To know the unknown - first exhibition at SewonArtSpace

With the opening exhibition of the SewonArtSpace we are trying to address our entry into this country, which is so foreign and unknown to us, and start to cooperate with locals.

Three artists from Indonesia and three artists from Austria are collaborating in a first art project, experimenting with words, colors, forms, time and space. In comparison to music, film and performance the cooperation in visual arts is rare and unusual. To increase the irritation the collaborating artists themselves do not know each other, nor do they know their works.

Three basic methods have been defined as a starting point:

1) Work descriptions of three art works by one artist were translated and given to the collaborating artist without any visual reference. The artist himself translates his own interpretation into a visual form.

2) Three advertisements made by designers for public spaces have been cut out. The motives were not recognizable due to the cutout from a bigger image, which was always a digital print. The cutout has already marks from viral advertisers advertising their own services. Furthermore, these marks have been over-painted by the authorities because of their illegality. These multi-layered images traveled across countries to be once again re-processed by a different personal understanding.

3) Three photographs printed on canvas were captured by the artist during his travels. They represent stages of his understanding and his personal circumstances. These images were selected for their strong iconography and variety of interpretation due to different cultural backgrounds. First, the receiving artist reflects on the given image, then (s)he visually recodes the received image.