr. glober laughs, he seems satisfied.
the red box to his left catches his eye. savanni, alias nana swiczinsky, illustrator for the newspaper ‘augustin’, advertises her t-shirt collection. t-shirts or no t-shirts, this is the end of our tour, mr. glober. thank you for your attention. good-bye and we hope to see you soon. greetings from grundsteingasse by muliplast. i give him a couple of postcards and see mr. glober, almost furtively, throwing 2 euro into the donation box. i don’t want to see this exhibition for free, are his last words. keep it up (this could be a quote by beatrix bahr!). he disappears around the corner and into the brunnenmarkt.
a reliable source tells me weeks later that this peculiar journalist sat down in front of the osei shop window and ordered a café-da from clemens. he left with a “say hello to jetti from me, i’ll be back” and disappeared again, becoming anonymous in the crowd strolling down the brunnenmarkt.
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| pictures:
martina gasser and heinz grosskopf |