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<P><FONT size=2><STRONG>KUNSTHALLE EXNERGASSE</STRONG> ,
Vienna <BR></FONT><A href="http://kunsthalleexnergasse.wuk.at"><FONT
size=2>http://kunsthalleexnergasse.wuk.at</FONT></A><FONT
size=2> <BR><BR><BR>.....INVITATION.......<BR><BR><STRONG>Bless my homeland
forever – I, too, will try to forget…</STRONG><BR>Exhibition: September 16 –
October 16, 2010<BR>Opening: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at
7pm<BR><BR><EM>Artists</EM>: A2 company (Alit Kreiz / Anton Mirto), Javier
Bernasconi / Omar Estela / Marcelo Montanari / Marcela Oliva / Luciano Parodi,
Stefan Constantinescu, Yael Farber, Lamia Joreige, Werner Kaligofsky, Ioana
Marinescu, Karoline Mayer, Lucia Nimcova, Rastko Novakovic / Ger Duijzings, Cora
Piantoni, Nada Prlja, Susan Silas<BR><EM>Concept and Organisation</EM>: Ioana
Marinescu and Karoline Mayer<BR><BR>Framework Programme:<BR><EM>- Panel
Discussion</EM>: Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 6pm<BR>Participants of Panel
Discussion: Werner Kaligofsky, Ioana Marinescu, Karoline Mayer,<BR>Lucia
Nimcova, Luciano Parodi , Nada Prlja, Susan Silas, Martin Fritz
(Moderation)<BR><EM>- Film screening</EM> at the Romanian Cultural Institute
Vienna, Argentinierstraße 39, 1040 Vienna:<BR>Friday, September 17, 2010 at 7pm,
My Beautiful Dacia by Stefan Constantinescu und Julio
Soto<BR>/////<BR><BR>"…Bloss' of snow may you bloom and grow<BR>Bloom and grow
forever<BR>Edelweiss, Edelweiss<BR>Bless my homeland forever"<BR>(from the
American Musical (1959) and Film (1965) "The Sound of Music")<BR><BR>"The Sound
of Music" is one of the ten most successful films of all times, reaching
approximately 1.2 billion viewers all over the world, receiving 5 Oscars and 2
Golden Globe Awards. Today, more than forty years later, its success continues.
The film has strongly influenced the general image of Austria worldwide,
portraying it as a beautiful country serving as a backdrop for a naïve, creative
people happily indifferent towards, if not actively supporting the "Anschluss".
In Austria itself the film did not only flop miserably at the time of its
release, it remains mostly unknown to this day.<BR>The contrast between the
film’s huge international degree of popularity and its non-acknowledgement in
Austria can only be understood as a bizarre manifestation of the Austrians’
unwillingness to deal with a version of the past that has not been adjusted to
suit their own self-image. The casually honest portrayal of the country’s
National-Socialist past was and still is simply an affront to a people that is
doing its utmost to forget.<BR>This paradox inevitably raises the following
questions:<BR>To what degree is our identity shaped by our awareness about our
history?<BR>In order to fully embrace the future do we have to understand the
past and how it has shaped us?<BR>Is there, on the other hand, any legitimacy in
the saying to "forgive and forget"?<BR>It is a natural human process to blank
out unpleasant facts from one’s own memory. At the same time contemporary art
practise clearly illustrates our need to find out where we really come from. The
exhibition addresses these questions in an international context, whilst
stressing the relevance of the project being shown in Austria – a country renown
for its problematic position in relation to its own past.<BR>History and its
narration, memory and the process of remembrance and their impact on the
understanding of (national) identity are common themes in the diverse and
international projects included in this group exhibition. Artists from twelve
countries show projects that use a variety of media, including photography,
film, theatre, installation and performance art, and even pop-up books as tools
in the exploration of the past and its effect on us.<BR><BR>Susan Silas (USA),
Lamia Joreige (Lebanon) and Yael Farber (South Africa) are among the
internationally renown artists that will show their work in Austria for the
first time within this
exhibition.<BR><BR>--------------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR><STRONG>KUNSTHALLE
EXNERGASSE</STRONG>, WUK, Währinger Straße 59, 1090 Wien<BR>tel. +43-1-40121-42,
e-mail: </FONT><A href="mailto:kunsthalle.exnergasse@wuk.at"><FONT
size=2>kunsthalle.exnergasse@wuk.at</FONT></A><FONT size=2> <BR></FONT><A
href="http://kunsthalleexnergasse.wuk.at"><FONT
size=2>http://kunsthalleexnergasse.wuk.at</FONT></A><BR><BR></P></BODY></HTML>