Eva Maria Stadler — HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark

Exhibition Tour

In a joint tour of Mathias Poledna’s exhibition at the HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Eva Maria Stadler will discuss and present both the exhibits and the artist’s career.

Stadler, who was Vice-Rector at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna from 2019 to 2023, curated Mathias Poledna’s first solo exhibition at the Grazer Kunstverein in 2001 with the title Actualité. This show was not only formative for Poledna’s practice, but against the background of the current exhibition, is particularly interesting for his artistic development. In Actualité, Mathias Poledna’s decades-long exploration of aspects of everyday culture and modernity was interwoven with critical reflections on conceptual art and institutional critique. From the very beginning, Poledna’s work transcended the boundaries of fine art and combined popular culture, historicity and the medialization of creative forms with social phenomena in his work.

In his precisely designed film Actualité (2001), also shot in 16mm, a fictitious band rehearsal in the style of post-punk of the late 70s and early 80s is shown, reflecting Poledna’s profound interest in narrative and documentary film traditions. The filmic work central to this exhibition at the Grazer Kunstverein was presented in a projection room and was reminiscent of a film studio, transporting visitors to Los Angeles, where Poledna has lived ever since. In a highly reduced formal language with only a few elements (a film, a poster and a projection room), Poledna managed to merge aesthetic and historical references from the Lumière Actualités to modern music film paradigms in a complex network, thereby challenging the visitors’ viewing habits.

It is precisely by testing the viewer’s perception and the question of what is actually seen, which is central to Poledna’s practice. In doing so, as Stadler will show, Poledna penetrates into the deep layers of image production. The medium of film, and in particular the reference back to analog filmmaking, serves as a projection surface in a double sense. Mathias Poledna reconstructs cultural signs and interweaves them with the performance practice of film, as well as with the medium of the exhibition.

Artists

Participating artists

is Director of the Institute for Art and Society and Professor of Art and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, as well as curator of contemporary art. From 2019 – 2023, she was Vice Rector for Exhibitions and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and Vienna and at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. From 2012 – 2013 she was director of the Gallery of the City of Schwaz. From 1994 – 2005 she was director of the Grazer Kunstverein, from 2006 – 2007 curator in residence at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and from 2007 – 2011 she worked as curator for contemporary art at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna.

Exhibitions (selection): How lovecraft saved the world, Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna (2021), Jonathan Monk, Richard Prince, Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna (2006), Angelika Nollert, Body Display. Körper und Ökonomie, Secession, Vienna (2004), Jonathan Monk, Small Fires Burning (after Ed Ruscha after Bruce Nauman, after), Grazer Kunstverein (2003), Der globale Komplex – continenal drift, Grazer Kunstverein (2002), Mathias Poledna, Actualité, Grazer Kunstverein (2001), Florian Pumhösl, on or off earth, Grazer Kunstverein (1996).

Latest publications: Abstraction & Economy. Myths of Growth, De Gruyter, Berlin, 2024.

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).