a collaborative project by
Celine Struger, Kristin Weissenberger & Patrícia J. Reis
OPENING: 10.3.2023, 19h – 22h
FINISSAGE: 21.04.2023, 19h-22h
EXHIBITION DURATION: 11.3 — 21.4.2023
OPENING HOURS: Every Saturday from 12h – 17h
Mz* Baltazar’s Lab
Jägerstraße 52-56
1200 Wien
Mz* Baltazar’s Lab is proud to announce the first exhibition of our 2023 program focusing on collaborative artist projects between female* identified artists.
Celine Struger, Kristin Weissenberger & Patrícia J. Reis collaborated for the first time in a joint project on the intersection of ceramics and its cultural and feminist background. The artists coming from different backgrounds and practices aim to shed light on the emancipation history of female artists and their exploration of the relationship between ceramics, hacking and other fields of art.
The exhibition will feature the result of a collaboration that was initiated two years ago, highlighting their recent collaborative action at the Donauinsel in Vienna, in which they reclaim public space as a radical attitude towards sustainable and ethical hardware, autonomy, and a DIY approach to ceramic production. Visitors will witness the group’s artwork, including their ceramics produced using traditional techniques, as well as the documentation of their action.
The collaboration journey began with their shared interest in ceramics and their exploration of traditional techniques to resist capitalist production methods. The group furthered their commitment to anti-capitalist practices by incorporating sustainable methods for producing ceramics. They continued their exploration of autonomy by reclaiming and hacking the city infrastructure and questioning the idea of public space and ownership.
The exhibition also aims to showcase feminist hacking as a strategy for emancipation in the art, science, and technology fields. This approach to new materialism promotes emancipation through the agency of materials, and visitors will be able to witness this in action throughout the exhibition.
The exhibition is also the third season of the serie titled Mud-Group, a project initiated by Kristin Weissenberger that revolves around the group’s collaborative and artistic process, using ceramics as their primary medium for exploration. The Mud-Group#3: Who Has Land to Make a Fire? is a project supported and co-financed by the Research PEEK Project Feminist Hacking: Building Circuits as an Artistic Practice, Financed by the FWF – Austrian Science Fund | PEEK (AR580) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna conducted by Stefanie Wuschitz, Patrícia J. Reis and Taguhi Torosyan, who are co-curators in this exhibition.
Mz* Baltazar’s Lab 2023 program is supported by Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport (Kunst und Kultur) and the Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien.
About the artists:
Céline Struger
(*1982, Klagenfurt) beschäftigt sich mit Skulptur und Installation. Ihr Fokus liegt in der Neuverhandlung von Orten, sie befasst sich mit den Themenschwerpunkten Post-Kapitalismus, Ökologie und Mythologie. Struger stellte zuletzt bei She BAM! und in der MQ Art Box (solo) aus. Außerdem war sie an institutionellen Gruppenausstellungen im TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes und in Synagoga – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst beteiligt
Kristin Weissenberger
(*1982, Stmk.) widmet sich in ihrer skulptural-installativen Praxis der Frage, wie wir, mit der uns umgebenden Sphäre aus Materie und Organismen, im Austausch stehen. Dabei beschäftigt sie sich vermehrt mit der Überlagerung und Neuverknüpfung sogenannter natürlicher, technischer, digitaler und handwerklicher Prozesse. Ihre Arbeiten wurden zuletzt in der Künstler:innenvereinigung MAERZ ausgestellt, davor führte sie ein Projekt in die Sub-Arktis, wo sie mit „Probe_Particle_Encounter“ eine Installation im Gelände einer Forschungsstation verwirklichte.
Patrícia J. Reis
(*1981, Lisbon) is a media-installation artist whose practice encompasses different formats and media to question and expand human-machine affinities through new materialism and feminist hacking lenses. In her installations she often appeals to the visitor’s sensoriality in an intimate and sensual way, encouraging them to become active participants. Her work was just recently exhibited at the Havana Biennial in Cuba, at the Kunstraum pro art, Hallein and at the Group Show „RGB EXPIRA: 2022“, Castelo e Paço dos Condes, Ourém, Portugal. In 2021 was awarded with the Outstanding Artist Award in Media Art by the Austrian Chancellery for Culture.
