An “experimental monograph” (conceived by Heimo Zobernig) which offers a sidelong journey through the multi-facetted body of
workmade by the Austrian artist since more than 30 years, which also offers a novel line of thinking about the layout of an artwork, and gathers a selection of “historical” texts and new commissioned essays.
This book, conceived as an “experimental monograph”, offers a sidelong journey through the multi-facetted body of
workmade by the Austrian artist Heimo Zobernig, from his earliest pieces
which appeared in the late 1970s to his most recent works, by bringing together a number of projects
selected by the artist around notions of theatricality and display.
For some thirty years, publications have been an essential factor in his
art praxis. Just like exhibition venues, Zobernig sees the printed medium
as a site for questioning production standards and representational conventions through a system
of displacements and shifts.
The book also offers a novel line of thinking about the layout of an artwork.
The artist decided to hand the entire job of designing this
book over to the graphic designers Experimental Jetset. Interacting with the
artist's editorial praxis, they presents the works in chronological order, but with a quite specific visual treatment under the form of an evolving chromatic sequencing, introducing a cinematic effect – a kind of visual and philological emanation
of the chronology.
The book also gathers a selection of “historical” texts (Helmut
Draxler, Klemens Gruber, Monika Meister, Juliane Rebentisch, Peter Weibel, Heimo Zobernig) and new essays, specifically written about the issues of
theatricality and display (Yann Chateigné Tytelman, Catherine Chevalier,
Moritz Küng, Diletta Mansella).
Published on the occasion of the Heimo Zobernig exhibition at CAPC, Bordeaux, from May to August 2009.
A key figure in the Austrian art scene and one of the most important artists of his generation, Heimo Zobernig (born in 1958 in Mauthen, works and lives in Vienna) has used a variety of media and means of expression, including video, performance, painting, sculpture, installation, architecture and design.
His protean practice explores and shakes up the formal and theoretical language of modernism, constructivism and geometric abstraction. In his painting, he thus diverts the modernist aesthetics of the monochrome or the grid. His interest in architecture and graphic design also reflects in his work, notably through the use of scenic devices such as fabric curtains or lighting to recreate monochrome environments for the exhibitions in which he installs his works.
Catalogues are also an essential part of Zobernig's practice. He challenges the norms of editorial production and the conventions of representation by using displacement and shifts in his printed materials.
Edited by Heimo Zobernig, Catherine Chevalier, Charlotte Laubard.
Texts by Yann Chateigné Tytelman,
Catherine Chevalier,
Helmut Draxler,
Klemens Gruber,
Moritz Küng,
Charlotte Laubard,
Diletta Mansella,
Monika Meister,Juliane Rebentisch,
Peter Weibel,
Heimo Zobernig.
