Context

A Ladder to the Universe:
Stano Filko and the Art of the Avant-Garde
Patricia Grzonka 

Video

The lecture is available in German

As early as 2005, the Swiss art and architecture theorist Patricia Grzonka published Stano Filko (published by Arbor Vitae, Prague), an early examination of Filko’s oeuvre and was thus one of the first to take an interest in the artist’s work outside Slovakia at that time. She builds here on many personal conversations with the artist as well as her long-standing interest in the content of his work. Within the framework of her lecture, the art historian will give an introduction to the work of Stano Filko, which will primarily revolve around a presentation of the various central moments in his works. In doing so, she will follow the own artistic logic of this eclectic Slovak avant-gardist who positioned himself between East, West and the universe.

Artists

Participating artists

Dr. Patricia Grzonka

*St. Gallen, lives in Vienna

Dr. Patricia Grzonka is an art and architecture historian and critic. She is a lecturer at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and teaches at the Institute for Art and Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Grzonka studied in Zurich and Rome and received a PhD in architectural theory at Vienna University of Technology. She has written numerous texts, interviews, and essays in the fields of modernist art and architectural theory, as well as neo-avant-gardes. Her texts are regularly published in exhibition publications and are part of renowned art magazines, including springerin, Texte zur Kunst, Kunstbulletin, Monopol and frieze, and newspapers such as Neue Zürcher Zeitung, profil and Falter. In 2015 she was a laureate of the Art Critics Award. At the invitation of Dušan Brozman she wrote an extensive text about the artist for Arbor Vitae, Prague (2005); as well as for the conference proceedings of the Association of Austrian Art Historians, Hohenems (2011). 
www​.patri​ci​a​gr​zon​ka​.net

More contributions

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