Elke Krystufek " Liquid Logic "at MAK in Vienna

Saturday, 13 January 2007 13:20

Vienna, Austria - In her exhibition entitled "LIQUID LOGIC.  The Height of Knowledge and the Speed of Thought" Elke Krystufek probes into the MAK like no other artist before her.  For several months, Krystufek researched the history of the institution as well as traditional museum tasks and developed, in a continuing process, a dialectic and complex, and yet logically consistent exhibition.  Using different forms of artistic expression which are closely interwoven with subjects such as religion, femininity, value, and myth, "LIQUID LOGIC" opens up new perspective on the survival and the transitoriness of art, on collecting strategies, and the role of women in the art business.  On exhibition until 1 April, 2007.

Krystufek did not confine her exploration of the MAK collection to "dead objects", but engaged in-house curators in an intensive discussion about the MAK collections and collecting interests.  Assisted by them, she made a selection of objects to be incorporated in the exhibition, the criterion being relevance to the subjects of the brain, religion, the vagina, and marriage.  Inspired by these objects and by the order of the collection, Krystufek developed new objects, furniture, pictures, and photographs which will be juxtaposed in groups with the items from the collections.

Another source of inspiration for Elke Krystufek were her interviews with MAK curators.  Excerpts of these conversations about their work, interests, and relationship to the museum will be published in print in the exhibition catalogue.  Krystufek also asked the curators to comment her own objects developed for the MAK in this publication.

Prior to her MAK inquiries, Elke Krystufek concerned herself with the person of the Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader.  Ader, who disappeared in 1975, is currently being "resurrected" in exhibitions and publications in an act of posthumous appropriation of his person and work.

In "LIQUID LOGIC", Elke Krystufek affords the artist an unexpected new life: transfigured into an artist heroine, he finds himself on the Easter Island.  In a dialogue with Dr. Love, he muses on power and powerlessness, on the impossibility of disappearance, and the loss of control over one’s work.  The film made for the purpose, "Dr. Love on Easterisland", will be premiered at the MAK.

The film’s location continues and expands the subjects addressed.  The self-sacrificing and self-destructive effort made by the Rapa Nui people to erect their Moai statues on Easter Island has mystified research and resisted its rationalizing explanations.  Answers can only be found in cult and religious fanaticism; subject areas that Elke Krystufek has recurrently touched upon in her work.

One special focus in the exhibition is dedicated by Krystufek to Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s model kitchen, which is exhibited, as a reconstruction, at the MAK Study Collection. Designed as an optimized working space for the working woman, the "Frankfurter Kitchen" represents the ideal of a modern lifestyle.  This is countered by Krystufek by showing her own kitchen, which, instead of the plain and simple, perfect design of the exhibit, is characterized by untidy individuality.  Shaped and occupied by the artist, Krystufek’s kitchen is an expression of her individual strength and lifestyle and a central site of her creative work.

Born 1970, Elke Krystufek has created a complex and internationally recognized oeuvre in the past 16 years.  With her expressive art, she keeps walking the line between the public and the private. Krystufek, who has made countless self-portrayals throughout her career, defines her own body as an art object.  The artist takes a lively interest in social and political phenomena and likes to mix media in her work, combining painting with collage, sculpture, video, photography, and performance.  Elke Krystufek taught at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and, 2005/06, was Visiting Professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Accompanying catalogue: "Elke Krystufek. Liquid Logic. The Height of Knowledge and the Speed of Thought", ed. by Peter Noever, contributions by Tulga Beyerle, Max Borka, Philippe Van Cauteren, Silvia Eiblmayr, Sebastian Hackenschmidt, Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, Johannes Wieninger as well as interviews of the artist with Heidemarie Caltik, Sebastian Hackenschmidt, Peter Noever, Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, German/English, Hatje Cantz Ostfildern / MAK Vienna, 2006.

Visit "LIQUID LOGIC. The Height of Knowledge and the Speed of Thought" at : www.MAK.at/