Berlinde De Bruyckere. In the Flesh
February 15–May 12, 2013
Opening: February 14, 2013, 7pm

The body as evidence of our existence—as a witness to ourselves—is a shell to all that moves us. Flemish artist Berlinde De Bruyckere (b. 1964, Ghent; lives and works in Ghent) is one of those contemporary female sculptors who explores inner and outer spaces in connection with this witness. In doing so, she investigates the finality of the body as a perceptible counterpart. Her creatures are hybrid forms, a combination of unusual elements that are found in a state of metamorphosis, evoking complex emotions. They reflect images of a both humanistic and at the same time art-historical investigation of suffering. 

As a dialogue with the fluidity of the space of the Kunsthaus Graz, the solo exhibition by Berlinde De Bruyckere—who is Belgium’s representative at this year’s Venice Biennale—concentrates on the topic of metamorphosis and shows sculptures as well as watercolours from recent years. In this confrontation, the show questions our knowledge of existence and finds an enduring sculptural language of empathy.

Curated by Katrin Bucher Trantow

Kunsthaus Graz, Space01
Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz, Austria

Josef Dabernig. Panorama
March 1–April 28, 2013
Opening: February 28, 2013, 7pm

The panorama has appeared in Josef Dabernig’s work since 1989. A ritual that has turned into somewhat of an obsession over the years, it serves the artist to question analogies of film and photography, of picture space and image area as well as the phenomenology of an object or place. Dabernig chooses sports grounds as objects to investigate. Like almost no other cultural structure, these venues are similar in form and size all over the world, synonymous with leisure time. However, sport fields are also charged locations of congregation, of victory and defeat and sometimes even of demagogy. Over the years, the collection of panoramas taking us from Brazil to Ukraine, or even to Egypt and Italy, has grown to a fascinating size. In its comprehensiveness it recalls a work of reference that helps us to read time and space in a linear way.

The Universalmuseum Joanneum is showing the exhibition Panorama at two different places in collaboration with the Diagonale 2013: in the Kunsthaus Graz it makes use of the Needle viewing room, and in the Neue Galerie Graz, the reduced works are on show in the Round Room on the ground floor. Thus a dialogue is opened between architectural location and the photographic works.

Curated by Katrin Bucher Trantow

Kunsthaus Graz, Needle
Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz, Austria

Neue Galerie Graz, Round Room
Joanneums Quarter
Entrance Kalchberggasse, 8010 Graz, Austria