Lena Michalik
I am an artist and researcher living in Vienna,
born by the sea, raised in the mountains and tempered by metropolitan cities.
In my work I merge my backgrounds architecture, crafting and performance into a new practice with which I deconstruct and explore material and immaterial spaces aiming to examine their social and ecological potentials. I focus on listening and sensing and utilize a range of media to encourage imagination and new perspectives.
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01 RE:SONANZ - A performative approach to polyphony
What happens when four people gather in a room for 100 days in a row and listen to each
other unconditionally, while having the pressure of producing an art project / graduation project?
We're getting closer while it's getting uncomfortable at the same time.
We find ourselves between understanding and misunderstanding, chaos and order.
Slowness spreads, inadequacies become tangible, power structures become visible and gaps open up.
Year: 2022
Collaboration: Leah Dorner
Maria Kanzler
Stella Myraf Krausz
For this project we, 4 people, 4 friends, 4 colleagues, came together to ask ourselves where and how CARETAKING can take place in the work context of the creative/art industries. We take a critical look at the dominating pace and the outcome oriented market expectations. The work is driven by the urge to unlearn entrenched working patterns and to critically engage with the economization of art and knowledge production.
Therefore, we have come together for a 100-day self-experiment to give body, space and method to CARETAKING and interpersonal relationships by focusing on the theme of "LISTING".
To face this research project, we chose to work with practices of performance, writing and documenting.
In a joint process, we experience emotional challenges that shake our truths about co-working and require re-orientation. - a breeding ground for new interpersonal narratives in collaborative processes.
In order to make our journey comprehensible to outsiders, we have linked the various threads into an immersive multimedia installation that spans the entire space and tells our story and insights through the senses of seeing, hearing and feeling.
The space is occupied by a semi-transparent fragmented textile body caring and distorting videos, that show us 4 listening. On the floor you will stumble across objects that have accompanied one of us individually as we listened. Once they supported us on our way and now they invite you to take a place inside the textile body. It is an invitation to make yourself comfortable. On the objects you will find headphones through which you can now immerse yourself in our story - a journey into the unspoken world of our unsorted scraps of thoughts and feelings.
(c)Maria Kanzler