T_D #5: URSULA NEUGEBAUER & TIMM ULRICHS

Ursula Neugebauer
Artothek Wien, 2001
Lightbox

Since 1948 the Republic of Austria has made annual purchases of works by Austrian artists, which can be borrowed by a range of institutions. The photograph shows the Arthotek Wien while these works of art were stored at Palais Liechtenstein, until 2001. The walls decorated with magnificent golden stucco are in the ballroom, where the works indulged in a dance every night, and could hardly be found the next morning, having to be repeatedly rediscovered. Today the Artothek is housed at Belvedere 21, and has been digitised and catalogued in a database for research purposes. The ballroom at Palais Liechtenstein, however, is available to rent for cocktail parties and receptions, from the Liechtenstein Gruppe AG, Immobilien Wien.
— Ursula Neugebauer

Interview Ursula Neugebauer online @ MQ Journal

Timm Ulrichs
ohne Resonanz, 1983/89
Echo chamber of a guitar cast in concrete,
in wooden crate with branded title

The sculpture ohne Resonanz (no resonance) presents something immaterial rendered in material form: a concrete echo chamber in concrete — i.e. the hollow of an acoustic guitar, while here the positive inversion of the negative space has brought it to a state of silence. By pouring concrete in through the sound hole, compacting it on a vibrating table and meticulously filling every corner and cranny of the body, the wooden shell could subsequently be removed as if it had been formwork. So, the negative sculptural space shows the usually concealed inner workings of the instrument in an idiosyncratic and heavyweight form. Even if the object can no longer be played, it no longer emits any guitar-like sounds, the violent act of treating and even destroying the original musical instrument and the sounds produced in doing so can still be regarded as a work of Sound Art, a work which can be experienced in the video documenting the process. The guitar is a popular motif in Fine Art (e.g. in the works of Picasso, Juan Gris, Matisse etc.) due, incidentally, also to its ascribed (or suggested) formal relationship to the female body. So it comes as no surprise that many male guitarists give their favourite instrument a female nickname. Accordingly, the violent act in the production of the sculpture can be felt as all the more painful, while accompanied by the surprising clarity of the revealed and displayed interior of this popular cult object — an instrument featured in both serious and light music.— Timm Ulrichs

Timm Ulrichs
ohne Resonanz, 1983/1989/2005
Video, 8’27” min, colour, sound
With Gerhard Isenmann, Havixbeck

Video follows

TONSPUR_display #5

Ursula Neugebauer
& Timm Ulrichs
MQ-Artists-in-Residence

28.8.—22.10.2023
Preview • Sunday • 27 August 2023 • 17:00
In the presence of the artists
With an introduction by
Sabine Kienzer
TONSUR_display | Indoor Showroom

TONSPUR Kunstverein Wien
Museumsplatz 1
1070 Vienna
daily 10 am to 8 pm