VIENNA, AUSTRIA.-Kurt Kren (1929-1998) counts among the most significant representatives of the international film "avant garde". Considered a pathfinder for the structural film movement, he ruthlessly criticized the crusty social structure of post-war Austria through his uncompromising artistic demeanor. Kurt Kren’s early experimental films treated form and thematic material of the medium of film and analyzed perceptual processes so as to render common sights suffused with subversion.

Collaboration with the Viennese Activists Otto Muehl and Guenter Brus led to a radicalization of his esthetic and existential positions. This partnership reached its climactic apogee in 1968 with the "happening" known as "Art and Revolution" in the University of Vienna. Kren moved to the USA. He is one of the few Austrian artists to have attained international cult status during their lifetime.

The Augarten Atelier accords Kurt Kren his first monographic exhibition in a museum context and thereby continues its series of exhibitions centered around the classics of Austrian "avant garde". Focus of the exhibit is on the filmmaker’s early work, including the cinematographic experience of collaboration with his artistic comrades such as the Vienna Activists. In addition to selected film clips, plans, sketches and photographs are on display.