Katrin Hornek
testing grounds
In Zusammenarbeit mit Karin Pauer, Sabina Holzer und Zosia Hołubowska
8.3. – 2.6.2024
In Zusammenarbeit mit Karin Pauer, Sabina Holzer und Zosia Hołubowska
Katrin Hornek, testing grounds. In Zusammenarbeit mit Karin Pauer, Sabina Holzer und Zosia Hołubowska, Ausstellungsansicht, Secession 2024, Foto: Sophie Pölzl
With her artistic oeuvre and curatorial practice, Katrin Hornek playfully engages with the strange paradoxes of living in the age of the Anthropocene, that is, the new geologic epoch where the effects of capitalism, colonialism, and extractivism are written into the body of the earth. She asserts a more complex understanding of the entwinement of so-called nature and culture that recognizes that our bodies and cultures are substantially and spiritually connected with other creatures and the elements that make up our world. As an artistic strategy, Hornek follows the stories and traces of the material world into their countless networks to create narratives.
testing grounds is a new, immersive live installation conceived by Katrin Hornek and developed in a collaborative process involving artists as well as researchers and scientists from different fields. The collaboration with Karin Pauer, Sabina Holzer, and Zosia Hołubowska lays a foundation for the work, which addresses a sensitive urgent matter: At stake is the measurable evidence of radioactive radiation around the world as a result of the testing and use of nuclear weapons in hundreds of above-ground tests since 1945. A local soil sample at Karlsplatz, in which minimal amounts of plutonium could be detected, as its starting point, testing grounds follows the permanent imprints left by nuclear fallout in our bodies, in plants and earth archives.
Embedded in an installation that evokes images of decaying landscapes, twice a week three dancers perform a score choreographed by Pauer. A recent scan of the “Baker” crater on the seabed of the former US nuclear bomb test site in Bikini Atoll spreads across the ceiling. On handheld devices shaped like turtles and tortoises, so-called "messengers", texts created by Sabina Holzer and Katrin Hornek provide multi-layered narratives on the subject matter, which enter a subtle, intimate dialogue with specially composed soundscapes by Zosia Hołubowska, while with their movements, the dancers delve into the depths of body archives. Together, the elements of the live installation create a sensual, immersive experience, a test set-up of the embodiment of the unspeakable.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication with an image spread compiled by Katrin Hornek and text contributions by Anne Faucheret and Brian Holmes.
Saturday, 9.3.2024, 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm
Saturday, 16.3.2024, 2.00 pm -5.00 pm
Tuesday, 19.3.2024, 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm
Saturday, 23.3.2024, 2.00 pm - 5.00 pm
Wednesday, 27.3.2024, 11.00 am - 2.00 pm
Saturday, 30.3.2024, 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm
Wednesday, 3.4.2024, 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Tuesday, 9.4.2024, 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Sunday, 14.4.2024, 12.00 pm - 3.00 pm
Wednesday, 17.4.2024, 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Tuesday, 23.4.2024, 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Saturday, 27.4.2024, 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm
Wednesday, 1.5.2024, 12.00 pm -3.00 pm
Sunday, 5.5.2024, 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm
Thursday, 9.5.2024, 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm
Tuesday, 14.5.2024, 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Saturday, 18.5.2024, 12.00 pm - 3.00 pm
Friday, 24.5.2024, 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Tuesday, 28.5.2024, 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Sunday, 2.6.2024, 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Katrin Hornek in conversation with Katrin Klingan
Thursday, April 25, 2024, 6 p.m.
An event by the Friends of the Secession
The exhibition is sponsored by Arbeiterkammer Wien
Co-produced by Secession with Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF)
With thanks to Kunstverein Archipelago - 'Der Betrieb'
Concept, Artistic direction: Katrin Hornek
Choreography: Karin Pauer
Sound: Zosia Hołubowska
Text: Sabina Holzer, Katrin Hornek
Performance: Cat Jimenez, Karin Pauer, Mani Obeya, Martina De Dominicis
Costume: Karin Pauer
Messengers:
/ Text: Sabina Holzer, Katrin Hornek
/ Editing, translation: Lisa Rosenblatt
/ Voices: Alex Zehetbauer, Arthur Trembanis, Greg Mello, Karin Pauer, Karipbek Kuyukov,
Martina De Dominicis, Michael Wagreich, Sabina Holzer
/ Objects production: Klemens Waldhuber
/ Programming: Franz Gasser
Production management performance: mollusca productions
Technical management: Hans Weinberger
Scenographic advice and production: Hektor Peljak (Studio Peljak)
Artistic assistance: Ivana Lazić
Consulting: Anne Faucheret, Julia Hohenwarter, Michael Wagreich
Digital Publication
Katrin Hornek. testing grounds, photo: Iris Ranzinger
Shop
(*1983, AT) studierte performative Kunst und Skulptur in Wien und Kopenhagen. Sie ist Mitglied der interdisziplinären Forschungsgruppe The Anthropocene Surge und lehrt an der Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien in der Abteilung für Ortsbezogene Kunst. Ausstellungen zuletzt bei Ar/Ge Kunst, Bozen (2022), Kunstraum Lakeside, Klagenfurt (2021), Riga Biennale (2020), Kunsthalle Wien (2019); Verleihung des Msgr. Otto Mauer Preis (2021). www.katrinhornek.net
(*1983, AT) ist Performerin und Choreografin. Sie arbeitet mit Begriffen wie Beziehungen und Empathie, indem sie verkörperte choreografische Praktiken mit Sprache, bildender Kunst undMusik kombiniert. Ihre Arbeiten wurden in verschiedenen Wiener Institutionen und bei lokalen wie internationalen Festivals gezeigt. www.karinpauer.com
(*1966, AT) arbeitet als Tänzerin, Choreografin und Autorin im Feld der erweiterten Choreografie. Sie beschäftigt sich mit Praktiken von Gemeinschaft, Ökologie, Philosophie, Materialität / Stofflichkeit, Science-Fiction und Poesie. Ihre kollaborativen Performances, Interventionen und Texte werden lokal und international gezeigt und publiziert. www.cattravelsnotalone.at
(1988, PL) ist Klangkünstler*in, Forscher*in, Produzent*in und Aktivist*in für queere Musik. Dey arbeiten in Performances, Soundinstallationen, Radioarbeiten und Soundscapes an Themen wie queeren Archiven, Heilungspraktiken und zwischenmenschlicher Intimität.
Martina De Dominicis, Cat Jimenez, Mani Obeya, Karin Pauer
