Camera Austria International
37 | 1991
Symposion on Photography XI, Part I
WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS OF EXISTENCE. OBJECTS / SIGNS / COMMODITIES
- HELEN CHADWICK
Objects. Signs. Commodities. - WILLIE DOHERTY
Two Names... Two Places... Two Minds - PAUL GROOT
The Eye or The End of Photography - OLIVIER RICHON
Looking & Incorporating - SLAVOJ ZIZEK
Withdrawal Symptoms of Existence: The Final Scene of >>City Lights<< - ALEKSANDR CHUMAKOV
Silence
Preface
WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS OF EXISTENCE. OBJECTS / SIGNS / COMMODITIES this was the theme of the 11th Symposium on Photography at the Styrian Autumn ’90. The first part of the presentations given there is now laid out in the issue on hand, no. 37 , while the contributions by Peer Weibel, who suggested the theme and gave its theoretical treatment, by Michael Wetzel, Thomas Locher, Tamara Horakova & Ewald Maurer, Rolf Walz and Allen McCollum will be published in issue no 38. at the beginning of October 1991 , just in time for the 12th Symposium on Photography.
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Camera Austria International 37 | 1991
Preface
WITHDRAWAL. SYMPTOMS OF EXISTENCE. OBJECTS/SIGNS/COMMODITIES this was the theme of the 11th Symposium on Photography at the Styrian Autumn ’90. The first part of the presentations given there is now laid out in the issue on hand, no. 37 , while the contributions by Peer Weibel, who suggested the theme and gave its theoretical treatment, by Michael Wetzel, Thomas Locher, Tamara Horakova & Ewald Maurer, Rolf Walz and Allen McCollum will be published in issue no 38. at the beginning of October 1991 , just in time for the 12th Symposium on Photography.
“Withdrawal Symptoms of Existence” as a topic aims at a debate on the concepts of the object and of existence of debate on the principal changes concerning the basic conditions for the arts and sciences: photography (whose invention and development must be seen as running parallel to the “rule of commodities”) must, as the “ruling medium of the withdrawal of existence” (Michael Wetzel) achieve several tasks: being a technically produced (and reproducable) commodity, a copy image confirming reality, a fetish or an object replacing reality- in short: as material reality and significant imagery. Now as ever we cling to our view of reality on these two levels. Things are something other than what they signify: their quality, their utilitarian value need not necessaryily coincide with their value of significance or their exchange value. The process of abstraction initiated by the rule of commodities has led the order of objects and their representation into a crisis even in the 19th century, a crisis that has been described, depending on one’s ideologyc position, as ‘neglect of the object’ and ‘oblivion of existence’ (Martin Heidegger) or as ‘the mystic character of the commodity form, the fetish character of the commodity'(Karl Marx). We must, at last, become aware of the fact that OBJECTS do no more exist. We live in a world of commodities, of signs of the media. The said abstraction process has intensified the sign character of the world. In the world of commodities and media the objects only circulate as specters – as signs or as commodities” (Peter Weibel).
The editors express their apprection to the symposium participants including the public whose contribution will be published in the discussion section in the next issue. We hope that the divergent approaches to the theme will make the publication as thrilling as the live event. The SYMPOSIUM ON PHOTOGRAPHY was a contribution of Forum Stadtpark to the Styrian Autumn ’90 and was principally financed by this festival. We thank those in charge, especially director Horst Gerhard Haberl, for enabling us to continue the contemporary debate on photography through this series of symposia. We thank the British Council in Vienna and the Ministry of Education and Art for their financial support towards this publication.
Christine Frisinghelli
Entries
Forum
Florian Schwinge
Martin Eberle
János Stekovics
Siegrun Appelt
Frank Watson
Exhibitions
Reinhard Braun: Bilder aus der Sowjetunion. 20 Sowjetische Fotografen 1917 – 1940. Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz
Reinhard Braun: “Gegen die Kunst muss jeder moderne kultivierte Mensch kämpfen”. Alexander M. Rodtschenko. Warwara F. Stepanowa, Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Wien
Jutta Steininger: Getlinger photographiert Beuys 1950 – 1963. Städtisches Museum, Kalkar; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München; Hardhof-Espace Art & Culture Ebel, Basel; Museum moderner Kunst, Palais Liechtenstein, Wien; Neue Galerie, Kassel; Mönchehaus-Museum für Moderne Kunst, Goslar; Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Annemarie Hürlimann: Das ernsthafte Augenzwinkern des Alchemisten in der Dunkelkammer. Sigmar Polke. Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden
Annemarie Hürlimann: Max Ernst. Fotografische Portraits und Dokumente. Franziskanerkloster, Brühl
Roberta Valtorta: Gran positivo nel crudele spazio stenopeico. Paolo Gioli. Palazzo Fortuny, Venedig
Annemarie Hürlimann: Reiner Ruthenbeck. Fotografie 1956 – 1976. Düsseldorfer Kunstverein, Düsseldorf
Franz Niegelhell: Michael Zinganel. Qwertzuiop. Grazer Kunstverein, Graz; Galerie Zell am See, Schloss Rosenberg, Zell am See
Kerstin Braun: Embleme der Sehnsucht. Between madness and laughter. Mary Kelly. Knoll Galerie, Wien
Thomas Trummer: Vom Verschwinden der Dinge aus der Fotografie. Museum moderner Kunst, Palais Liechtenstein, Wien
Books
Thomas Trummer: James Welling. Photographs 1977 – 90
Jutta Mayer: Mike and Doug Starn
Christina Feller: Angelika Bader & Dietmar Tanterl. Die Hohe Schule des Vergessens
Jutta Mayer: New Scottish Photography
Jutta Steininger: Walker Evans and William Christenberry. Of Time & Place
Franz Niegelhell: Peter Fischli, David Weiss. Airports
Franz Niegelhell: Doppleranarchie. Wien 1967 – 1972. Mit Fotografien von Lisl Ponger
Christina Feller: Kurt Matt. Obere Hochwaldzone; Kurt Matt. Werke
Jutta Steininger: Ästhetik der Subversion. Medien, Macht und Widerstand. Op-Positions. We Are The World. You Are The Third World. Fotografie Biennale Rotterdam II
Christina Feller: Joachim Brohm. 1987; Joachim Brohm. Berlin 1990; Joachim Brohm. Industriezeit
Kerstin Braun: “Fotoseite”. Kommentierte Beiträge zur Fotografie aus der “Wiener Zeitung”
BilderLust; Tomi Ungerer. Photographie; Roy Schatt. James Dean. Ein Porträt; Bruce Weber. Bear Pond Book; Rainer Iglar. Arkadien; Nancy Honey. Woman to Woman
Jutta Mayer: Steelworks; Josip Klarica; Passagen der Photographie. Aktuelle Photokunst aus Polen
Franz Niegelhell: Heimrad Bäcker. Epitaph
Imprint
Publisher: Manfred Willmann.
Verein CAMERA AUSTRIA, Labor für Fotografie und Theorie
FORUM STADTPARK, Stadtpark 1, A-8010 Graz
Editor: Christine Frisinghelli
Editing Team: Reinhard Braun, Jutta Mayer, Thomas Brunner
Translation: Klaus Feichtenberger, Bärbel Fink, Wilfried Prantner