Bildraum Bodensee
23.2. - 3.4.2018
Opening: Thursday, February 22, at 7 pm

Reception: Günter Schönberger, Bildrecht
Talk on the occasion of the exhibition: Michaela Stock in conversation with the artists
Performance: Marko Marković

Closing event & Artist Talk: Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at 7pm

Where: Bildraum Bodensee, Seestraße 5, 2nd floor, 6900 Bregenz

A video tour through the exhibition > Emotional Journey
video: Veronika Merklein

photo documentation, a short video > Emotional Journey
photo: Petra Rainer | © Bildrecht, Wien 2018

The interaction and emotional exchange between artists, artworks and viewers are a focal point of artistic exploration. In a society marked by distance, emotions are often pushed to the private sphere; at Bildraum Bodensee they become publicly perceptible. Six international artists look into the phenomenon of emotionality in drawings, photographs, sculptures, videos and performances. Evelyn Loschy (AT), Marko Marković (HR), Veronika Merklein (DE/AT), Sofie Muller (BE), Viktors Svikis (LV) and Marko Zink (AT) thematise taboo topics such as fear, anger, mourning, shame but also joy. Divergent positions on trauma, sexualisation, but also sarcasm and humour take centre stage in Emotional Journey.

Austrian artist Evelyn Loschy works with a variety of materials and methods – video, photography, site-specific interventions, kinetic, (auto-) destructive sculptures. In the latter, she deals with the construction and deconstruction of realities. Loschy considers the destructive tendencies in visual arts an echo of a general change in cultural history and applies them to her own world of emotions, but also to the emotional world of the recipients.

Croatian media artist Marko Marković questions power structures and political systems and pushes social taboos to the limit. In his performances he does not shy away from even radical performative statements. He uses his body to tell stories about open resistance and inner conflicts, stories of an emotionally charged battle for power and subjugation. The art of self-injury associated with it is also always an attack on the audience. If someone harms themselves physically in the name of art, the victim and the aggressor are one.

For German artist Veronika Merklein, the human body is the central element of her performances and photo work. Starting with her own body, she questions body and food policies, using primarily elements of pop culture. With these elements, Merklein examines asymmetrical power structures and objectification patterns which people in today's consumer society are subject to and which often reduce people to their appearance in the social context.
The sculptures and smoke drawings of Belgian artist Sofie Muller revolve around existential topics such as injury and traumatisation, psychological fragility and the desire for community. The artist devises a sophisticated vision of our reality by uncovering its contradictions and complexities. With bronze figures of young people that are disturbing and at the same time empathetic, she explores the human body as a primary means of expressing emotional states and mental sensitivities.

What catches the eye in paintings of Latvian artist Viktors Svikis is his direct expressiveness, which is hardly guided by conceptual considerations. He shows scenes of strength, power and violence in everyday settings and exceptional situations in coal drawings and oil paintings. Svikis reveals without judging; his protagonists appear peculiarly isolated.

In his analogue, mechanically and chemically processed photo series, Austrian photographer Marko Zink goes on a search for lost time and tells us a(his) private story, reflecting on body images and social role concepts. By processing the film material, unforeseeable effects, mostly of a blurry nature, are created. Zink thus points to physical or metaphysical concepts as well as emotional dissonances and irritations.

An exhibition in cooperation with Galerie Michaela Stock.
With kindly support of the Belgian embassy.

more information > Bildraum Bodensee