View to the Lichthof

The present exhibition is a selection from video artworks of the former eastern block countries displaying the works of eight artists, all ex-residents of KulturKontakt Austria.

Although the nature of political, economical and cultural changes, the accommodation to the new challenges as well as its measure and characteristics show different pictures by the countries and still all are pervaded by the question of changing identity.

For the representation of these processes the flexibility of the genre of video proved to be appropriate, the tool, fashionable in the 90ies, became even more popular that was also the symbol of changes initially and an easily reachable medium for the wider classes.

Lichthof, whether we translate it to light-well or air-shaft, is the place through which the light and fresh air can get into the dark flats with bad ventilation. Certainly, those whose window faces to the lichthof by no means can be called lucky.

The exhibition illustrates the region and the given period of time in this common cross-section, from a critical point of view. It does not state or give pure responses, only sheds light on the conflicts that come together with the rearrangement, and its consequences, occasionally caricature them but mainly turning to our past and present with raising unprejudiced questions.

KulturKontakt Austria launched its artist-in-residency programme in 1992 that is for artists coming from the Eastern and South-Eastern sphere of Europe, from the so called “new democracies”. The result of the almost two decade’s old activity mediates the region’s diversity of culture and economy. 230 artists from 24 countries have been hosted in Vienna until the present.

The direct antecedent of this selection was the presentation in the Viennese Hofburg in 2009, organised in the honour of the 20th anniversary of the Fall of Iron Curtain.