Inside the Small White Cells | Bernd Oppl

Opening, 10.03.2009, 7 p.m.
Bernd Oppl in conversation with Tom Holert , art historian and cultural scientist, Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Bernd Oppl's works explore issues of perception, physical and media spaces, and the orders of perception producing these spaces. He approaches these issues with the help of video, photography, models, and sound. The translation from one medium into another and the distortion and abstraction resulting from it create a moment of irritation permitting new associative contexts.

In his work "In den kleinen weißen Zellen" (Inside the Small White Cells), Bernd Oppl reflects on the medium of the exhibition, its economic conditions, as well as on the influences the institutional framework has on the work and, thus, on the artist's practice. Exhibitions have become artistic products per se. This fact also constitutes a barrier, especially for young artists, who more often than not find it difficult to show their work. An ironic play with contexts, an acting out of fantasies, and an appropriation of significant spaces, "In den kleinen weißen Zellen" is oriented toward realizing exhibitions and large-scale projects in a reduced simulated from.
(BO, EL)

Translation: Wolfgang Astelbauer

Bernd Oppl
Born in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1980, lives and works in Vienna, Austria. Has studied fine arts (painting and graphic arts) from 1998 to 2007 under Ursula Hübner at Kunstuniversität Linz (Austria) and, since 2008, fine arts under Dorit Margreiter (video and video installation) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria. 2008 advancement award for contemporary art of Tyrol (Austria), 2008/2009 grant of the Kunstuniversität Linz (Austria). Since 2004 musical projects as Horace and, since 2006, member of the Midi-Marschmusik-Kapelle [military marches band].

Exhibitions | Screenings | Sound (selection)
2009  “ Sound Characters ”, Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, Austria | 2008  “Ich habe nicht genug ihr matten Augen”, Universal Cube, Leipzig, Germany; “Sauna 08” Brut im Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria | 2007  “Zona ovest | Austria occidentale in dialogo”, exhibition space Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, Turin, Italy (catalog); “ acht positionen ”, RLB Kunstbrücke, Innsbruck, Austria; Horace, “ noise never sleeps ”, CD, true call record label, 004, Berlin, Germany | 2006  “Opera Austria”, Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy (catalog); “Filmriss”, Salzburg, Austria | 2005  “Werkstatt”, exhibition space, Institute for Art History, Innsbruck, Austria (catalog); “cityTV – A.R.T. of reality”, Rhizom, Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria | 2004  “Querfilmein”, Kurzfilmfestival, Tyrol, Austria | 2002  “Home Stories 32 | punctum presents: Off-Space”, Sixpack Event, Filmcasino, Vienna, Austria

Curator-in-residence 08|09: Elsy Lahner