Camera Austria International

108 | 2009

  • CHRIS SHARP
    Jochen Lempert
  • JOCHEN LEMPERT
  • HILDEGUND AMANSHAUSER
    A conversation with Zhao Liang
  • ZHAO LIANG
  • MERCEDES VICENTE
    Darcy Lange
  • DARCY LANGE
  • HELEN LEGG
    Darcy Lange: Work Studies in Schools
  • JEFF DERKSEN
    Art and Cities during Mega-Events. On the Intersection of Culture, Everyday Live, and the Olympics in Vancouver and Beyond. Part I

Preface

We are pleased to present the current issue – the fourth for 2009 – Camera Austria No. 108, and, as with every new issue of this magazine, we hope that the topics we have focused on over the past few months will be of interest to our readers! In addition to two contemporary positions – Jochen Lempert and Zhao Liang – in this issue we also feature Darcy Lange (1946 – 2005), a pioneer of early video art whose work appears important to us in view of its artistic and socio-political relevance and that we wish to bring back into the current discussion with this publication. The singularity of Lange’s artistic stance (examined by Mercedes Vincente and Helen Legg) is reflected above all in his ethically driven concept of realism and his very pithy documentary handling of the photography, film and video media. He used these media in parallel, in some cases simultaneously, in his “Work Studies”, in which Lange found a structure for his examination of the representation of work and the world of work that is fascinating in terms of its concept and with regard to the medium.
The photographs of the Hamburg-based artist Jochen Lempert oscillate between scientific collection of material and poetic note, between abstraction and signification. This impressive work (of a trained biologist) is presented by Chris Sharp, who, in his essay, covers a range of aspects of indexicality in Lempert’s use of the photography medium (for example with regard to Rosalind Krauss‘ definition of the index concept) and the archive (for example in relation to Carl Blossfeldt’s nature studies). It is equally worthwhile to consider the technical aspects (according to Sharp an anachronism) of this work as it is fascinating to assess the current relevance of the photographs in our exploration of nature, its perception, and the forms of its survival in urban space.

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Camera Austria International 108 | 2009
Preface

We are pleased to present the current issue – the fourth for 2009 – Camera Austria No. 108, and, as with every new issue of this magazine, we hope that the topics we have focused on over the past few months will be of interest to our readers! In addition to two contemporary positions – Jochen Lempert and Zhao Liang – in this issue we also feature Darcy Lange (1946 – 2005), a pioneer of early video art whose work appears important to us in view of its artistic and socio-political relevance and that we wish to bring back into the current discussion with this publication. The singularity of Lange’s artistic stance (examined by Mercedes Vincente and Helen Legg) is reflected above all in his ethically driven concept of realism and his very pithy documentary handling of the photography, film and video media. He used these media in parallel, in some cases simultaneously, in his “Work Studies”, in which Lange found a structure for his examination of the representation of work and the world of work that is fascinating in terms of its concept and with regard to the medium.
The photographs of the Hamburg-based artist Jochen Lempert oscillate between scientific collection of material and poetic note, between abstraction and signification. This impressive work (of a trained biologist) is presented by Chris Sharp, who, in his essay, covers a range of aspects of indexicality in Lempert’s use of the photography medium (for example with regard to Rosalind Krauss‘ definition of the index concept) and the archive (for example in relation to Carl Blossfeldt’s nature studies). It is equally worthwhile to consider the technical aspects (according to Sharp an anachronism) of this work as it is fascinating to assess the current relevance of the photographs in our exploration of nature, its perception, and the forms of its survival in urban space.
The Beijing-based artist Zhao Liang discusses his latest documentary film “Petition”, along with other projects, in an interview with Hildegund Amanshauser (in which Alice Creischer and ­Andreas Siekmann also took part). Liang worked on this film, that was also screened in Cannes and Locarno, for more than ten years: he accompanies people from all over China travelling to Beijing to present their case to the Petitions Office, to complain about wrongs done to them at work or in private and to demand justice. Because these proceedings often last several years, a veritable slum has grown up in Beijing, the “Petitioners’ Village”, where the film’s protagonists exist. The interview refers both to the socio-political context in which Liang’s work is embedded, to the Chinese public, to whom his work is addressed, and to the different role and reception of his work and of contemporary art in general in China and Europe.
In this issue we are also starting a new column, that Jeff Derksen, author and critic from Vancouver, has agreed to write. He deals with the role of art and the behaviour of cities with regard to mega-events (such as the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver): in the course of this four-part series he will discuss forms of the public sphere that evolve in such contested places characterised by hopes, expectations and opposition.
We would like to thank our readers and subscribers for their interest in Camera Austria and hope that you will stay with us next year too. Above all, we would like to thank the artists and authors for their willingness to take part in designing and carrying out their contributions and thus to see Camera Austria both as an artistic project and as a temporary production partner.

Christine Frisinghelli
November 2009

Entries

Forum

TALIA CHETRIT

YVON CHABROWKSI

PHILIP GAISSER

VANJA VUKOVIC

ANIKÓ ROBITZ

ANATOLIY BABIYCHUK

ANTOINE TURILLON

JULI SING

Exhibitions

Modernologies
MACBA, Barcelona
ALBERTO MARTÍN

See This Sound
Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz
SUSANNE NEUBURGER

11th Istanbul Biennial
MAREN LÜBBKE-TIDOW

Die Moderne als Ruine
Generali Foundation, Wien
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
REINHARD BRAUN

Gustav Metzger: Decades 1959 – 2009
Serpentine Gallery, London
BART VAN DER HEIDE

Gabriele und Helmut Nothhelfer: Momente und Jahre
SK-Stiftung Kulture, Köln
CAROLIN FÖRSTER

Aglaia Konrad, Armin Linke: Concrete & Samples
Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen
KERSTIN STREMMEL

Le Printemps de Septembre
LUCIA PESAPANE

Tomorrow Started
steirischer herbst, Graz
ANNE FAUCHERET

The Annenberg Space for Photography
Los Angeles
SANDRA WAGNER

William E. Jones
ar/ge kunst, Bozen
MARION PIFFER-DAMIANI

Dennis Hopper: Signs of the Times
Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
CARLO MCCORMICK

Anabasis. Rituals of Homecoming
Ludwik Grohman Villa, Łódź
MONIKA SZEWCZYK

Ursula Biemann: Videogeografien
Helmhaus Zürich
SØNKE GAU

Books

On the Camera Arts and Consecutive Matters
MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2009
NAOKO KALTSCHMIDT

Dani Gal: Chanting Down Babylon. Recorded Accounts of El Al Flight 1862. Amsterdam October 4, 1992.
GISLIND NABAKOWSKI

Simryn Gill
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln 2008
RIKE FRANK

Video Edition Austria. Release 02
Medienwerkstatt, Wien 2008
SANDRO DROSCHL

Imprint

Publisher: Manfred Willmann. Owner: Verein CAMERA AUSTRIA, Labor für Fotografie und Theorie.
All: Lendkai 1, A-8020 Graz.

Editors: Christine Frisinghelli, Daniela Billner, Tanja Gassler
Editor News section: Heidi Oswald

Copy editing: Marie Röbl
English lectorate: Dawn Michelle d’Atri
Translations: John Doherty, Yoshiaki Kai, Emilia Ligniti, Wilfried Prantner, Josephine Watson, Richard Watts, Su Wei.