Carsten Holler - Leben

(Paperback)

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Description

A catalogue as puzzling and conceptually elaborate as the exhibition it accompanies. This fully circular publication has no beginning or end, allowing for multiple points of entry and unconventional ways of reading--both from left to right and vice versa, as well as upside down and right-side up--seeking to interrupt learned behaviors and soliciting the reader's active engagement. It complements the exhibition as it unfolds a play of doubling and symmetry that references the exhibits both formally and in terms of content. This intertwining is also evident in the central text around which the catalogue pivots: a conversation between Carsten Hller--who gained academic experience in phytopathology before embarking on his artistic career--and the taxidermist Alfred Hller during the festival "#WWTBD--What Would Thomas Bernhard Do" at Kunsthalle Wien in 2013. Speaking about taxidermy (birds in particular) and the history of the origins of Thomas Bernhard's infamous novel Correction, which Bernard wrote in Alfred Hller's attic in 1974, the conversation examines conflicting areas between life and death, and between art and nature.

Copublished with TBA21 on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition, July 10-January 4, 2015

Contributors
Alfred Hller, Carsten Hller, Daniela Zyman

Author Bio

Daniela Zyman is chief curator of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in Vienna.