Exhibition
The exhibition took place from 1 October 2014 to 25 March 2015.
my private world. Works from the VERBUND COLLECTION
From 1 October 2014 to 25 March 2015, the VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna, presented the exhibition my private world in the Vertical Gallery, Vienna.
The exhibition my private world brings together three generations of artists who divide the phenomenon of privacy between intimacy and the public realm. The disclosure of personal life in the medium of photography started in the 1960s. It was an act of revolt against the bourgeois-idealised presentation of familial privacy of the post-war period. The artists presented in the exhibition document the proximity to an intimate atmosphere, which should not remain hidden from the observer. The artists Tahmineh Monzavi, Simryn Gill and Adam Rzepecki deserve special mention as they are being shown in the Vertical Gallery for the first time in Austria.
Curator:
Curated by Gabriele Schor, founding director of the VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna
Team of the VERBUND COLLECTION
Theresa Dann – curatorial assistant
Daniela Hahn – curatorial assistant
Artists
my private world
Vito Acconci | Cecil Beaton | Tom Burr | Gilbert & George | Symrin Gill | Nan Goldin | Peter Hujar | Louise Lawler | Urs Lüthi | Tahmineh Monzavi | Adam Rzepecki | Jeff Wall | Gillian Wearing | James Welling
VERTIKALE GALERIE der SAMMLUNG VERBUND
Am Hof 6a | 1010 Wien
Insights into the exhibition my private world. Works from the VERBUND COLLECTION
Private and yet public
The black and white photographs of the Iranian artist Tahmineh Monzavi (born 1988) are tender testimonies to areas of public and family life in Tehran. The photo series The Brides of Mokhber-al-Dowleh documents the place that produces the wedding dresses, which are sewn exclusively by men. The rooms of the old, run-down tailor’s are stuffed with magnificent bridal robes that stand out from the dark surroundings due to their traditional virginal white colour. Tahmineh Monzavi’s works leave behind a contradictory and bizarre impression that confronts the male-dominate world of work with the idealised idea of married life.
The photo series My Own Private Angkor by the artist Simryn Gill (born 1959), which was shown in the Australian pavilion at the Biennale in Venice in 2013, portrays abandoned homes in Cambodia. The glass panes leaning against the walls in the empty living rooms bear witness to thieves who dismantled and took away the window frames but left the glass behind intact. The black and white photographs capture the decay of the abandoned private spaces.
The Polish artist Adam Rzepecki (born 1959), who remained entirely unnoticed in Austria, belongs to the generation of artists of the 1970s that placed the personal at the centre of their works. Adam Rzepecki himself slips into female roles, thereby turning classic stereotypes on their head in an ironic way. The disclosure of personal life in the medium of photography started in the 1960s. It was an act of revolt against the bourgeois-idealised presentation of familial privacy of the post-war period. From the 1970s, Peter Hujar and Nan Goldin showed a world in upheaval with their portraits of the art, music and gay scene in New York as they knew it.
Other artists asked themselves about the importance of space for privacy. The photographs of Urs Lüthi contrast the breadth of the American landscape with the narrowness of sterile hotel rooms, which shimmer between aloofness and artificial intimacy. Tom Burr makes reference to the need to retreat into a private space with his series of Hollywood villas hidden away behind metres-tall hedges. Jeff Wall dedicates a portrait to a homeless person who has lost any kind of private retreat.
Photos: © eSel
