News

October 2008

Art with WAGNER: "time space time. Time is inside us so to speak"

The exhibition in the Vienna Künstlerhaus displays a space installation by the artist Wojciech Krzywoblocki, entitled "The Big Colouring". At the opening on 4.10.08 a live performance by the artist took place in which our ProjectPro spraying unit was used.

An international jury has chosen artists who have worked on the theme of the exhibition, among others the Polish-Austrian artist Wojciech Krzywoblocki. After the live performance his work will be on show as a space installation with audio /video installation.

The exhibition "time space time. Time is inside us so to speak " in the Vienna Künstlerhaus (www.k-haus.at) is open from 5.10. until 02.11.08, daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursdays, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m..

The artist: Wojciech Krzywoblocki

Born in 1938 in Lwów/Lemberg. Diploma from the Academy for Visual Arts in Krakow. Professor at the Krakow Academy of Arts, at the Vienna Art School in Vienna, at the Department of Graphic Media of the Art University Linz. Individual exhibitions and participation in exhibitions internationally. represented in important collections (Albertina / Vienna, MOMA/ New York, Museum of Modern Art/ Łōdz, Tate Gallery/ London, and others.).

The Big Colouring

An office room with desk, office chair, white walls. On the desk: Paper, writing implements, telephone etc. On the wall a portrait of Lenin.

The artist over-sprays the whole room and all the objects in it with red colouring from a spray gun. A camera tracks the colouring so that one half of the picture taken shows the red room, whilst the other half still shows the unsprayed room.


The story of this performance

Wojciech Krzywobłocki presented the concept of this performance and installation in July 1975 at the International Arts Symposium in Osieki/Koszalin (Poland). The then director of the Museum of Modern Art in Łōdz, Ryszard Stanislawski imposed the condition of choosing a colour other than red, because red was seen in a political context. The project was therefore presented in the form of a text but never put into effect.


The Big Colouring in the Künstlerhaus in Vienna 2008

After colouring with red and drying, a further pass follows with the colour black.

The video which documents the process is projected onto the outside of the space installation, actually running in reverse: The black colour vanishes, then the red colour follows, also being sucked back into the spray gun.

Photo: Dr. Ilse Chlan