Wolfgang Bender, untitled, MUMOK, Vienna, 2015, (detail)
An installation titled “Everything” by a current VAA Nida Art Colony resident, the Austrian artist Wolfgang Bender, will be presented in the temporary project space on the main (Taikos) street, curated by Nida Art Colony, on the 13th of April at 6 p.m.
Bender’s installation is a site-specific work created for THE KIOSK in Nida. It consists of different layers of the origins of recent art history as well as very concrete thoughts brought together by the artist to create a very specific intervention in public space. Wolfgang Bender’s artistic work can be best described as a thick woven fabric of many layers. All of his work contains rich references to contemporary art. His very personal approach to the world in general yields highly refined works that are always a result of very precise research of a place chosen in advance.
“Everything” has its origin in a work by Wolfgang Bender where he photographed a young lady at the MUMOK Museum two years ago. The bouquet of flowers one can see in the background was the starting point for his installation in Nida. In the Kiosk you will see real flowers laid down on a table as if for some ceremony. The bouquet is surely related to the art piece in Vienna, but here you will only see the flowers. The opening will be held on the 13th of April, which is also known as the Holy Thursday in commemoration of the Last Supper, otherwise known as the night on which Jesus Christ was betrayed prior to his crucifixion. People who pass by will probably think of this very special date.
But the flowers are also part of a very personal encoded circumstance that you can only guess by seeing the two other parts of the work: the photograph mentioned above and a piece of windowpane in which some sentences and a special date are engraved with a diamond tool. Every part of the installation stands on its own, but seen as a whole they are clearly interrelated. The photograph of the girl and the glass piece will be shown on Wolfgang Bender’s website (www.wolfgang-bender.com) while the installation will be on show in the Kiosk.
Wolfgang Bender is an artist based in Vienna. His works have been shown internationally, for instance, at ACF in Rome, Italy in February/March 2017. His major installation “1.1.R.E.G.A.L.” will be on display in Gallery allerArt, Bludenz from the 27th of April 2017. Among other shows Bender will participate in an exhibition for ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Company). In November 2017 the artist will hold a major exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bregenz in Austria.
You can visit the installation until the 7th of May. The project is partially funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. The patron of the project is Andrius Tamaliūnas.
