Peripherien
Michael Vienne
2020
Artist Statement
A strange pandemic / A stranded science fiction writer / A sequence haunted by lucid dreams, gentle speculations, and voices yet inaudible in the air. Headphones recommended. Peripherien is conceptualized to exist in a loose constellation with the photographic diptych Waterline (Infinite Rehearsals). Waterline (Infinite Rehearsals) is a photographic screen test for a near-future science fiction work in collaboration with the Japanese performer Manaho Shimokawa. Rising sea levels represent a catastrophe in slow motion. In this fictional future world, ⽔位痕, suiikon, the scar left by water, will be embodied by those who chose to inhabit the ruins of these disturbed urban landscapes. Both works can be extended in length and size for a possible exhibition in Tokyo. Media: - video download link - video still for press - photograph 1 - photograph 2 - sketch for arrangement of photographs.
Then, now, after. My work sketches fragments of a near-future world, drenched in memories of the past, informed by our current crisis. It includes fragments from my travels in Japan - from little sketches in notebooks to field recordings to memories of encounters and conversations; as well as Japan-related research on the future of the city, and its counter-cultural cinema of the 60s and 70s. The structure and execution follows strategies of a home-movie, yet with my own aesthetic approach. Both works were created with Japanese and Austrian performers specifically for this exhibition.
Artist Bio
Michael Vienne (Michael Poetschko) is a visual artist, experimental filmmaker, and independent researcher based in Vienna. Vienne holds an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and was a studio fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York City. His work has been exhibited and projected internationally, most recently at the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; The Commune, Beijing; the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; the Edinburgh International Film Festival; the Viennale; the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, USA; Galerie 5020, Salzburg; and Rencontres Internationales - Nouveau Cinéma et Art Contemporain, Paris.