Context

STAGES
Jakob Kolb aka On Bells

Video

The STAGES format is as radical as it is simple. HALLE FÜRKUNST Steiermark offers a platform for artists from the immediate vicinity for the duration of an evening. The exhibition hall is intended to serve as a stage to learn more about the artists’ work – what they are passionate and enthusiastic about.

Jakob Kolb has worked not only with painting and sculpture, but also repeatedly as a curator and, under the stage name On Bells, musically and performatively. For his evening at HALLEFÜR KUNST, Kolb has explored the theme of love songs and developed a musical performance. Old and new enter into a dialog, offering insights into the musical approach within the framework of a stage set and creating their very own emotional world. The setting for his performance is a mobile stage consisting of 4 LED curtains that will create an immersive visual situation. After the performance, Kolb will DJ in the Kombüse bar adjacent to the HALLE FÜR KUNST.

Artists

Participating artists

Jakob Kolb

Jakob Kolb is a musician and visual artist. With his project On Bells, he mixes dreamy sounds from different genres to create a nostalgic, self-ironic blend of lo-fi soul and synth-pop, with postmodern, self-produced beats and his guitar forming the foundation; the mood oscillates somewhere between romantic, dark and euphoric. Culture clashes characterize the lyrics and sounds of On Bells. The Styrian writes his lyrics and produces his music single-handedly, and has already performed his 80s-style pop songs in a wide variety of venues, including clubs in Barcelona and London, houseboats in Budapest, the Waves Festival and the impressive Semperdepot.

More contributions

STAGES — Hanna Besenhard 

Slide show

Hanna Besenhard_Starry Hours_,2025

The recurring format of STAGES is as radical as it is simple: young artists from Graz and Styria are offered a stage for the duration of an evening – or ocasionally longer. HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark… 

STAGES - Hanna Besenhard

Diedrich Diederichsen
Vortrag 

Video

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 2024 especially 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.

Diedrich Diederichsen

Karel Císař
Lecture 

Video

In this lecture, Císař will explore Mathias Poledna’s career and artistic practice against the backdrop of the current exhibition, which can also be understood as a kind of retrospective. 

Karel Císař – Lecture

Mathias Poledna
Exhibition Tour 

Slide show

Mathias Poledna has created a complex, multi-layered body of work in which films, expansive installations and architectural interventions are in constant dialog with each other, where independent series of works, found objects and ephemeral materials all condense to form a singular artistic language. Central to his practice are questions of modernity, cultural memory and the visual imaginary in art and popular culture.

Ausstellungsrundgang Mathias Poledna

Performance Total Romance: Partial Repair
Isabel Lewis, Dirk Bell with vocalist, performer and artist Rupert Enticknap and performer and pole dancer Yann Slattery 

Video

The performance Total Romance: Partial Repair is the centerpiece of Isabel Lewis and Dirk Bell’s joint exhibition Ever/​Repair at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, and is performed by four performers. In… 

Performance Total Romance: Partial Repair Isabel Lewis, Dirk Bell with vocalist, performer and artist Rupert Enticknap and performer and pole dancer Yann Slattery