Anamnesis of a Landscape

ANAMNESIS OF A LANDSCAPE, Kunsthaus Wien 2021

Herwig Turk has been dealing with the river landscape of the Tagliamento since 2016. The Tagliamento in the upper Italian region of Friuli is one of the few unregulated rivers in Central Europe. It rises at the Mauria Pass near the Austrian border and flows into the Adriatic Sea 170 kilometres further south between Bibione and Lignano Sabbiadoro. The riverbed is characterised by extensive, meandering gravel and sand banks that change dynamically with the water depending on the season.Herwig Turk has been dealing with the river landscape of the Tagliamento since 2016. The Tagliamento in the upper Italian region of Friuli is one of the few unregulated rivers in Central Europe. It rises at the Mauria Pass near the Austrian border and flows into the Adriatic Sea 170 kilometres further south between Bibione and Lignano Sabbiadoro. The riverbed is characterised by extensive, meandering gravel and sand banks that change dynamically with the water depending on the season.
The Tagliamento is a unique ecosystem and has an above-average diversity of animal and plant species compared to other European rivers. Such a wild river landscape is an impressive and rare sight for most people today.
In his artistic exploration of the Tagliamento, Turk presents the river areas as places with different uses and cultural attributions. The artist is not only concerned with the water, but also with the inhabitants of the adjacent banks and the foothills of the river.
The expansive installation in the garage of KUNST HAUS WIEN consists of several X-ray light boxes of different sizes, screen printing screens and a four-channel video installation. On these different media, the artist has mounted his observations of the river landscape in a multi-faceted way. Turk documents the geological conditions and changes, such as those caused by the 1976 earthquake, records the economic utilisation of the raw materials gravel and water, follows the traces of warlike conflicts during the First World War and sheds light on the topic of nature conservation using ecological research facilities on site. 
Turk shows the river as a dynamic, complex system of geopolitical transformations and thus negotiates central facets of the Central European understanding of nature in an exemplary manner.

Verena Kaspar 2021