Karel Císař — HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark

Lecture

Karel Císař is a philosopher, curator, and art theorist who understands modernity not as a temporal epoch that occurred between the pre-modern and the post-modern, but rather as an idea or project. As a result, he does not consider modernity as a historical entity but as an approach and an unfulfilled possibility in our relationship to the present, which has manifested and articulated itself in various sectors, branches, and disciplines of every period. Based on this understanding, Císař negotiates theories of modernism in his texts on contemporary art as well as on Mathias Poledna’s work.

Karel Císař and Mathias Poledna collaborated on the exhibitions Memories of the Future at Vaclav Spala Gallery in Prague (2009) and Figures and Prefigurations at City Gallery Prague (2013), both curated by Císař. For more than a decade, they have been in constant exchange.

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. For the exhibition at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Poledna has produced a film examining pop cultural phenomena through art historical references at the intersection of fashion and film history. The film is set in context with a selection of older works, and engages in a dialogue with the institution itself. Poledna is always interested in investigating not only the cultural imaginary but also the perception constructed and produced by means of historical narratives.

Overall, questioning and engaging with modernity is a central motif of Poledna’s practice, reflected simultaneously in his thematization of exhibition-making, which itself can never be thought of independently from modernity.

Artists

Participating artists

is professor and chair of the Department of Theory and History of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague. He studied philosophy at Charles University in Prague (PhD, 2006) and at the University of Geneva. He has written articles for Camera Austria and Texte für Kunst as well as for numerous anthologies, most recently for Abstraction & Economy. Myths of Growth (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024), edited by Eva Maria Stadler and Jenni Tischer.
Curated exhibitions: Lucy McKenzie & Atelier E.B, Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2022), Sam Lewitt & Cheyney Thompson. Grids. Gradients. Drunken Walks, Brno House of Arts (2017), Christopher Williams. For Example: Dix-Huit Leçons Sur La Société Industrielle (Revision 14), with M. Škoda, House of Art, České Budějovice (2011).

Solo Exhibitions (Selection): Galerie Buchholz, Cologne (2022), Galerie Buchholz, New York (2020), The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2014), The Art Institute of Chicago (2014), 55. Bienniale di Venezia, Austrian Pavilion (2013), Secession, Vienna (2013), Galerie Buchholz, Berlin (2012), Raven Row
(2011), Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (2010), Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2010), New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2009), Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2009), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2007), Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2006), Galerie Buchholz, Cologne (2006), Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles (2005), Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2004), Mumok – Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna (2003), Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles (2002), Grazer Kunstverein (2001).

Group Exhibitions (Selection): Haubrok Foundation (2023), Made in L.A. Biennial, Hammer Museum / Huntington Museum, Los Angeles (2021), Mumok – Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna (2021), Kunsthalle Bern (2020), Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2019), Liverpool Biennial (2018), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2018), Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (2017), Kunstverein Hamburg (2016), Sydney Biennial (2014), Busan Biennial (2012), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2012),Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2008), Haubrok Foundation (2011), Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2010), Galerie Václava Spály, Prag (2009), Yokohama Triennale (2008), MOCA / The Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles (2008), Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (2007), Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006), Haus der Kunst, Munich (2005), Generali Foundation, Vienna (2005), Berlin Biennale, Kunstwerke Berlin (2004), Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003).