Josef Dabernig
14 Jan - 05 Mar 2011
JOSEF DABERNIG:
Sports grounds and structural approach
January 14 to March 5, 2011
For Josef Dabernig to make photographs means to ascertain a difference in the repeated inquiry of consistency. Thus, following a uniform dramaturgy in most cases, the artist makes panoramas of abandoned sports grounds and stadiums. As a rule, he stands on the middle line and with a 35mm camera makes three freehand shots pointing to his left, and three to his right. Placed next to each other, these picture a 180° semi-circle. In a recently published text in the context of panorama-photography, Dabernig highlights the void centres as his focus of interest: „...The centres are empty and a potential dramaturgy is shifted to its margins. The virtually missing plot is probably the main motive in my work and is related to the idea of desire and expectation. The productive significance of the void might have different reasons, for me it is essentially a lack of content. It is like the precise construction of nothing; very clear in form, very open in meaning.” 1
Viewed in this way, Josef Dabernig’s photography constitutes itself in an intermediate space between structural presence and contentual volatility. In his second exhibition at Galerie Andreas Huber, the artist attempts to establish a narrative variety in his panoramas of sports grounds, despite their conceptual severity. In addition to this, the eight photo sequences taken in Brazil (2009) and in Ukraine (2010) are presented, in a complex setting, showing relations to sculptural objects (1987, 1991) and Dabernig’s cinematic work „Herna“ (2010). On the one hand, Dabernig intends to attribute sculptural and cinematic references to his panoramas; on the other hand, due to his education as sculptor, he wants to associate them with an extended sculptural scenario.
1 Florin Tudor in conversation with Josef Dabernig, “The domesticated spaces of the new arenas”, in Football and the Public Sphere, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu (ed), Cluj: IDEA, 2011 (forthcoming).
Sports grounds and structural approach
January 14 to March 5, 2011
For Josef Dabernig to make photographs means to ascertain a difference in the repeated inquiry of consistency. Thus, following a uniform dramaturgy in most cases, the artist makes panoramas of abandoned sports grounds and stadiums. As a rule, he stands on the middle line and with a 35mm camera makes three freehand shots pointing to his left, and three to his right. Placed next to each other, these picture a 180° semi-circle. In a recently published text in the context of panorama-photography, Dabernig highlights the void centres as his focus of interest: „...The centres are empty and a potential dramaturgy is shifted to its margins. The virtually missing plot is probably the main motive in my work and is related to the idea of desire and expectation. The productive significance of the void might have different reasons, for me it is essentially a lack of content. It is like the precise construction of nothing; very clear in form, very open in meaning.” 1
Viewed in this way, Josef Dabernig’s photography constitutes itself in an intermediate space between structural presence and contentual volatility. In his second exhibition at Galerie Andreas Huber, the artist attempts to establish a narrative variety in his panoramas of sports grounds, despite their conceptual severity. In addition to this, the eight photo sequences taken in Brazil (2009) and in Ukraine (2010) are presented, in a complex setting, showing relations to sculptural objects (1987, 1991) and Dabernig’s cinematic work „Herna“ (2010). On the one hand, Dabernig intends to attribute sculptural and cinematic references to his panoramas; on the other hand, due to his education as sculptor, he wants to associate them with an extended sculptural scenario.
1 Florin Tudor in conversation with Josef Dabernig, “The domesticated spaces of the new arenas”, in Football and the Public Sphere, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu (ed), Cluj: IDEA, 2011 (forthcoming).