Screening Wolfgang Paalen — HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark

Film screening

In cooperation with the Lighthouses Collection, Grenoble, a film screening will take place today on an exciting artist who acts as a link between Austria and international surrealism: Wolfgang Paalen. A painter, writer and philosopher from Vienna (1905 – 59), Paalen has been a significant artist for Surrealism, who also realized some projects together with the circle around André Breton in Paris. After his Paris years, Paalen went into exile in Mexico in 1938 at the invitation of Frida Kahlo, which would have a significant impact on his artistic oeuvre. The film Wolfgang Paalen – Crystals of the Mind provides interesting insights into the life and work of the Austrian surrealist.

Tonight’s guest is the proven Paalen expert Christian Kloyber. Kloyber is co-founder of the Isabel and Wolfgang Paalen Foundation and will give an introduction to the film, in which he was involved as author for the extensive booklet of the DVD, and to the person of Paalen.

Screening:
Wolfgang Paalen, Crystals of the Mind
Film, 86 min.
Directed by: Tufic Makhlouf Akl

In cooperation with the Lighthouses Collection, Grenoble.

Artists

Participating artists

is an Austrian linguist and literary scholar focusing on exile and culture in Latin America. His dissertation on Austrian exile in Mexico as a result of World War 2 was followed by several research and work stays in Mexico, including at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City. Subsequently, Kloyber held leading positions at several faculties and language centers in Mexico City. After returning to Austria, Kloyber directed the Federal Institute for Adult Education in Vienna (service of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research) from 2015 to 2020. He is also co-founder of the Research Institute for Exile in Mexico, as well as administrator of the estate of Wolfgang Paalen and co-founder of the Isabel and Wolfgang Paalen Foundation. Kloyber is the initiator of the first retrospective of Wolfgang Paalen’s work at the Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna (1993).