Extreme Perspectives in motion

The exhibition took place as part of the Schwaz Silver Summer 1997, which was entitled Dance of the Mountains. The longing for the "overview", which is given, among other things, in the bird's eye view, formed the starting point for the choice of the general theme.

Changes in consciousness that astronauts experience during their space flights were summarized under the term "overview effect": A changed experience of time, the feeling of an all-encompassing connection, the feeling of responsibility for a planet that seemed fragile from a distance had to be described. Birds, the namesake for the "new" perspective, formed the central element of the exhibition - with the further thought that artistic actions basically mean a movement in extreme perspectives. The exhibition dealt with the longing for an overview and the necessary personal movement - among other things.

Two commissioned works were created: In her slide installation entitled Birds, the video artist Romana Scheffknecht showed circling space shuttles in a darkened room, in which 81 realized and unrealized flying objects, mainly from the 1960s, were projected onto the wall from a slide carousel every 10 seconds were projected. For Ernst Trawöger, who was represented by three large-format black-and-white photographs, studying birds meant a "high school of observation". He was interested in the bird's perspective, so he waited for the arrival of a bird in a place that seemed suitable for feeding. The blackbird that came in front of his camera then became the subject of his work twice, the meadow, the place of observation, was shown in the third picture.

Another extensive part of the exhibition was the results of the Uccelli/Birds symposium held in May 1996 at the La Selva bird park near Rome. The meeting organized by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev and Hans Ulrich Obrist as well as the Associazone Zerynthia was about bringing art and science together in a stimulating dialogue. Facets of the relationship between humans and birds, between identification and being different, attraction and repulsion, study, observation and fascination were addressed.

Text: Andrea Hörl

‍