Intervention-Environment 

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna 

In 2023 the students of the studio „Art and Intervention / Environment“
explored the area Steirische Eisenwurzen in Styria/Austria. Intensive
research over the course of several months followed, dealing with
the history of the region, its ecology, climate change, monocultures
and sustainable alternatives. The results were made visible and could
be experienced in the exhibition „zwischenwurzeln“ in the forest
museum Silvanum. In the framework of the Klimabiennale the focus
of the students now shifted from the mountain valley to the urban
wastelands of the Nordwestbahnhof. The possibilities of interpretation
of their artworks changed with the recontextualization with regards
to architecture, public space and the specifics of climate change in an
urban environment.

The studio „Art and Intervention / Environment“ at the Academy of
Fine Arts Vienna positions itself at the interface of installation art and
socially relevant debates. Our focus is on time-critical research into the
possibilities and places of social interaction. The studio is directed by
Judith Huemer in cooperation with Tobias Pilz.

Helene Payrhuber, Albert Frühstück

An organism, formed from the remains of others, appears
unexpectedly on the grounds of the Climate Biennale. It explores its
environment, adapting to its new habitat and way of life.

Jacob Bartmann

earth truck

Concrete mixer truck translated into local clay from a construction
site at Elterleinplatz in Vienna. The sculpture is unfired and will be
transformed back into clay by the influence of the environment,
especially by rain.

Lily Kim, June Hwajung, So Young Park, Sunggu Hong

Between A Tree

It might not just be a coincidence that there are so many circles to be observed in our daily life, surroundings and nature. Different shapes and sizes of circles with various stories. Probably some of them might be related to each other. We stand on tree rings of a cut tree and think about other circles‘s stories which will bring ‘us all’ into connection.

Hanne Jannasch, Regina Menke

o. T. [Schonhaltungen …]

The medium of the poster, which usually addresses an outside
world with clear messages, is here provided with a floral wallpaper
pattern and a poem. While the decorative flower alludes to a cultural
relationship between humans and plants characterized by care
and appropriative domestication, the poem, through its placement,
oscillates between „confessions“ and „assertions“.

T.A.R. – Temporary Autonomous Region

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in cooperation with the FUTURAMA LAB

Project management: Rainer Prohaska

T.A.R. is an experimental autonomous living space dedicated not
only to human visitors, but also to other diverse urban
inhabitants. During the festival, the creation of this artwork with
its logistical challenges will be staged LIVE. Transportation,
storage of the materials & construction of an utopian living
space will merge into a performative and an installative act.

Common Ground Group

University of Applied Arts Vienna, Class for All 

 Common Ground Core Group: John Paul Ayodo, Ingrid Garschall, Marieluisa Lenglachner, Johanna Preissler, Carina Riedl, Paul Röttger, Elisabeth Smejkal, Dominika Svarc,Barbara Ziegelböck

A large carpet is created by many people working together. Each
person leaves a braid that becomes part of the carpet - and thus a
trace in it. The time spent together opens up space for exchange and
dialogue. Visitors are invited to participate. 

Michael Robert Jimenez

Train tracks made of wood are planted askew into the ground. Directed toward the sky that they will never reach, their stunted lengths contrast the concept of the limitless potential of growth: formed, processed wood juxtaposes its living counterpart, as that counterpart's growth confronts its shaped death. Train tracks, as a symbol of quick socioeconomic expansion and growth, find their finiteness against the slowly expanding and growing of a living tree.

Frederike Nikotina Gordillo

Shelly

In one hundred days, the body is gradually overtaken by nature, and it undergoes a metamorphosis into a new form of living entity.
The once inanimate object becomes infused with life by its surroundings, observing the process from a passive position.

Kimiya Rastgou Moghadam. Momente der Verbindung

Imagine sitting under an ancient tree, feeling its profound existence, quite strong; a wave is going through the trunk. What does it tell you? In "Moments of Connection," I have shared encounters I had while immersed in nature. Each plant, each element seems to have a tale to tell. You can read the book, but the plants are absent. They exist only as a tactile imprint, an incomplete shadow. You may run your fingers over the pages in search of this elusive mark, but it may elude you. For the essence of these stories cannot be captured or contained; it can only be felt in the depths of one's being.

Simon Reitmann

The „Mehrparteienvogelhaus“ presents a combination of art and nature. With several separate nesting sites and feeding areas, the sculpture provides a habitat for different bird species. The choice of entrance hole sizes allows for a specific attraction of those birds that feel comfortable in urban areas.

Sleeping Dogs

Exhibition with graduates of the Department for Site Specific Art Klimabiennale Wien 2024

Curator: Marlies Pöschl

What if the proverbial dogs went on strike by not waking up from their sleep? The labour power of non-human animals is exploited in many ways in contemporary biocapitalism, mostly without it being understood as work. This concerns not only their actual productive power, but also the reproductive abilities of (female) animals: Animals become meat, milk becomes food. Non-human animals also often contribute to shaping the environment without this being perceived as labour. The cultural and material logistics established by humans have been producing and utilising animal life as a form of capital for centuries.

The works presented in this exhibition by graduates of the Department of Site-Specific Art (University of Applied Arts) are dedicated to this unequal division of labour between human and non-human animals. It introduces the motif of sleep as a subversive strategy. Sleep can appear in many different guises: Rest, hibernation, breeding phase. The works shown here thus pose the question of the extent to which animals and humans can resist these forms of exploitation by consciously taking breaks. However, they also address the fact that it may be too late to wake the dogs: that human trust in the regenerative processes of nature is disproportionate to the consequences of systematic destruction.

Ivana Lazić. IMMANENCE: In Becoming

Durational performance, Audio, Karlsplatz clay, natural wool, 2023, Courtesy by the artist

Ivana Lazić‘s immersive work invites visitors to literally be in becoming with the installation. The artist covers the floor with large blankets made from the wool of Pramenka sheep. She compares the migration processes of human and non-human animals. Lazić‘s work deals with transformations: the sheep‘s lifetime, which has gone into growing the wool, is transformed into warmth that visitors can feel when they wrap themselves in the blankets.

Raphael Reichl. Andar pisando en cascarones arenosos (Walking on sandy egshells)

2-Kanal-Installation, 220 x 125 x 50 cm, 23 min (Loop), Stereo-Ton, 2022, Austria/Mexico

In his installation, Raphael Reichl portrays two conflicting dynamics in the Mexican harbour region „Puerto Escondido“. At the centre are hideaways, places of refuge and breeding sites that are being transformed or destroyed by global capitalism. Reichl shows labourers who build hideaways for tourists under precarious conditions. At the same time, a young woman creates small refuges for turtles with her bare hands: she digs sand nests in order to protect the turtle eggs.