LINDA CHRISTANELL

Curated by Rhea Tebbich and Berthold Ecker

With Linda Christanell, Künstlerhaus presents one of the pioneers of the feminist avant-garde. The artist is a longtime member of the association, and this solo exhibition is her largest to date.

In the mid-1960s, Christanell created drawings and paintings that engaged with Informel, Pop Art, form fragmentation and sign-like abstraction. Already in this early phase she belonged to the avant-garde in Austria. Toward the end of the decade she experimented with molded Plexiglas parts, which she joined into idiosyncratic objects, as well as with textile and foam objects that she used in connection with her own body. From 1976 to 1978 she worked with Renate Bertlmann as the BC Collective; with Karin Mack and Margot Pilz she created the monumental photo series Wir über uns (1978–1981). Photography and, above all, film became increasingly important to her and eventually displaced the other media. Early on she explored the limits of representation and posed central questions about body, gaze, identity and visibility.

This retrospective sheds light for the first time on Christanell's entire early work up to her films. Also on view is largely unknown film material, restored in cooperation with the Österreichischen Filmmuseum. Set alongside artistic positions by fellow artists and by artists of later generations, the enduring relevance of her work becomes evident.

Artists: Linda Christanell as well as Renate Bertlmann, Andrea Freiberger, Kiki Furlan, Ingrid Gaier, Gudrun Kampl, Claudia-Maria Luenig, Karin Mack, Elisabeth Melkonyan, Christiana Perschon, Margot Pilz and Gerlinde Wurth