Franz Wassermann

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Franz Wassermann (* 1963 in Hall in Tirol ) is an Austrian sculptor .

Life

Franz Wassermann was born in Tyrol in 1963 as the oldest of three siblings. After graduating from the technical college, he first worked in various social institutions (including youth care, care for the elderly, aid to AIDS) and as a museum attendant before starting work as an artist in 1989. Since then he has worked internationally as a sculptor; his works have been shown at the Kunsthaus Hamburg, the Museumsquartier Wien, the world exhibition EXPO Lisbon and the SWAB Barcelona. Franz Wassermann lives and works in Vienna.

Franz Wassermann, HELDENPLATZ / ANARCHIE, 2015

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Wassermann's political sculptures examine power structures on the basis of taboo topics such as sexual abuse , National Socialism and the culture of remembrance , migration and the role of the media . In order to be able to work free from censorship , Wassermann realizes many of his projects in public spaces. His sculptures can be seen in renowned art institutions around the world, for example in the Museumsquartier Wien and at the Sharjah International Art Biennial in the United Arab Emirates . The photographer Robert Fleischanderl writes: “In his work Franz Wassermann repeatedly deals with the relationship between the individual and the collective. The behavior of a majority towards a minority or an individual is always a game of powers, and since history is written by the powerful, the unpleasant chapters are often left out. He traces these processes between the masses, the majority and the individual, the minority, the self. He does this with meticulousness, care and a sense of responsibility in relation to these diverse and all too often denied and forgotten processes. "

Works

  • In BARBIE + KEN = HIV + (1996) Franz Wassermann discussed the stigmatization of HIV-positive and AIDS-infected people. The artist asked those affected to provide him with everyday objects and provided them with requests for donation such as: “love me”, “hit me”, “despise me”. In addition, the objects were marked with a green dot, which was used in hospitals in Innsbruck - the artist's home at the time - to mark files from HIV-positive people. The toy company Mattel reacted to the presentation of the work on the Internet with the threat of a lawsuit. Nevertheless BARBIE + KEN = HIV + could be shown and continued in London, Munich and Burghausen.
  • For the art project IKONEN (1998) Franz Wassermann bought original works from artists who are considered cult figures of modern and contemporary art: Angelika Kauffmann , Joseph Beuys , Arnulf Rainer and many more. He sunk these works of art performatively in water-filled plexiglass containers, where the works gradually disintegrated and dissolved.
  • In the four-part project SCHUBHAFT (2001) Wassermann addressed the illegalization of asylum seekers and refugees. He visited people detained in deportation detention and organized a performative demonstration in the public space of Innsbruck, where he used the reasons for the escape of the detainees as slogans, for example "I am in detention because I am a Christian" and "I am in detention because I have been tortured and was raped ”. Then Wassermann occupied the courtyard of the Taxispalais gallery, which is directly adjacent to the Tyrolean country house. During the occupation, Wassermann played audio files in which refugees tell their story, so that the officials who make and enforce laws in the country house had to hear them. In the final phase of the project, Wassermann consecrated a mobile home to give it the status of a church. In this mobile shelter, the artist drove refugees from Italy to Germany.
  • In the video ATEM (2003) the artist gives an insight into the process of dying his father Franz Wassermann. The video shows the dying person's open mouth, through which air is whistled and yet persistently sucked in and expelled.
  • In the art project TEMPORARY MONUMENT (2004), Franz Wassermann commemorates the 360 ​​psychiatric patients in the State Hospital Hall in Tyrol who were murdered by the National Socialist euthanasia. Wassermann created a living memorial to these people through five artistic interventions, for example by asking the communities of the murdered to name streets after the victims.
  • In SCARS (2008) Wassermann examined the sexual abuse of children and adolescents. In three project phases the artist made the topic visible in public space; Among other things, he posted an appeal in which he asked people affected by abuse to entrust him with items related to their story.
  • Wassermann designed 16 aluminum cubes for the participatory sculpture WE ME (2014), which visitors could assemble into various types of pedestals, such as a lectern, a winner's podium or a catwalk. These platforms can be varied and used both in the gallery and in public spaces. As part of the performance MAKE YOU VISIBLE! (MQ Vienna, Yellow Cube, 2014) the artist made the pedestals accessible to visitors to the Museumsquartier Wien. The visitors were invited to put together their personal podium. Franz Wassermann documented her performative interventions via Polaroid.
  • In the performance HELDENPLATZ / ANARCHIE (2015), Franz Wassermann marched together with 49 other standard- bearers across Vienna's Heldenplatz. The specially designed flags refer to National Socialism by their shape. But at the point where a swastika used to be emblazoned, the names of large corporations were entered in Wassermann's performance.
  • Wassermann realized the performance ME MYSELF AND I (2016) in Saskatoon (Canada). The artist tied performers and volunteers from the audience to fitness equipment with gaffer tape. While the performers were tied up, they repeated positive affirmations like "I am the winner in my life". or "I am perfectly prepared".
  • For the art project #DailySocialTransfer (2017), Wassermann buys a newspaper every day for a year, from which he removes image and text fragments with adhesive tape in order to collage them again on white paper. This creates a daily political collage that the artist publishes on a blog.
  • For the video work SUUM CUIQUE , Franz Wassermann speaks to refugees who are illegalized and deported in Austria. To protect these people, only their eyes are shown in the video. The attached subtitles switch reasons for fleeing to reasons for deportation. In 2018, SUUM CUIQUE was shown on the facade of the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum as part of the exhibition Forum Migration .

Exhibitions

  • 1997: IT WAS AT-BONE STEAK, exhibition at the same time in parliament, in the Mauthausen concentration camp and in the Jesuit church Innsbruck
  • 1998: ICONS, start of the World Exhibition EXPO 98, Lisbon
  • 2000: BARBIE AND KEN ARE HIV - POSITIVE, art project in public space, Munich
  • 2001: GELDLUST: MODELBANKING, Kunsthalle Tirol, Hall in Tirol
  • 2002: FRANZ WASSERMANN, Galerie 5020, Salzburg
  • 2003: 6th INT. BIENAL SHARJAH
  • 2004: ALBERTINA, solo exhibition at Galerie AREA 53, Vienna
  • 2005: IKONEN, action in the Künstlerhaus Wien , Vienna
  • 2005: TRIENNALE OF PHOTOGRAPHY, group exhibition, Kunsthaus Hamburg
  • 2006: DOCUMENTA XII, solo exhibition, Kunstverein Rosenheim, Rosenheim
  • 2007: FIVE FROM ÔSTERLANT, group exhibition, Galuzin Galerie TAFKAG, Oslo
  • 2008: SCARS, art project in public space, Innsbruck
  • 2009: TEMPORARY MONUMENT, solo exhibition, Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum , Innsbruck
  • 2012: LIVING ROOM - ME THE COLLECTIVE, solo exhibition, Galerie Widmer + Theodoridis, Zurich
  • 2013: CRUX, group exhibition, Diocesan Museum, Brixen
  • 2014: MAKE YOU VISIBLE., Solo exhibition, Museumsquartier - Yellow Box, Vienna
  • 2015: HELDENPLATZ / ANARCHIE, performance at Heldenplatz , Vienna
  • 2016: ME, MYSELF AND I, performance in public space, Saskatoon

Awards

  • 1994 Recognition Award - Trend Art
  • 1996 Federal government grant
  • 2001 Austrian State Scholarship
  • 2003 Prize for integration and moral courage for the art project SCHUBHAFT
  • 2004 recognition award for the video work I at the Taglia Corto film festival in Florence
  • 2007 sponsorship award for the visual arts of the state of Tyrol
  • 2010 Anni and Heinrich Sussmann scholarship 1st prize
  • 2011 Schwaz Kunst am Bau stage wall 1st prize (not implemented after awarding of the prize)
  • 2013 Tyrolean Museum Prize with the Innsbruck City Archives for the exhibition 255K. - 20 years of Galerie Andechshof

Publications

  • Franz Wassermann. Self-published, Innsbruck 1997.
  • with Heidrun Sandbichler, Lois Weinberger : Driving the pigs to acorn fattening. Institute for Art History at the University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck 1999.
  • with Hubert Salden (text): detention pending deportation. Self-published, Innsbruck 2002, ISBN 3-00-009841-0 .
  • Documenta 12 . God killed himself. Franz Wassermann. Solo exhibition, Kunstverein Rosenheim, self-published, Innsbruck 2005, ISBN 978-3-939446-01-9 .
  • with Andrea Sommerauer (Ed.): Temporary monument. Processes of memory. In memory of 360 victims of Nazi euthanasia, patients of today's psychiatric hospital Hall in Tirol, laundry P, cultural project in the PKH Hall, Studienverlag , Innsbruck 2009, ISBN 978-3-7065-4375-0 .
  • with Anita Moser (Ed.): Scars. Art project on sexual violence = Scars. Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2011, ISBN 978-3-7065-4945-5 .

literature

  • Peter Lewis: Sharjah International Biennial 6th Sharjah. Self-published, 2003, ISBN 9948-04-766-4 .
  • Anita Moser: The art of crossing borders. Transcript Verlag , Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-8376-1663-7 .
  • Christoph Bertsch: Art in Tyrol. 20th century. Institute for Art History at the University of Innsbruck.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wassermann, Franz (2002): detention pending deportation. Innsbruck: self-published. ISBN 3-00-009841-0
  2. ↑ Sommerauer, Andrea / Wassermann, Franz (2009): Temporary Monument: Processes of Memory. Innsbruck: StudienVerlag. ISBN 978-3-7065-4375-0
  3. ^ Moser, Anita / Wassermann, Franz (2011): SCARS: Art project on sexual violence. Innsbruck: StudienVerlag. ISBN 978-3-7065-4945-5
  4. ^ Art campaign: Nazi flags on Heldenplatz, published on wien.orf.at (October 31, 2015)
  5. ^ Blog of the artist Franz Wassermann: www.dailysocialtransfer.com
  6. ↑ Barbara Unterthurner: Wassermann: "Charity is now punishable". Interview. In: tt.com. January 23, 2018, accessed August 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Wassermann, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Hall in Tirol