KUNSTHALLE LINZ + ANNA LIDBERG + FFAR

Since it´s opening in 2012 an Austrian museum surprises onlookers with generous space offerings, friendly curators and flexible locations. What sounds like THE ideal gallery turns out to be a smart, artistic intervention. On February 26th, opening at 18:00, the Kunsthalle will team up with the FFAR forum för arkitektur in Stockholm, showing work of artist and miniature gallerist Anna Lidberg.

Adress: Ringvägen 141, Stockholm

When attending an art gallery- opening, you probably expect the people to be nicely dressed, the artists to be arty, the art to be expensive. But most of all you expect the space to be – white, clean, modern – large enough to move around in, and probably not rolling towards you on a trolley. Yet, all of this will come true when you arrive at KUNSTHALLE LINZ´s first opening in Stockholm, even though the trolley is highly optional.

The key-point of this project, according to founders and curators of Kunsthalle Linz, is the factor of illusion. That´s why they built and „opened“ a miniature museum, but didnt tell anybody about it´s actual size. „So, it´s not about making miniatures of art and exhibiting them“, say curators Julia Hartig and Marie Therese Luger „its all about what space can actually be, how it can be used, how it should be used!“

„Disguised“ as the real deal, a huge museum, Luger & Hartig realized six shows at the Kunsthalle Linz, observing with amazement all the different reactions it got. „People coming to the openings were startled at first, but then they liked the gallery even more“, says Hartig about their first shows. „But we are always well aware of the fact, that irritation as a concept is not endless“, adds Luger. This is one of the reasons, KUNSTHALLE LINZ has teamed up with artist Anna Lidberg, as well as Stockholm´s FFAR forum för arkitektur, to put emphasis on certain matters of space, architecture and miniature.

The collaboration emphasizes on the different aspects of „space“ and „scale“ and how they are used individually by each contributor: „Every room, every space has it´s corners, it´s turns and cuts, it´s dualities. We must speak of light and shadow, interior and exterior, but we can never forget, these words leave the mouth easy.“, summarizes Luger their collaboration. „For us it is important to understand, how you enter a space and how you describe the things you experience in it. And this is, what we want our audience to experience as well, this is what we want our artists and our visitors to focus on. We want the Sculptors, filmmakers, painters and collectors to realize: This is a museum, this is your space. But it is also an entity. An entity that evaporates from object to subject, that changes its form, that presents itself, that integrates your art into the way it wants to be seen, that interacts, but also asks a lot of questions.“
A nourishing ground for this experiment is provided by FFAR forum för arkitektur in Stockholm. A project like KUNSTHALLE LINZ suits the forum´s goal of making architecture and other disciplines meet and develop new spaces and structures.

Bringing the KUNSTHALLE LINZ to other countries, moving it around, is vital for exploring these aspects. Mainly because it decentralizes views and integrates space that would otherwise not be available. During KUNSTHALLE LINZ´s stay in Stockholm, this experience is offered to Artist Anna Lidberg, born in Skoghall, now living and working in Stockholm. The Konstfack Graduate herself has experience with rather small galleries: since 2006 she has successfully been running „Gallery 1:10, presenting art in miniature versions on mobile levels of a typical dollhouse. Of course, this project was the initializing factor for Anna Lidberg and Luger & Hartig to get in contact with each other, but  Lidberg´s work should not be reduced to „just“ the miniature art gallery, making her a like – minded fellow: What will be even more interesting to see at the show in Sweden will be her use of size in comparison to power. A theme that keeps popping up in her work quite prominently, for example in the multimedia installation „ The Copier“.  It will be interesting to see, how such an artist, experienced with miniature art but also art in public space, will behave, connect and expand throughout being shown at a miniature gallery herself. This incorporates a META- aspect, gladly taken and worked with by the team of KUNSTHALLE LINZ. It is an arrow, landing a bulls- eye at the dartboard of decentralized space, perpetuated by the idea of spatial flexibility: In co-operation with their native city of Linz / Austria, the curators have initiated a wormhole-experiment –  Every show and opening, held at the KUNSTHALLE LINZ abroad, will be live-broadcast to Linz, where parallel events and  public viewings are being organized. This may not be an interstellar wormhole yet, but for now it makes a trolley wonderfully unnecessary.

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