Diedrich Diederichsen — HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark

Lecture

Diedrich Diederichsen is not only one of the most important German authors, music critics and art theorists, he has also accompanied Mathias Poledna’s practice from the very beginning. Having largely enriched Poledna’s publications and exhibition catalogs with his essayistic text contributions, it is possible to argue that Diederichsen is not only an expert on Poledna’s oeuvre, but has also helped to shape it, then described it.

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.

As such, Diederichsen shows that Mathias Poledna does not view the culture, fashion and film industries as something abstract, but as a system which we are all integrated, and in which these different artistic productions merge into one another to produce paradoxical results. Whether it is a rock band working through genre modules, as in his film Actualité (2001), or Poledna’s Western Recording (2003), which lends a singer unexpected melancholic depth, Poledna’s examination of cultural-industrial and counter-cultural material is always rooted in rarely taken perspectives, examining source material with artistic precision.

Poledna’s practice is often concerned with how snapshots of history, particularly modernity, are negotiated, and, remembered and archived in relation to contemporary cultural phenomena.

Artists

Participating artists

is an author, art and music critic. Since 1991, he has taught at various universities (including Merz-Akademie Stuttgart, Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, University of Bremen, Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen, University of Vienna) and was Professor of Theory, Practice and Mediation of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 2006 to 2024. Diederichsen studied Hispanic Studies, Modern German Literature, Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of Hamburg. From the 1980s he lived in Cologne and was editor and publisher of the magazine SPEX and editor at Sounds.

Publications as an author (selection): Das 21. Jahrhundert. Essays (2024), Körpertreffer (2017), Über Pop-Musik (2014), Eigenblutdoping. Selbstverwertung, Künstlerromantik, Partizipation (2008), Musikzimmer (2005), Der lange Weg nach Mitte — Der Sound und die Stadt (1999), Politische Korrekturen(1996), Sexbeat. 1972 bis heute (1985).

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).