Speakers’ Corner
A conversation with the artists Alexandru Cosarca, Charlotte Gash, Tijana Lazović, Juliana Lindenhofer and Julius Pristauz, moderated by Astrid Peterle and Pieternel Vermoortel as part of the exhibition Unfreezing the Scene. Kunsthalle Wien Prize 2022.
Alexandru Cosarca (b. 1987, Arad, Romania) lives and works in Vienna. He studied Contextual Painting with Ashley Hans Scheirl from 2013 to 2022 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, while simultaneously completing a performance apprenticeship with the theater and performance collective God’s Entertainment. He is the founder of the event format WERISTdICHTER? and the art collective ContextCocktail. In 2022, he won the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna’s appreciation award, as well as the award of the free scene Vienna with the Red Edition Association. His stage performances, created as part of a collective, have been shown at the Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), Steirischer Herbst (Graz), and Donaufestival (Krems). Recently, Cosarca has been featured in solo performances at the mumok (Vienna) and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna). His films and paintings have been shown in solo and group exhibitions at Gallery 3 (Klagenfurt), Phileas (Vienna), Club Hybrid (Graz), Parallel Editions (Vienna), and Volkskundemuseum (Vienna), among others.
Charlotte Gash (b. 1994, Bury St Edmunds, England) lives and works in Vienna. After studying sculpture at Wimbledon College of Arts (University of the Arts, London), Gash completed her master’s in Performative Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Carola Dertnig. In March 2023, Gash had a solo show, GASH STATION, at Neuer Kunstverein Wien (Vienna). She has been invited by the Danish collective Salon 75 to participate in a group show at GOMO, taking place during the Independent Space Index festival in Vienna later this year, and will take part in the group exhibition Über das Neue / On the New at Belvedere 21 (Vienna) in October 2023.
Tijana Lazović (b. 1996, Belgrade, Serbia) lives and works in Vienna. She graduated from the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2022 where she studied Painting and Animated Film with Judith Eisler. She is currently studying biology at the University of Vienna to expand her views and practice. This is her first exhibition.
Juliana Lindenhofer (b. 1987, Graz, Austria) lives and works in Vienna. She obtained a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where she studied Sculpture and Spatial Strategies with Iman Issa. She has recently shown work in and performed at WAF (Vienna), Leopold Museum (Vienna), HYPERREALITY Festival/Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), Mutant Radio (Tbilisi), Sharp Projects (Copenhagen), Research and Waves (Berlin), Spoiler (Berlin), Galerie Wonnerth Dejaco (Vienna), and the event series Tuesday@Secession at Secession (Vienna). In 2023, Lindenhofer will be a resident at WIELS in Brussels and a body of new work will be presented at Belvedere 21 (Vienna).
Julius Pristauz (b. 1998, Judenburg, Austria) lives and works in Vienna. In 2022, he obtained his Master of Arts in Transmedia Art with Jakob Lena Knebl at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, after which he began studies in the performance department at the Faculty of Fine Arts, FaVU, in Brno. Most recently, he curated exhibitions in Vienna at EXILE, during the Curated by gallery festival, as well as at UA26 and the University Gallery of Applied Arts in Heiligenkreuzerhof. At Kunsthalle Bratislava he curated the group exhibition SOMETHING IS BURNING in 2022. Pristauz’ performative works have been shown at the Grazer Kunstverein and at Belvedere 21 (Vienna), among others.
Astrid Peterle, curator and writer, since 2022 Head of Curatorial Programming at Kunsthalle Wien. From 2010 to 2022, she worked at the Jewish Museum Vienna, most recently as its chief curator. From 2017 to 2022, she was curator for performance at Donaufestival Krems. Numerous exhibitions and publications on feminist art, performance art, and Jewish cultural history.
Pieternel Vermoortel is a curator, writer, and editor based in Austria. She co-founded FormContent in London in 2006 and has worked on its nomadic project It’s Moving from I to It (2012–2016). She was the senior director of Netwerk Aalst (2016–2022, Belgium) and is currently Senior Curator at Steirischer Herbst (Graz). In the last three years she curated and commissioned projects with, among others, Bianca Baldi, Jeremiah Day, Lucile Desamory, Dora Garcia, Wendy Morris, Laure Prouvost, and Imogen Stidtworthy. Vermoortel published extensively and curated exhibitions in London, Cairo, Singapore, etc. She has held permanent teaching positions at Goldsmiths College London and in the Curatorial Studies program at KASK Ghent.