Landschaft = Labor
Exhibition MMKK Klagenfurt 2016/17
intro
Landschaft = Labor [landscape = laboratory]
In the exhibition Landschaft = Labor, the Carinthian Museum of Modern Art/MMKK presented for the first time – in the context of selected international artistic positions – a comprehensive show of works by Austrian artist, Herwig Turk
Herwig Turk‘s work is based on his examination of complex scientific themes. The material culture of the high-tech laboratory is seen as a complex environment, in which the significance of the term landscape is reflected; a landscape that, between political determination and industrial instrumentalisation, becomes an experimental laboratory. Thus, the terms "laboratory" and "landscape" blend seamlessly in the exhibition. The artist dissects a variety of tales from laboratory life on the one hand, and on the other, explores civilizational connections and colonial exploitation methods within the concept of landscape. The pictorial and object worlds generated by Herwig Turk thereby refer to traditional patterns of representation, which call in question both stereotypes of landscape painting and forms of portrait painting.
In the exhibition at the MMKK, Herwig Turk's work undergoes a contextual expansion, through the dialogue with works from the Museum's collection itself on the one hand, and on the other, through a selection of artworks which hark back to related artistic strategies and have a place in the scientific discourse on art.
Artists:
Herwig Turk in dialogue with Herbert Boeckl (A), Thomas Feuerstein (A), Cornelius Kolig (A), Gerhard Lang (G), Sonia Leimer (I), Kira O’Reilly (GB) & Jennifer Willett (CAN), Hannes Rickli (CH), Meina Schellander (A), Nicole Six & Paul Petritsch (A), The Center for Land Use Interpretation (US) and Gerhard Treml & Leo Calice (A).
