Last days
Exhibition participation “time-space-existence”, Palazzo Mora, Venice, hosted by the European Cultural Centre
La Biennale di Venecia / freespace 2018
Pictures: 76/76cm, digital c-prints on Kodak Endura Metallic paper
By coincidence, as we received the invitation to participate in the exhibition “Time Space Existence”, we were already working on a long-term project that shows important, often historic buildings in a state of change.
Our interest doesn’t lay in the before and after, but we find that it`s the interim-period which creates its own ephemeral existence.
Therefore we took pictures of some pieces of famous architecture like the Vienna town-hall, the Künstlerhaus on the well-known Karlsplatz, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Academy of Fine Arts, etc, all covered and completely or partially hidden behind white screens. The screen evokes a shift in the relationship of the structure to its non-covered parts and to its surrounding.
For “Time Space Existence” we decided to focus on a special building. Every day since we live in Vienna we walked by the Architect Harry Glück´s so-called „Glaspalast“. The building, a computing center, completed in 1980, lost its function and has already been demolished in the meantime. The building used to be unpopular, nevertheless we always thought we should photograph it. In the end we captured it in a state of the most visible absence.
Harry Glück died aged 91 in 2016, the “Glaspalast” vanished in 2017.
Before being torn down, the building got covered with a white screen that restored and reinforced its visibility in its last days. Trivial scaffolding and tarpaulin create a unique aesthetics. All the building´s characterizing attributes are hidden, which intensifies a pure sculptural presence.
It´s temporary (non-)existence comprises unknown stories of the past and the future. Since it´s demolition we walk by an empty plot.
