Biennale – Contemporary art in a mobile guise

Innsbruck International, the biennial festival for contemporary art celebrates its tenth anniversary this year - with a temporary museum on the market square and interventions at several locations.

in 2022, Innsbruck International Bieal of the Arts will have the motto "Cookie. Take a moment to review your privacy preferences" and thus reacts to the last two years. Influenced by Covid-19, lockdowns, and social distancing, activities have shifted even more to the World Wide Web, including home offices and online meetings. Performances, exhibitions, films, concerts, and discussions at the Biennale revolve around the traces we leave behind on the Net and their relationship to the analog. The program of events on the occasion of its tenth anniversary is extensive. Shows the development alone in scope and length. At its premiere, the festival lasted only three days. In the meantime, Innsbruck International plays the city for more than two weeks.

This year the festival center is located on the market square. And it really can't be overlooked. After all, the Viennese artist collective God's Entertainment has erected a walk-in sculpture. "GGGNHM - Guggenheim in Innsbruck" occupies the public space and turns it into a museum quarter. In this way, GGGNHM playfully takes up the discussion that has flared up again and again for decades as to whether Innsbruck needs its own museum for modern art. The place repeatedly brought up for discussion is none other than the market square. At the same time, GGGNHM serves as an exhibition, event and discussion space. It is, so to speak, the heart of the festival that radiates throughout the city.

It was clear that Innsbruck International would respond to the developments of the last two years. "Home offices and online meetings in particular provide international corporations, states and companies with information of enormous value," says Teresa Kotyk, founder and director of the festival. Human digital twins have emerged, she said: " HUMAN CAPITAL, which was the focus of Innsbruck International 2020, has actually become capital in the Covid-19 era."

One artist who deals very directly with the subject matter is Ruben Aubrecht. His work can be found - along with a very impressive and oppressive sound installation by Jo Coupe - in Bogen 87, one of the viaduct arches in Saggen. So furthest away from the festival center at the market place. Shouldn't keep you away!

On a black table lies a thick book, like a telephone book. 472 pages, to be exact. Every user agrees to the text contained therein when he loads the online pages of the magazine "Monopol". With one click!

Impressive what we accept when we press "I accept" on the cookies. The installation by Nada Prlja in the Chapel of St. George in the Altes Landhaus (Maria-Theresien-Strasse) addresses this aspect - the connection to religion is obvious.

I "shorten" the way there by stopping at the A4 Gallery in Angerzellgasse. Already traditionally one of the stops of Innsbruck International. Michael Strasser shows there "One Universe". This year the artist received the Special Recognition Award from Innsbruck International. An award that is intended to benefit Tyrolean artists in particular. For the exhibition in the almost sacral-looking rooms of Gallery A4, he looked into the history of the building at Angerzellgasse 4. This served as the basis for an exhibition in which he interweaves sculptures, pictorial objects, furniture, painting and sound/sound into an overall installation.

The tour continues later at the Kunstpavillon am Hofgarten. Of course, Lars Eidinger attracts special attention. This summer, the well-known German actor will be on stage for the last time as Jedermann in Salzburg. He is represented at the Biennale with photo and video installations that capture moments, moments. "Everyday", the everyday develops a subtle poetic effect from his perspective. Arriving for the press conference and DJing in the evening, he was decidedly open to questions around his artistic works.

Also memorable was Shirin Neshat's 1999 film "Soliloqui, " in which the artist embarks on two parallel journeys into two different cultural landscapes - New York and Mardin in southern Turkey. The videos run on opposite sides and the viewer can only ever see one or the other. Yet the films - the artist's two selves - make direct reference to each other.

Ten years does not seem like a long time. But Innsbruck International has quickly succeeded in inscribing itself in Innsbruck's art and cultural scene. "The festival has established itself internationally," Teresa Kotyk is pleased to say on the occasion of the festival's tenth anniversary. And art enthusiasts rejoice with her. Even if Covid-19 will probably continue to accompany us, has driven us even more into a virtual world. Innsbruck International Biennial of the Arts invites us to engage with contemporary art in an analog way. A wonderful addition to the cultural offerings in the city. A blessing after such a long time of starvation, of extremely limited enjoyment of culture.

Innsbruck International - Biennial of the Arts

"Cookie. Take a moment to review your privacy preferences"

Until 22.05.2022

Innsbruck International Office at the Marktplatz

Opening hours: MI-SO, 11:00-19:00 and evening box office

6020 Innsbruck

info@innsbruckinternational.com

www.innsbruckinternational.com

Please note the current Corona rules.

To the exhibition program in Innsbruck and its vacation villages go e here. along.

Photos, unless otherwise indicated: © Susanne Gurschler