Austrian collective

7. 3. − 30. 3. 2025

Curator: Katarína Balúnová

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The exhibition Close - Distant explores the search for identity in space and time, questioning the binary dichotomy of near and far, examining the complexity of introspective or extrospective relationships and the geographical, cultural and psychological proximity as expressed by young artists through the diversionary materiality of contemporary art.

It presents a selection of works created by  students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna at the Studio of Art and Image / Abstraction under the  supervision of prof. Michaela Eichwald and Thomas Winkler and at the Studio of Art and Image / Context under the supervision of prof. Alice Creischer and Andreas Siekmann. 

The exhibition Close - Distant invites us to reflect on the nature of our existence in relation to ourselves and to others and concrete and imaginary situations and places in the present, past or future that have and which continue to shape us. In her essay On Touching—The Inhuman That  Therefore I Am, Karen Barad notes that:

“When two hands touch, there is a sensuality of the flesh, an exchange of warmth, a feeling of pressure, of presence, a proximity of otherness that brings the other nearly as close as oneself. Perhaps closer. And if the two hands belong to one person, might this not enliven an uncanny sense of the otherness of the self… the greeting of the stranger within? So much happens in a touch: an infinity of others—other beings, other spaces, other times—are aroused…  What is the measure of closeness?” 

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Proximity and distance are concepts that, although seemingly contradictory, often coexist in our lives.  Physical and emotional proximity or distance can be interchangeable; physical proximity does not necessarily equate to a shared understanding or experience, while emotional proximity can exist solely on a psychological level. Artists reflect the inner and outer worlds in their works, exploring the dynamic relationship between materiality and meaning.

In addition to traditional painting mediums such as oil and acrylic, non-traditional materials such as fabric, leather, and found objects are applied,  forming hybrid platforms that are in a constant flux between elegance and brutality. Karen Barad’s concept of agential realism suggests that materials are not merely passive substances but active participants in the creation of meaning, and we can discern this process in painting itself, an essentially physical act of touch which involves materials, whether pigments, textures or surfaces, as co-creators of artistic expression. The resulting works move from figuration to abstraction and back again, seeking out forms which lie in the borderlands between chaos and order, reflecting the profound contrasts that we experience in life. 

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The title of the exhibition, Close – Distant, also refers to the paradoxical proximity and distance existing between Bratislava and Vienna, two capital cities which are both geographically close, only  80km apart, yet somewhat distant in cultural terms as a result of their different historical trajectories and political structures. Although the two cities were strongly interconnected during the era of the  Austro-Hungarian Empire, the political upheavals in Europe after the Second World War took them down radically different paths, a situation which was only resolved in 1989.

The exhibition aims to highlight the possibilities of activating cultural cross-border cooperation, a process which, even 35  years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, still appears to contain underexploited potential.