VIENNA.- Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession, presents today Hannes Zebedin - Mit Schwung durchqueren anstatt sich aufzuhalten, on view through April 13, 2009.

Hannes Zebedin’s exhibition Mit Schwung durchqueren anstatt sich aufzuhalten at the Secession’s Grafisches Kabinett focuses on the white cube as a model of the (hermetic) art space and how it may be overcome by reality’s “invasion” of this world of art. His exhibition consists of two situations that are, on the one hand, stand-alone. On the other hand, the opposed movement of the three-dimensional transformations create a dialectics between establishing a completed format and its destruction.

By means of an installation placed by the artist, the staircase leading up to the Grafisches Kabinett, a functional zone that precedes the actual exhibition room, is devoid of functional or decorative details and is illuminated in glaring white. On the walls of this minimalistically clear space we read – at least fragmentarily – the quotation of the Italian futurist Aldo Palazzeschi that Zebedin uses as a motto and title for his installation: “Instead of dwelling in the darkness of pain, we want to cross it boldly so as to enter the light of laughter.”

While the staircase cites the white cube, the actual exhibition room resembles a place badly damaged by vandalism or protest as a result of the artist’s activist stone-throwing: The windows are smashed and pieces of broken glass and cobblestones lie scattered through the room. The outside, the noise from the street, the temperature, etc. can be experienced unfiltered, the lighting situation in the room is dependent on the outside light. The references that Hannes Zebedin opens up to other artistic positions and drafts of society are many and diverse: They range from the futurists – who, as we know, propagated the assimilation of the individual in the masses – to Franz Kafka, whose existentialist writings focus on precisely this individual; but they also include Gordon Matta-Clark, whose “Window Blow-Out” is cited here in an inverted form, and Bruce Nauman with his “Performance Corridor”.

It is characteristic of Hannes Zebedin’s pointedly staged installations, interventions and performances that he explores the possibilities of individual articulation in view of other developments focused by group dynamics in civil society. The stone thrown through the windows of the Grafisches Kabinett cites the aesthetic of a political act and, at the same time, questions how it relates to the convention of the reality-effacing white cube in particular and the world of art in general. In his contemporary interpretation of the manifesto format he tries to find possibilities of finding a clear position of a political or artistic attitude that forms a contrast to the post-modern approach of “anything goes”.

Hannes Zebedin (b. in 1976 in Lienz) lives and works in Vienna. Catalogue: The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue (German/English) with an essay by Kit Hammonds. Solo shows and interventions: 2009 Mit Schwung durchqueren anstatt sich aufzuhalten, Secession, Vienna; 2007 Ein Sonntag im Museum (with Adrien Tirtiaux), Baumgasse 30a, Vienna; 2006 Lyudmila und Kalinka, public space, Tromsö, Norway; 2005 Marcus Omofuma Stein, public space, Vienna; 2004 3sprachig50%, Republiksplatz, Belgrade.

Group shows (selection): 2009 Spotlight. Neuzugänge seit 2006, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg(*); Bürger/in Bosnien und Herzegowinas, Klub Ost, Vienna; 2008 Am Rande Pathetik, Fluc, Vienna; Kleinstes Gemeinsames Vielfaches, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; Backstage Tourism, Gemäldegalerie, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; Archive in residence, UNA Gallery, Bucharest; 2007 Frisch vom Friseur auf der Suche nach der Modernen, Kurzbauergasse 8, Vienna; Kaffee und Drina, Vereinigung Bildender Künstlerinnen Österreichs, Vienna; Ausgesetzt_spaesato, Galleria Lungomare, Bozen; 2006 God is a gallery, Galuzin Gallery, Oslo; Gallery of the HfBK Hamburg; All night long, Christine König Galerie, Vienna (*); Verk, Forsbakka, Schweden; Spektrum Farbe, Landesmuseum Niederösterreich, St. Pölten (*); Give me five, Tanzquartier Wien (*); 2005 Medialisierung, Spatialisierung, (Re)Politisierung, Arbeit, Fluc, Vienna; 4 a different view, Cafe Rot, Vienna; Rückverortung des Sozialen, VBKÖ, Vienna; Mundpropaganda, Amthof, Feldkirchen; 2004 Real Presence 04, Museum des 25. Mai, Belgrade. (*) with Markus Gradner, Daniel Ramirez, Stephan Uggowitzer.

The exhibitions are realized through support of: Erste Bank – Partner of the Secession, Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur, Wien Kultur, and Friends of the Secession.