Diedrich Diederichsen
Vortrag
Video
Diedrich Diederichsen is not only one of the most important German authors, music critics and art theorists, he has also accompanied Mathias Poledna’s practice from the very beginning. Having largely enriched Poledna’s publications and exhibition catalogs with his essayistic text contributions, it is possible to argue that Diederichsen is not only an expert on Poledna’s oeuvre, but has also helped to shape it, then described it.
On the basis of his contribution to the publication, conceived against the backdrop of Poledna’s film produced in Los Angeles in the summer of 2024especially for the exhibition at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Diederichsen will discuss and present Mathias Poledna’s artistic career with references to music and art history as well as pop culture.
As such, Diederichsen shows that Mathias Poledna does not view the culture, fashion and film industries as something abstract, but as a system which we are all integrated, and in which these different artistic productions merge into one another to produce paradoxical results. Whether it is a rock band working through genre modules, as in his film Actualité (2001), or Poledna’s Western Recording (2003), which lends a singer unexpected melancholic depth, Poledna’s examination of cultural-industrial and counter-cultural material is always rooted in rarely taken perspectives, examining source material with artistic precision.
Poledna’s practice is often concerned with how snapshots of history, particularly modernity, are negotiated, and, remembered and archived in relation to contemporary cultural phenomena.
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Diedrich Diederichsen
is an author, art and music critic. Since 1991, he has taught at various universities (including Merz-Akademie Stuttgart, Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, University of Bremen, Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen, University of Vienna) and was Professor of Theory, Practice and Mediation of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 2006 to 2024. Diederichsen studied Hispanic Studies, Modern German Literature, Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of Hamburg. From the 1980s he lived in Cologne and was editor and publisher of the magazine SPEX and editor at Sounds.
Publications as an author (selection): Das 21. Jahrhundert. Essays (2024), Körpertreffer (2017), Über Pop-Musik (2014), Eigenblutdoping. Selbstverwertung, Künstlerromantik, Partizipation (2008), Musikzimmer (2005), Der lange Weg nach Mitte — Der Sound und die Stadt (1999), Politische Korrekturen(1996), Sexbeat. 1972 bis heute (1985).
More contributions
Hans-Christian Dany: Oswald Wieners Überlegungen zum Spannungsfeld von Dandyism, Paranoia und KI, als frühe Ahnung der gegenwärtigen Probleme der großen Sprachmodelle mit Autophagie, Halluzinationen und dem Habsburg-Effekt
Video
As part of the exhibition A. I. O., Hans-Christian Dany approaches Oswald Wiener’s work from a contemporary perspective. Taking Die Verbesserung von Mitteleuropa, ein roman (The Improvement of Central Europe, a novel) as his starting point, he connects Wiener’s reflections on dandyism, paranoia, and artificial intelligence with today’s experiences with generative AI, and explores the unique resonances that Wiener’s speculative thinking continues to evoke in the present.
Exhibition Tour
A.rtificial I.ntrospection O.
Video
A.rtificial I.ntrospection O. explores the conditions of thinking, perception, and consciousness at the intersection of cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and self-observation, bringing Oswald Wiener’s ideas into dialogue with artistic positions from different generations.
Michael Krebber talks to Sandro Droschl
Video
As part of the exhibition A.rtificial I.ntrospection O., Michael Krebber speaks with Sandro Droschl about his artistic practice and his engagement with the writings and conceptual models of Oswald Wiener.
Nicola Cipani, Thomas Eder
On Oswald Wiener’s « die verbesserung von mitteleuropa, roman »
Video
As part of the accompanying program for the exhibition A. I. O., the two renowned Oswald Wiener experts Nicola Cipani and Thomas Eder will discuss Die Verbesserung von Mitteleuropa (1969).
A.rtificial I.ntrospection O.
Exhibition Tour
Slide show
The exhibition A.rtificial I.ntrospection O. (A.I.O.) explores questions of thought, perception, and subjectivity at the intersection of introspection, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence. Its point of departure is the work of the Austrian writer, cognitive psychologist, and cybernetician Oswald Wiener (1935 – 2021), whose genuine thinking since the 1950s critically navigated between these fields while systematically resisting institutional appropriation.
Dr. Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer
Susanne Wenger’s painting between Africa and Europe
Video
In her lecture, art historian and curator Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer examines Susanne Wenger’s work as a transcultural Gesamtkunstwerk that bridges European modernism and Yorùbá ritual practice, creating a new sacred aesthetic that merges art, ritual, and cultural boundaries.
Kathy Rae Huffman
FROM CYBERFEMINISM
UNTIL NOW
Video
Kathy Rae Huffman’s lecture traces the evolution of cyberfeminism since the 1990s: it connected women in the digital sphere, challenged existing power structures, and presented examples — from VNS Matrix to contemporary digital activism — that highlight critiques of platform corporations, AI cultures, and global inequalities.
Xol Meissner
Concert
Video
New York-based artist Xol Meissner — the alter ego of composer Mauro Hertig — has transformed the HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark into a hypnotic soundscape of extraordinary intensity with his haunting music, which oscillates between contemporary classical and avant-garde rock.