List of Works AT YOUR SERVICE ART AND LABOUR. Pavel Braila

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1 List of Works AT YOUR SERVICE ART AND LABOUR Pavel Braila A Tribute to the Typewriter: The Ink Ribbon s Fingerprints, 2012 Installation and video projection, approx. 15 mins, colour, sound In his installation and film Pavel Braila showcases a mechanical object that once played a key role in revolutionising the working world, but now occurs only in a museum setting or an artistic context, i.e. the typewriter. The installation symbolises the only element modern computers have retained of the typewriter, namely the keyboard. Braila has placed a typewriter from the Technisches Museum Wien s collection on each of the individual tables set out in a three-tier arrangement. While these vintage typewriters represent individual keys, a bench placed in front of these rows of tables contains three other typewriters, recreating the space bar. Scrolled inside some of the typewriters are sheets of paper typed up by former typists with stories from their professional lives. The giant keyboard comprised of vintage typewriters acts as a model for the associative links which Braila addresses in his film, projected on the back wall of the installation. Braila follows the history of the development of the typewriter in contexts ranging from industry to military engineering, politics, literature, media theory and our work-oriented society, the common thread being the feminisation of labour that resulted in the invention of the typewriter. Equally important is the acoustic momentum, the way in which the staccato rhythm and sound of the typewriters punctuate the film s narrative structure. By introducing into the Heavy Industry exhibition area the question of what sort of work and what sort of machines are created or eliminated as a result of technological development, Braila draws on work processes that are shaped by knowledge- and technology-intensive developments crucial to many sectors of industry. Steel production is an example of the different levels of efficiency, from the use of tools to mechanisation and modern-day automation, from the use of muscle power to that of engine-generators and networks. By way of illustration Braila s work focuses on a tool that has now disappeared as a result of the process of technological development and improved efficiency. The typewriter has been replaced by the computer: not only is it far more efficient, it also assumes far more wide ranging tasks such as networking, control and communications. Computer systems regulate and monitor entire production facilities and enable automated processes. The performance entitled A Tribute to the Typewriter: The Ink Ribbon s Fingerprints will be staged on 22 March 2012 as part of the opening of the exhibition. Around twenty professionals will take to the stage with their own typewriters and perform a piece directed by Pavel Braila.

2 Shoes for Europe, 2002 Video, 26 mins, colour, sound Courtesy: The artist and mumok Here Braila draws our attention to a geopolitical aspect. At a border railway station between Moldova and Romania he filmed a scene that takes place at night and involves heavy-duty work. Due to the historical differences in track gauge between the railways that operated in the old Russia or the Soviet Union and in Europe west of the border, the railway carriages have to be heaved onto suitable bogies. The film is projected on a locomotive in the LOK-Erlebnis exhibition area. In the past railway companies have opted for different track gauges; in Russia and the Soviet Union for instance, they did so also for military reasons. Different methods are used to circumvent this obstacle to through-traffic. Trains are symbolic of the mobility that links countries together and, at the railway station featured in the film, that mobility comes at the price of extreme physical effort. Here the automation of work is confronted with forms of heavy-duty labour which, due no doubt to a lack of resources even today is still performed manually and with non-automated machines. Pavel Braila, born in Chişinău/Moldova, lives in Berlin and Chişinău. Pavel Braila graduated from the Technical University of Moldova; the State University of Moldova; the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, Holland, and Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains, in Tourcoing, France. Since the mid-1990s the artist has participated in numerous international art exhibitions and film festivals by contributing films, videos, installations, photos and performances. In 2002 his film Shoes for Europe was shown at documenta 11. In 2007, as artist in residence at the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm, Pavel Braila presented his installation Barons Hill at the Neue Nationalgalerie. Braila has had solo exhibitions at the Gallery Yvon Lambert, Paris2004; MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, Mass., in 2005; and the Galerie im Taxispalais in Innsbruck in 2006/2007. Braila s works have been included in numerous group shows including those at the Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam, TATE Gallery London, The Renaissance Society in Chicago, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln; Palazzo delle Stelline, Milan; Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg; Royal College of Art Galleries, London; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, etc.

3 Anna Jermolaewa доска почета I Tafel der Ehre [Roll of Honour], 2012 Photo installation, 2 x 3 parts In her photo installation Anna Jermolaewa refers to the rolls of honour with which the heroes of production in the former Soviet Union were showcased on giant plaques in front of factories to serve as role models for the public. However Anna Jermolaewa s roll of honour dispenses with any hierarchy or value judgement. The aim is to show that everyone s work is equally important and valuable to the proper running of any operation. The panels feature the Museum s employees and other staff regularly employed there who wanted to give their consent to being depicted complete with photograph, name and job title. The portrait photos are listed in alphabetical order. For this installation Jermolaewa uses a special form of wall chart available at the Museum, namely two three-part prism displays normally used for a museum-specific theme. The six images in total will now be featuring all the Museum s staff in series. As the charts line the walls of the main stairway leading up from the foyer to the central hall, the Museum is showcased as a workplace right from the outset, even before visitors reach the exhibition areas. And it illustrates not only how large the number of employees is due to the size of the Museum, but also how diverse and specialised the areas of work actually are from activities similar to those carried out by any large company such as financial administration, PR and building services to a range of museum-specific tasks. Nordbahn [Northern Railway], 2012 Installation consisting of 3 videos, approx. 20 mins each, colour, sound The starting point for Jermolaewa s second work is from the Nordbahn exhibition area, a key route for migratory labour in Austria, both historically and currently. Along the Ajax locomotive on display here one of the Technisches Museum Wien s most prized possessions are three videos featuring carers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Jermolaewa fled Saint Petersburg for Austria shortly before the events of 1989 to seek political asylum and initially earned her upkeep as a cleaner. In the video she talks to commuters about their working lives, what it s like to commute, and personal and family aspects. Working in caring and nursing professions in Austria means being available at all times, often without social security. Jermolaewa s work highlights the importance of the contribution these commuters make to Austria s (work) society. The northern railway line [Nordbahn] first went into service in 1838 and like many other railway lines played a part in triggering the mass phenomenon of migratory labour. First of all, migratory labour already played a crucial role in the construction of railway lines. Indeed, it required a vast number of workers from many different regions who went wherever the construction work took them. Secondly, in the industrial age, the railways stood for the

4 gathering pace of mobility and the mass scale on which freight and people were transported. The northern and eastern railway lines connected Vienna with regions which at the time of the Austrian monarchy and even today are associated with migratory labour. Just like the house maids in earlier times, women from eastern Europe now come to Austria to do housework and look after children and the elderly. Jermolaewa s Nordbahn features key aspects of working conditions today, aspects such as mobility, flexibility and migratory labour as well as labour-intensive activities that are not so easily streamlined. But unlike the production sector, the levels of automation in the service industry resulting from new technologies and streamlined processes are limited; the services rendered remain labourintensive. Even so, the work itself does not enjoy the social recognition it deserves, a fact reflected in the low wage levels. Anna Jermolaewa, born in Saint Petersburg/Russia in 1970, lives in Vienna Graduated from the University of Vienna (Art History Faculty); 2002 Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Painting, Graphic Arts & New Media). Solos exhibitions include the Salzburger Kunstverein (2012); the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia (2011); the Kunstverein Friedrichshafen (2009); the XL Gallery Moscow (2008); the Museum moderner Kunst, Passau (2004); Magazin 4, Bregenz (2002); the Blickle Foundation (2002); the Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee (2000). She has also participated in several international group exhibitions, including the ZKM/Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe (2011); the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow (2009); the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv (2008); mumok, Vienna (2005); the Kiasma Collection, Helsinki (2005); the Sprengel Museum, Hannover (2003); the Frankfurter Kunstverein (2002); the Stedelijk Museum (2001); and the Venice Biennale (1999).

5 Ulrike Lienbacher Detektive [Detectives], 2012 Installation Ulrike Lienbacher looks at the subject of monitoring and surveillance through two artistic interventions. One installation comprised of a series of industrial mirrors positioned by Lienbacher at different heights throughout the main hall addresses the issue of outside surveillance. These mirrors, with genuine article names such as Detektive, are used specifically for monitoring workers on factory floors. Lienbacher has also given these commercially available mirrors an additional feature. The mirrors swivel and are motor-driven so they rotate at random. As a result different insights into the Museum s premises are granted at all times. For those under surveillance these mirrors controlled by an invisible hand, as it were, represent an additional aspect of the anonymous power control to which they are exposed. The public is able to spot or monitor itself or other visitors in the mirrors. The mirrors are installed in the main hall, opening up views of the adjacent exhibition areas. The 19 th century rail-mounted vehicles and steam engines on show in the hall bear witness to the age of industrialisation providing the energy necessary for industrialised production as well as means of transport for raw materials, goods and people. These museum-based mechanical witnesses are now complemented by a significant aspect of the world of production and labour. Supervision, monitoring and rules & regulations have always played and still do play a key role not only in the production process but also with regard to paid work; the nature of it depends on the state of the art and the production and labour systems in place. While the monitoring of mechanical production processes is designed solely to ensure the smoothest possible running of the process and a product of faultless quality, the latter is aimed at achieving the highest possible work performance. Over time the visible presence of foremen and supervisors has given way to surveillance systems: using wideangle mirrors that allow remote monitoring and full views of even concealed or narrow premises or, increasingly, using surveillance cameras. Social consensus determines the extent to which each type of monitoring gaze is considered as a legitimate or dubious working regulation and whether the adaptation to rules and regulations is adopted in-house or rejected. In Austria, technical facilities used to monitor the performance and conduct of employees are subject to the provisions of labour law. Elite Körper [Elite Bodies], 2012 Installation in co-operation with the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory Augarten As a counterpoint to the outside scrutiny by surveillance mirrors Lienbacher has created a work on the aspect of self-monitoring, namely the way people tirelessly work at perfecting their own physiques. Lienbacher explores the human body under the aspects of standardisation, discipline, supervision and performance. In an increasingly automated society the human body once marked by toil and hard labour is being replaced by the fully

6 trained body; working with one s body is replaced by working on the body, made fit and trim through personal exercise. The installation consists of an arrangement of dumbbells and weights that recalls the setting of a fitness studio, except that here the material has been alienated. The true replicas of the training equipment are made of Augarten porcelain. The refined techniques used in bodybuilding are mirrored in the highly sophisticated technology of the porcelain cast, and the fit athletic body as a symbol of social success contrasts with the porcelain training equipment as some sort of knick-knack. The installation is complemented by videos entitled Zitrone auspressen [Pressing Lemons] (2010) and Coaching/Performance (2010), in which sports psychologist Christian Uhl talks about his methods and conducts a coaching session with Ulrike Lienbacher on the work and self-management of an artist. The videos outline the ideological image of the contemporary ideal of the ultra-fit physique, which through the absolute commitment of all its resources has come to symbolise social success. They also draw a parallel between the world of sport and the working world by comparing the training methods used in elite sports and in management. The installation is shown in the exhibition area entitled Everyday Life Directions for Use. The discussion focuses on the extent to which the training arena of elite sports mirrors that of professions determined by work constraints and requirements. Does training with high-tech fitness equipment and mental methods help us to work as effectively as possible? Managers for instance fall back on coaching methods similar to those of elite athletes, even though the impact is a distinctly different one. While the aim in elite sports is to optimise one s body as a working tool in accord with one s mental attitude, in management one s own fit body has only a potentially desired representative and symbolic function. By contrast, in today s working world, being mentally fit for work has also become essential. The age of industrialisation also ushered in the trend towards streamlined, management-based systems of work organisation in which workers are subordinated to the requirements of production. Discipline and supervision are there to ensure the requisite performance-based approach. Ulrike Lienbacher, born in Oberndorf in 1963; lives in Salzburg and Vienna Studied Sculpture at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Numerous solo exhibitions (selection): Kartenhaus, schaufenster - public space karlsplatz, Kunsthalle Wien (2012); Elitekörper // Revolte, Salzburger Kunstverein (2010); Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (2007); Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck (2006); Aufräumen, MAK Galerie, Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Arts in Vienna (2002), and also group exhibitions (selection): Rollenbilder - Rollenspiele, Museum der Moderne Salzburg (2011); Printed Matter, Fotomuseum Winterthur; Images Recalled, Fotofestival Mannheim (2009); Cutting Realities, Austrian Cultural Forum New York; Nach 1970, from the Albertina Collection, Albertina, Vienna; The Intertwining Line Drawing as Subversive Art, Cornerhouse, Manchester (2008); Eine Frage (nach) der Geste, Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig (2007); Der Widerstand der Fotografie, Camera Austria Kunsthaus, Graz; Diaries & Dreams, Ursula Blickle Foundation, Kraichtal (2004)

7 Daniel Knorr Alpha & Beta Begging Robots, 2012 Installation at the Museum and in the public space Daniel Knorr has been working on robot figures since His robots carry out a very special kind of work: they are interactive begging robots. The instant someone cranks the handle attached to the robot, it pays a compliment and asks for a coin in return. Once the coin is inserted, the robot says thank you. While the earlier Lui & Morty prototype is exhibited in a showcase at the Museum, the latest Alpha & Beta generation is on active duty. One of them will be working the Museum while its doppelganger is out earning money in Vienna s urban environment. The artist is of the view that begging is one of man s very first activities, and it too has become industrialised as a result of industrial work. When he deployed his begging robots, it emerged that passers-by were more prepared to give money to a robot than to a beggar. An important reference for Knorr is the science fiction author Isaac Asimov, who formulated a number of laws of robotics. In reference to the law of robotics stating that a robot must protect its own existence, the money raised through begging is used for repairs or to manufacture other robots. Knorr is interested in manufacturing his begging robot as an industrial production-line product, as work equipment as it were, so sketches and materials are also exhibited to give an insight into the design and production process. Knorr s installation is in two locations: one outdoors at Mariahilfer Strasse 2/Museumsplatz and one indoors at the Museum, where it is incorporated into the permanent exhibition entitled Everyday Life Directions for Use. The existing presentation on robotisation, which is being replaced, interfaces with the exhibition area dedicated to measuring which includes measuring human bodies. The robot also serves to extrapolate aspects of the standardisation and valuation of bodies towards the field of work. How do robots affect work? Do they serve the long tradition of standardising and rating human beings and their working capacity or do they relieve us from the constraints of efficiency? The question of who is more productive, man or machine, is brought into sharp focus by the notion of the begging robot. When Knorr refers to begging as one of the oldest forms of work, the definition of work is up for discussion. What is regarded as work and what isn t? And for what sort of work is the latest technology used in each case to make it more effective? Would begging work become a socially respectable activity if robots were available as work equipment? Location of the Alpha & Beta begging robots in the public space: Mariahilfer Strasse 2/Museumsplatz, 1070 Vienna Daniel Knorr, born in Bucharest/Romania in 1968; lives in Berlin Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, and thereafter at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in the US. Numerous group exhibitions including the 5 th Cetinje Biennial in Montenegro (2004); Beneath the Underdog, Gagosian Gallery New York (2007); the 5 th

8 Berlin Biennale; Manifesta 7 (2008); Liverpool Biennial; Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010); Steierischer Herbst (2011); and mumok Vienna (2012). Key solo exhibitions include Visible/Invisible Series at The Project in New York (2002); European Influenza at the Romanian Pavilion at the 51 th Venice Biennale (2005); Museum Fridericianum Kassel (2008); Kunsthalle Basel (2009); Galeria Fonti (2010); Galerie Nächst St. Stephan (2011); Kunsthalle Wien (2012). In 2007 he began working on Künstlerbuch, an ongoing project with collectibles pressed in books, to date from eight countries in an edition of 200 copies each.

9 Harun Farocki Vergleich über ein Drittes [Comparison with a Third], channel video installation, 24 mins, colour, sound Courtesy: The artist The video shows various work methods used for manufacturing bricks and how the fired bricks are then worked into buildings in traditional, early industrial and highly industrialised societies. Single and double projections contrast construction work in three different geographic production sites in Africa, Asia and Europe. Increasingly automated manufacturing processes are as much an issue as the parallels in the different levels of effectiveness. Work stages in the various societies are correlated in changing images and constellations. The fact of siting the video in the Heavy Industry exhibition area questions the matter-ofcourse acceptance of automated production in industrialised countries but without making a value judgement. Symbolically, the steel industry is highly rated in Austria despite the loss of jobs on a massive scale following automation and the relocation of areas of production to other countries. The LD crucible exhibit a furnace for the Linz-Donawitz steel production process developed in Austria and known all over the world symbolises that significance. A control and supervision cab represents the way in which the organisation of work has changed. The space above Farocki s video refers to the type of elevated control consoles installed at the VOEST plant in Linz. With their panoramic windows they allow the production facilities to be monitored; they are also equipped with computer systems for the automated production process. Machine tools are linked with data-processing equipment that control and monitor the process. Automation serves to increase productivity while ensuring that production is able to run with fewer and fewer personnel. On a global scale, however, the levels of technological development and effectiveness we regard as a matter of course are all relative. As the manufacture of bricks clearly shows, different forms of production and work organisation exist in parallel. Non-industrialised processes are often regarded as lacking in technical expertise and resources. But is an automated world really the one we wish to live in? Are manual methods generally to be rated as outdated or can they also be a worthwhile alternative? Harun Farocki, born in Nový Jičín/Czech Republic in 1944; lives in Berlin Studied at the DFFB (German Film and Television Academy) in Berlin (West) Author and editor of the Filmkritik magazine, Munich Speaking about Godard / Von Godard sprechen, New York / Berlin (together with Kaja Silverman) Visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1966 over 100 productions for TV and film: children s TV, documentaries, essay films, story films. Since 1996 numerous group and solo exhibitions in museums and galleries participation at documenta 12 with Deep Play. Since 2004 visiting professor, from 2006 to 2011 full professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

10 Adrian Paci Turn On, 2004 Video projection, 4 mins, colour, sound Courtesy: The artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich In his video Adrian Paci looks at being idle and waiting for work. Every day unemployed men gather in the Albanian town of Shkodra in the hope that someone will give them work. Paci shows their faces, drawn by tiredness and resignation, in what initially is a silent film. Each of the men then starts up a generator which, with ear-deafening noise, eventually lights up a bulb an energy output whose sole purpose is to shed light on the men themselves and their hopeless situation. Paci s work is on show at the permanent exhibition entitled Energy, adding a number of aspects to it. The generators used in the video indicate that a steady supply of electricity cannot be taken for granted everywhere. Due to the frequent power cuts in Albania generators are an essential alternative to the power grid. While a generator may suffice to meet the demands of everyday life and artisanal manufacture, the situation is more precarious when it comes to industrial production. This lack of infrastructure can be just as much a reason why workers are not needed as the opposite, namely automated production, which in turn makes workers redundant. A linking factor is also the use of energy in a symbolic sense. Indeed, the generators are not used for utilitarian purposes; the light is not generated to literally light up the surroundings in the usual way, but figuratively to highlight something else: the problem of untapped manpower as well as human bodies marked by hard work. In an industrialised world muscle power becomes obsolete in direct proportion to the manufacture and supply of energy and production machinery. Nonetheless other production and work methods still remain, along with standards of living in which physical work continues to be indispensable. Adrian Paci, born in Shkodra/Albania; lives in Milan. Adrian Paci studied at the Art Academy of Tirana from 1987 to Paci s works cover the fields of video, photography, painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. They are formed by an emotional sympathy for the individual. He transfers existential moments of human life into stunning and timeless images. Paci sees the vulnerability and fragility of humans as their basic condition, which confers beauty and dignity at the same time. While Paci is mainly known as a video artist, he actually sees himself as a painter. He elides the boundaries between visual media by medially transferring images from films or videos into paintings. Over the years Paci began to interact with the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini and consistently returns to it. Pasolini s work with close-ups remains significant for Paci s work, which touches us through its humanity. Adrian Paci has showcased his works at numerous exhibitions, such as the solo shows Per Speculum at the Monash University Museum of Art, Caulfield East (2012), Motion Picture(s) at Kunsthaus Zurich (2010) or Subjects in Transit at CCA, Tel Aviv in 2008.

11 Anne Tallentire Drift: Diagram xii, 2002/2012 Video projection, 18 mins, colour Courtesy: The artist Filming at different times of the day and night, Anne Tallentire focuses on the often overlooked activities of people working in London s financial district. The video features people doing work that is necessary to keep the city going, for example a window cleaner or a construction worker. Each activity or sequence lasts a few minutes and is marked with the precise time at which the first shot was filmed. Anne Tallentire is interested in exploring the question of how a continually changing society can become visible in routine activities. The question of which work receives attention or goes unnoticed is addressed in the permanent exhibition entitled Everyday Life Directions for Use, which explores the technology-based matter-of-factness of life in living and urban spaces. In today s affluent societies we expect as a matter of course that technical facilities are available and tasks are carried out to ensure a comfortable, structured and orderly life in everyday urban life. But just as we accord a different status to the technical equipment available (a car for instance is valued differently to a washing machine), we also value work in different ways. This is apparent in both housework and many unnoticed activities in the urban environment. And while the latter is carried out in full view of the public, it goes virtually unnoticed. The low esteem in which some of these tasks are held means that the people who do the work somehow become invisible, too. So who does the work that ensures a city s quality of life and at what price literally? Anne Tallentire, born in Co. Armagh/Northern Ireland; lives in London Anne Tallentire studied at The Slade School of Art and has taught at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design since the 1990s. Anne Tallentire s practice invites the viewer to stop and reconsider the everyday and overlooked. Using film, video, photography, drawing, assemblage, text and performance her work often involves a peripatetic principle and procedures of chance. She questions how we come to understand our place within shifting social, cultural and political contexts, specifically within urban environments and uses materials and technology to explore what is often obscured at the edges of daily life. Recent solo exhibitions, screenings and projects include Telling it and other works, Picture This, Bristol (2011); This and other things, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2010); Drift, Void, Derry (2005); A Pursuit of Happiness, Douglas Hyde, Gallery 3, Dublin, (2006); and group exhibitions Le Monde Physique, Galerie Centre d art contemporain, Noisy-le-Sec, Paris, (2011) and Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Hollybush Gardens, London, (2007). Her most recent project is Objects of a life, published by Copy Press, London (2012).