19 February 2008 – 30 March 2008

Syberberg/Clever. A Night. A Monologue.

Hans Jürgen Syberberg still numbers among the most controversial German (film) artists today. Rejected by German critics for a long time, his work has found such renowned advocates as the American art theorist and writer Susan Sontag, the French philosopher and author Michel Foucault, or the American film director Francis Ford Coppola. Though the list of his films comprises more than twenty works, his late has remained largely unknown especially to a younger public. The question why an institution such as the Kunsthalle should present the work of a filmmaker has long become obsolete – and is clearly baseless in the case of Hans Jürgen Syberberg. With his penchant for a “transdisciplinary art,” Syberberg has not only left behind the anything but clear dividing lines between the various genres of art but also created spaces of perception that evade both formal categorization and traditional narration. Time and space are sublated, and the viewer is confronted with a shimmering kaleidoscope of associative fragments from “the Occident’s cultural history.” His installations for the “documenta 7” (1982) and the “documenta X” (1997), as well as the comprehensive retrospective in the Centre Pompidou (2003), suffice to reveal the degree to which Syberberg’s definition of film as an installation and his visual language and understanding unfold an important level of reflection not only for the film and the theater but also for contemporary art.
Syberberg’s subjects ranging from the Late Romantic movement and Richard Wagner’s universe to the Third Reich have long attracted the interest of a young generation of artists such as Jonathan Meese and Christoph Schlingensief. His successful cross-fertilization of film, theater, and contemporary art not only reminds us of Schlingensief’s approach but has also become evident in works like James Coleman’s impressive filmic installation “Retake of Evidence” presented at the “documenta 12,” for example.

Address

KUNSTHALLE Wien
MuseumsQuartier Museumsplatz 1
1070 Wien
phone +43 1 521 89 12 01
http://www.kunsthallewien.at

Opening Hours

Daily 10 a.m. - 7 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. - 10 p.m.

"project space" at the Karlsplatz.

Within 10 days
starting exhibitions
ending exhibitions