Sound Images

In the first 'classic' exhibition, 12 artists were presented, all of whom moved at the interface between fine art and music and thus represented an 'art scene': starting with Franz Graf and Hans Weigand, who played in bands before they split up focused on fine arts, to Andreas Kunzmann and Fritz Grozs, who founded the group molto brutto, to Egon Scoz, whose pictures were inspired by songs, to Eva Schlegel's reduction of the typeface to rhythm, etc.

In addition to the artistic works, documentary material was available as in an archive - records, CDs, cassettes and videos, which visitors to the exhibition could listen to or watch. These 20 videos, 102 CDs, 76 singles, 72 LPs and 57 cassettes were exemplary documents for the interweaving of fine art and music, such as the Sonic Youth records for artists such as Gerhard Richter, Raimond Pettibon, Mike Kelley and Rita Ackermann designed the cover.

Three events accompanied the exhibition on the process level: a performance by Helmhart, a techno event with the artist Gerwald Rockenschaub as a DJ and a lecture by Diedrich Diederichsen.

In the variety of relationships between fine arts and music, the strands and concentration points that have had a significant influence on current artistic work and life forms have been investigated. The year 1994 was formative for the art and music scene, the boundary between the two disciplines became blurred.

On April 4, 1994, Kurt Cobain, the frontman of Nirvana, shot himself and became the idol of Generation X, his suicide an expression and signal of their hopelessness. For many, Cobain embodied the self-destructive Slacker philosophy. In a world without morals and illusions, a 'coolness' spread, the only sense seemed to be to have fun. When the CD Nevermind (1992) was released, MTV had lifted Nirvana to rock zenith with weeks of power play.

So the exhibition was not only a presentation of contemporary Austrian art, but also a statement on the current cultural, political and social situation. Approximately 370 visitors saw the exhibition, in which a climate of mutual supplementation and correspondence between fine art and music was conveyed.

Text: Andrea Hörl

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