Michaela Göltl / Christa Zauner
ART AND CULTURE
Standard Redaktion August 24, 2002, to the article

Mind the Gap!
Photo installation by Michaela Göltl and Christa Zauner between different worlds and ages

The exhibition MIND THE GAP shows photographic works by the Viennese artists Michaela Göltl and Christa Zauner, who explore the break/transition between the known/unknown, near/far, old/new and between nature and technology. The starting point for the photo installation MIND THE GAP is the transition between different worlds or ages. By combining still images from science fiction films with shots from a night train, unusual views from the train window onto foreign stars and flying objects become possible. On the screens of the spaceships, unknown nocturnal landscapes and deserted train stations become visible, which have the unreal atmosphere of a world long gone. Past and future meet so hard and together they create a new world of experience. While the images of the science fiction films and their protagonists belong to the collective world of experience of the Western population, the real places shown remain unknown. These images convey only blurred impressions, while the unreal worlds of the SF films become generally known "second-hand experiences". "Transformations" Michaela Göltl's digital prints illustrate the rupture between nature and technology by means of the human body, whose skin merges in a painterly way into cold-technical materialities. Associations with prostheses, cyborgs, but also with the cool aesthetics of ageless models in advertising are evoked. "Bionics - Upside Down" Christa Zauner's photo series plays with gravity and the subjectivity of perspectives. The persons shown were photographed hanging upside down, which changes their physiognomy. By presenting the photographs upside down, it is not clear what makes the persons appear so alienating. The world is upside down and nobody notices... (red)