Sylvia K. Sorrow

Sylvia K. Kummer (born May 13, 1959 in Vienna ) is an Austrian artist. The focus of her work lies in interdisciplinary projects - in the areas between art and cultural and social anthropology - which she implements using interactive processes and various materials and techniques (drawing, painting, objects, installations, videos).

Sylvia K. Sorrow

Life

Kummer studied painting and graphics at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. She wrote her dissertation on “(Im-) Possible Places. Between Art and Ethnography ”at the Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Vienna , with a second assessment at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna .

International teaching assignments (painting and creative strategies) at various universities led Kummer to Australia, China and the USA. From 2000 to 2012 she taught as adjunct professor at Webster University Vienna and St. Louis, and in 2010 she accepted a teaching position at Normal University Hangzhou, China.

International exhibition invitations and grants also enabled the artist to develop and realize her projects in an intercultural context. The experiences and reflections of the stays abroad in the USA, Cuba, Canada, Australia, China, Europe and Africa - Dak'Art OFF 2014 Biennale in Dakar, Senegal, Biennale in Morocco, Casablanca - flow significantly into the artist's work.

Kummer currently lives and works as a freelance artist in Vienna and Lower Austria .

Materials / Methods

Kummer works on materials that she discovers while traveling and doing research. Found objects, historical objects, leather hides, papers and canvases can be found in her oeuvre. Words, texts, drawings, colors are written or applied to these materials. This is how pictures, objects and installations are created. The focus is on personally experienced sensory perceptions, which in the works become inscriptions of the intersubjective experiences. What is heard, touched, seen, smelled is processed and translated during the artistic process.

The transience and vulnerability of being is reflected in Kummer's work. B. in questions about the fragility of identity. The human body as a space for perception is addressed. “We absorb with every single organ what hits us from the outside. So being outside of oneself is almost a normal state ”(Sylvia K. Kummer). In her research she devotes herself to B. Postures and gestures and examines embodied thoughts and feelings. Different cultural meanings are emphasized and lead to determinations of how thoughts and expressions influence the entire life and attitudes. The concept of unconditional love as energy, which is far above all conventions and, as a connecting element, is able to overcome cultural and geographical borders, plays an important role.

The results of her research often serve as initiators for new art projects that she carries out in public and social space.

Exhibitions and projects (selection)

• who am I ?, University of Waterloo Art Gallery (CA), 1984
• I am, Galerie Nouvelle Ltée, Kitchener (CA), 1987
• I am Sylvia Kummer, Jurta Szinhàzban, Budapest (HU)
• Arthropods, Galerie Kies, Vienna (AT), 1992
• tongues, Ruth Morpeth Gallery, Hopewell, NJ (USA), 1999
• who are you ?, Hunt Gallery, St. Louis (USA), 2005
• sei i, Galerie am Park, Vienna (AT), 2005
• walk two moons, Hunt Gallery, St. Louis (USA), 2005
• sinn-addictions, with Johann Freilacher, Seitzersdorf / Wolfpassing (AT), 2006
• Kummer - Freilacher, with Johann Freilacher, Kulturhaus Bürgerspital Kilb (AT), 2008
• Democracy - a living challenge, GLOBArt 2009, Pernegg (AT), 2009
• in the middle, as part of the NöART (locations: Haus der Kunst, Baden; Galerie im alten G'richt, Groß Gerungs; Roiten Village Museum, Rappottenstein; Scheibbs Town Hall, Scheibbs) (AT), 2010
• happy, 4th Carinthian Dialogues, with Johann Freilacher, Schloss Bach, St. Urban (AT), 2010
• making the invisible visible, China Dialogue, Seitzersdorf / Wolfpassing (AT) and Zhejiang Library, Hangzhou (CN) and Modern Art Gallery, Hangzhou (CN), 2011
• you are what you are wherever you are going, Modern Art Gallery, Hangzhou (CN), 2011
• grief.members.members. - ergo Spoerri, Seitzersdorf / Wolfpassing (AT), with Daniel Spoerri, 2012
• fits! - Schloss Ebenau, Galerie Walker, with Daniel Spoerri and Walter Weer, Weizelsdorf / Rosental (AT), 2013
• Lebenshäute, presentation of the special edition, Seitzersdorf / Wolfpassing (AT), 2013
• rose von jericho, installation, Stephansplatz, Vienna (AT), 2013
• the white sheep or subcutaneous, as part of the Artist in Residence program, with Barkinado Bocoum, Judenburg (AT), 2014
• relictum, St. Peter an der Sperr, Museum Wr. Neustadt, (AT), 2014
• miraculous moulting, Galerie die Schöne, Vienna (AT), 2015
• Sylvia Kummer - Irena Rosc, raumimpuls, Stadtgalerie Waidhofen / Ybbs (AT), 2015
• stand-up people, Galerie die Schöne, Vienna (AT), 2015
• La Cuscinata, raumimpuls, with Judith P. Fischer, Markus Hofer, Hans Kupelwieser, Stadtgalerie Waidhofen / Ybbs (AT), 2016
• as part of the dialogue series atlas. axis. a subtle communication: workshop presentation BECAUSE I SAW YOU MAKE A NETWORK IN THE NIGHT, with Victoria Rabal, Galerie die Schöne, Vienna (AT), 2016
• as part of the dialogue series atlas. axis. A subtle communication: Selection: COLLECTED FORCES with Christian Katt, Gallery Black Dragon Society, FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH - first come, first hang with Peter Ramsebner, Galerie die Schöne, SPIEL UND SPIEL UND LEBEN with Christiane Spatt, Galerie die Schöne, Vienna (AT ), 2017
• Atlas. axis. a subtle communication, installation of large sculptures, 1010 Vienna, Freyung: impulse presentation - Burghart Schmidt, performative interactive dialogue with Philipp Oberlohr, musical intervention by Lissie Rettenwander; Graben: Keynote speech - Conny Schmeller, Vienna, AT, 2017
• Atlas. axis. a subtle communication, installation of the large sculptures as part of the WIR SIND WIEN.FESTIVAL, Basis.Kultur.Wien, 1080 Vienna, Piaristenplatz: keynote speeches by Thomas Fillitz and Ursula Baatz, art education interventions - Renate Höllwart, Elke Smodics, Büro trafo.K., performative Experience dialogue with Philipp Oberlohr; 1060 Vienna, Bundesländerplatz: Keynote speech - Gerlinde Maria Gruber, performative interactive dialogue with Philipp Oberlohr; 1070 Vienna, Platz der Menschenrechte: performative interactive dialogue with Philipp Oberlohr, Vienna, AT, 2017
• Atlas. axis. a subtle communication, installation of the large sculptures in the public sculpture park Gut Gasteil, Prigglitz (AT), 2017
• Wolfgang Männer and Sylvia K. Kummer, Gut Gasteil, Prigglitz (AT), 2018
• as part of the dialogue series atlas. axis. a subtle communication: AGAIN AND AGAIN - OVER LARGE DISTANCES, with Mikki Muhr, Galerie die Schöne, Vienna (AT), 2018
• the body as space for perception, Galerie die Schöne, Vienna (AT), 2019
• many and one, Stadtgalerie im Alten Herrenhaus Ternitz (AT), 2020

Group exhibitions (selection)

• Istropolitana, Symposium, Galéria Mesta Bratislavy, Bratislava (SK), 1992
• 96 Multi-purpose building, Intermediales Symposium, Schrattenberg (AT), 1996
• flaschenpost, Forum Stadtpark, Graz (AT), 1998
• trans art festival, Labin (HR), 2001
• sisma, o'artoteca, Milano (IT), 2002
• on the edge, Harrington Center, Georgia (USA), 2003
• Traces in the snow, Galerie Wolfgang Exner, Vienna (AT), 2003
• multiple choice: tower, Galerie Stalzer, Vienna (AT), 2010
• Encounter and reunion, art and culture, Geras Abbey, Geras (AT), 2011
• visit your friends house - chuan men, 串门 儿 ', Amelie Art Gallery at 798, Beijing (CN), 2011
• Naturally Paralipomena, Spoerri Exhibition House, Hadersdorf am Kamp / Lower Austria (AT), 2012
• sampling I, concert of sculptures, Ossiach Abbey (AT), 2012
• ONEing, Austro Sino Arts Program 2012, Beijing (CN), 2012
• making the invisible visible ou le mouton blanc, 11ème Biennale Dak'ArtOFF, Dakar (SN), 2014
• changer les perspectives, as part of the Judenburger Summer Festival, Judenburg (AT), 2014
• tabu, Biennale de Casablanca (MA), 2014
• International contemporary art meets Kilengi African Art, Galerie Kilengi, Vienna (AT), 2018

Publications

• Sylvia Kummer (Ed.): Atlas. axis. a subtle communication, to the dialogue series - with contributions by Ursula Baatz (philosopher), Gerlinde Maria Gruber (Center for Anatomy and Cell Biology), Thomas Fillitz (cultural and social anthropology), Renate Höllwart, Elke Smodics (trafo.K.), Burghart Schmidt (Philosopher), Berthold Ecker (MUSA), Robert Trappl (Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence), Carl Aigner (Landesmuseum Niederösterreich), Christian Katt (writer and transmedialist), self-published, Vienna 2019/2020.
• Sylvia Kummer (Ed.): Ab aus dem Geviert or Der Wimperntisch, self-published, Vienna 1996.
• Sylvia Kummer: gender / ruins; binse, in: ders., Ab aus dem Geviert or Der Wimperntisch, self-published, Vienna 1996.
• Sylvia Kummer (Ed.): Tage-raum, project catalog, Vienna 1999.

literature

• Aigner, Silvie: Making the Invisible Visible. Text for the exhibition “Kummer. Carer. Miseries. with Daniel Spoerri “, 2012.
• Aigner, Silvie (ed.): Sylvia kummer, Lebenshäute - painting, objects, projects, Vienna: Bucher 2013. ISBN 978-3-99018-212-3
• Baatz, Ursula: The process of perception, in: Sylvia Kummer (Hrsg.), Ab aus dem Geviert or der Wimperntisch, self-published, Vienna 1996.
• Baatz, Ursula: Refugees are not tourists, in: Sylvia Kummer (Ed.), Tage-raum, project catalog, Vienna 1999.
• De Domizio, Lucrezia: L'uomo è il fulcro supremo del "Grand Jeu", in: Artomatica - Automatismi Contemporanei, Viareggio 1998.
• Gallery KIES (Ed.): Sylvia Kummer - Arthropoden, Vienna 1992.
• Höllwart, Renate: Gegenrhythmus, in: Gegenrhythmus - Contro Ritmo, Italian Cultural Institute, Vienna 1999.
• Höllwart, Renate / Smodics, Elke: who are you? - a report in: who are you? Project catalog, Vienna 2004.
• Horn, Bernhard: On the Erotic and the Pornographic, in: Forty Plus. Attempts at eroticism, Vienna 2004.
• Landis & Gyr: Sylvia Kummer, exhibition catalog, Vienna 1989.
• Moser-Wagner, Gertrude: Gevierte, in: Sylvia Kummer (Ed.), Ab aus dem Geviert or Der Wimperntisch, self-published, Vienna 1996.
• Pauser, Wolfgang: Encounters and lasting traces. Sylvia Kummer not only brings people together, but also the art genres of painting and intervention, 2010.
• Schmidt, Burghart: Link for link of a chain in the swimming of the housing, in: Galerie KIES (Ed.), Sylvia Kummer - Arthropoden, Vienna 1992.
• Schmidt, Burghart: On the overrides Sylvia Kummer, in: Sylvia Kummer (ed.), Ab aus dem Geviert or Der Wimperntisch, self-published, Vienna 1996.
• Schmidt, Burghart, Social Art, Sylvia Kummer, Kosovo in Flucht, in: Sylvia Kummer, tage-raum, project catalog, Vienna 1999.
• Schmidt, Burghart: Between communication and loneliness. On Sylvia Kummer's current artistic work, 2010.
• Schmidt, Burghart: Expecting the foreign. Sylvia Kummer in China, 2011.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sylvia Kummer Info. Retrieved February 26, 2020 . 
2. ↑ About my work | Sylvia Kummer. Retrieved on February 26, 2020 (German). 
3. ↑ Sylvia Kummer & Barkinado Bocoum - Changer les Perspectives. Retrieved February 26, 2020 (Austrian German). 
4. ↑ 25 years of "Judenburger Summer". August 24, 2014, accessed February 26, 2020 . 
5. ↑ texts | Sylvia Kummer. Retrieved on March 2, 2020 (German). 

Web links

Commons : Sylvia K. Kummer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files