Viennese Art Scene

The Viennese Art Scene is a multi-channel video installation, which I created during my residence at KulturKontakt in Vienna. It is a project that complements one of my previous projects, entitled Lost Element. The Viennese Art Scene is based on interviews with contemporary immigrant artists who decided to relocate themselves to Vienna, in search of a better life and to take advantage of artistic possibilities. Conversations with these Viennese artists from other countries form a link between the present day and the history of Teresa Ries, whose life and her sculpture Hexe I studied in the project Lost Element.

Whilst using both my unfamiliarity with the local society and playing with the objectives of the Vienna residence, such as "familiarizing artists from the residence with the Viennese art scene," I concentrated on the issue of migration and cultural exchange, which significantly contributes to the fact that some cities are centres of cultural life and others remain on the margin.

The interviews were made with artists of different ages, who use different media, those who were most able and willing to meet me during my stay in Vienna. In the video you can listen to their answers to questions relating to their everyday and artistic lives, questions from the perspective of newcomer, not-allied nor-alien at the same time. The answers are sometimes predictable, sometimes surprising, confirming or contradicting each other.

Artists who participated in the project:

Songül Boyraz, Yedda Chun-yu Lin, Petya Dimitrova, Abdulrab Habibyar, Ewa Kaja, Isidora Krstic, Dimiter Ovtcharov, Ida Rätcher.