Exactly As Imagined
A project by the Department of Site-Specific Art / University of Applied Arts Vienna
In cooperation with the Klima Biennale Wien and the University of Applied Arts Vienna / Department of Site-Specific Art, brut is presenting an intervention in public space and an exhibition that gives the public an insight into the artistic creation process. A temporary collective of students and artists will occupy the rehearsal rooms of brut nordwest and the grounds of the Nordwestbahnhof, inviting visitors to rethink work flows in the visual arts.
Exactly As Imagined emerges from an ongoing process shaped not by a fixed curation but by the collaborative efforts of a temporary collective of art students, artists, and cultural workers. The collective challenges and transforms the concept of the traditional ‘art exhibition’ shifting the space into a zone of shared expression and inquiry. Through the constant articulation of difference(s) and resistance(s), Exactly As Imagined acts as a platform for unearthing hidden narratives and creating new ones, fostering a sense of interconnectedness and interdependence. How do we address a site in constant flux, caught between invisibility and hypervisibility? How do we take care of it and how do we take care of each other? How do we imagine its pasts and futures?
As a transitory collective, we intervene both collectively and individually in the innerspace of the exhibition location – brut’s working dance studios – as well as in its outer space – the area of the former station. Hereby, we investigate its historicity and its materiality, its occupation and its abandonment, its structure and its surfaces. We dig out physically and metaphorically some historical layers, we populate it with works and stories, we expand its boundaries and shape.
Located within the industrial site of the former Vienna Northwest Railway Station, the building once housed a clothing company, later a beverage dealer's storage, and is today the temporary home for contemporary performative arts. Its imminent demolition will pave the way for a new district development. The collective spatial concept design of the exhibition delves into the building’s rich histories. Embracing impermanence, we engage with it minimally but radically. We work with what we found on the site that we shortly inhabit. Instead of adding things and through a process akin to archaeological excavation, we dismantle and peel away the layers of the space's infrastructure. A subtle vitality emerges, inviting us to explore the architecture’s inner anatomy. From pulsing wires to buzzing blinds and flickering lights, the building reveals itself in unexpected ways, luring us in for deeper exploration. By committing to each other and our delirious explorations we take over continuous care work, we challenge conventional boundaries and invite the public to walk into an unfinished conversation.
As part of the exhibition, a performative procession will take place on two dates (Fri, 7 and Wed, 26 June):
We go for a walk through the Nordwestbahn area. Today an industrial wasteland, a site of remembrance and an urban borderzone, it will soon be a new urban district. A procession. Mourning what is gone, what left traces or a ghostly presence. Celebrating what grew in the shadows of abandonment. We carry found objects, craft fragile forms of attention, reactivate unseen sights, excavate hidden tracks. And, inevitably, we linger on the ridge between genuine symbolic investment and ruin porn.
Sturdy shoes are recommended for participation in the procession.
With: Lin Wolf / Ella Texaco & Florin Falloni / Evgeny Tantsurin / Maryam Shahidifar / Felix Schwentner / Artur Schernthaner-Lourdesamy / Judith Raupp / Yevheniia Pavlova / Laura Sofia Oyuela Flores / Veronika Nikiforova / Arina Nekliudova / Paula Mudri / Konstantin Leitner / Laura Ana Josic / Anne Faucheret / Gala Alica
Credits
The exhibition was developed within the course Exhibitions: Thinking with them and making them held by Anne Faucheret at the Department of Site-specific Art. In cooperation with brut Wien & Klima Biennale Wien.
Links & Social
Dates & Tickets
Sat, 01 June, 6:00 pm Vernissage
Sun, 02 – Sun, 09 June, 5:00–10:00 pm Exhibition open
Sun, 02 June, 6:00 pm Performance programme
6:00 pm Felix Schwentner New Latte Art II: Cool Neighbourhood
6:30 pm Laura Sofía Oyuela Flores ángel caído
7:00 pm Ella Texaco & Florin Falloni The good, the bad and the ugly city
Wed, 05 & Sat, 08 June, 6:00 pm Guided tours
Fri, 07 June, 6:00 pm Performative Procession & Performance programme
6:00 pm performative procession
7:30 pm Felix Schwentner New Latte Art II: Cool Neighbourhood
8:00 pm Laura Sofía Oyuela Flores ángel caído
Sun, 09 June, 2:00 pm Closing brunch
Wed, 26 June, 6:00 pm Performative Procession
Sturdy shoes are recommended for participation in the procession.
Free admission
June 2024
Opening / Free admission
Exhibition open / Free admission
Performances / Free admission
Exhibition open / Free admission
Exhibition open / Free admission
Guided tour / Free admission
Exhibition open / Free admission
Exhibition open / Free admission
Performative procession & performances / Free admission
Exhibition open / Free admission
Guided tour / Free admission
Closing brunch / Free admission
Exhibition open / Free admission
Performative procession / Free admission / Sturdy shoes are recommended for participation in the procession
brut nordwest – rehearsal space
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
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brut all over Vienna
brut nordwest
accessible
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
Subway: U1, U2 (Praterstern), U4 (Friedensbrücke), U6 (Dresdnerstraße) Tram: 5 (Nordwestbahnstraße) Bus: 5A (Wasnergasse)
accessible
studio brut
not accessible
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
Subway: U3 (Zieglergasse), Tram: 49 (Westbahnstraße / Zieglergasse)
not accessible