Kunsthalle Wien has announced a major new exhibition surveying the work of Aleksandra Domanovic (b. 1981, Novi Sad). Installed in over one thousand metres of exhibition space on the first floor of the Kunsthalle’s Museumsquartier building it includes sculpture, video, print photography and digital media.
A graduate of Graphic Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Domanovic began her career exhibiting online and made her first exhibitions while living in Vienna. The exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien brings together works produced over the last eighteen years, including newly commissioned sculpture and video. It is the first exhibition of Domanovic’s work in Austria and the largest presentation of her work to date.
The exhibition shows the development of a practice shaped by information culture and mass media in a post-internet era. It begins with the website ‘hottesttocoldest.com’, produced in 2008. Programmed to re-order capital cities of the world in descending order according to their current temperature, it exemplifies Domanovic’s playful yet critical engagement with geopolitics.
Other works look specifically to the Western Balkans. A new version of the video essay ‘Turbo Sculpture’ updates Domanovic’s online research (begun in 2009) into the 21st-century phenomenon of monumentalising popular celebrities across the region. Another video, ‘19:30’, completed in 2011, compiles video graphics and music from television news broadcasts between 1958 and 2010 (some of which were subsequently appropriated in techno music). The 2013 film ‘From yu to me’ tells the story of the introduction and removal of the ‘.yu’ internet domain for Yugoslavia, charting the arrival of the internet during the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe.
A number of works draw directly on the history of science and technology or the cinematic genre of science fiction to address questions of gender and identity. A large-scale installation from 2014 entitled ‘Things to Come’ considers the representation of women in popular science fiction. Elsewhere, figurative motifs such as a portrait of President Josip Broz Tito or a robotic hand designed by scientist Rajko Tomovi? are recast within sculpture and prints that imagine futuristic, post-gendered, post-human bodies. These include a series of monolithic sculptures made in the tradition of Korai, a genre of ancient Greek sculpture depicting female figures bearing offerings. Domanovic’s ‘Votives’ (2016–2018) present a broad array of objects including basketballs and a sculptural representation of a genetically modified calf.
The exhibition includes a series of new and more recent works that consider the roles that science and technology play in representation and perception. ‘Becoming Another (Beam)’ (2021) and ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ (2024) are large-scale works employing the optical illusion named after the meteorologist Wilhelm von Bezold. These multi-layered works quote the history of medical imaging, making particular reference to obstetric ultrasound technology and the role that it plays in gender identification, women’s rights and the debate around abortion. In another series, ‘Worldometers’ (2021), LED fans display historical photographs of doctors, patients, ultrasound machines and foetuses, alongside corporate logos and footage from ‘gender reveal’ announcements. ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ has been commissioned especially for this exhibition. It connects earlier research with questions of national identity and culture incorporating a diverse array of images including a 1960s portrait of the physician Ian Donald (who pioneered the use of ultrasound in obstetrics) and Slovakian folk patterns.
Aleksandra Domanovic, 5th September 2024 – 26th January 2025 Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
Opening: 4th September 2024, 7pm
Artist Talk: Aleksandra Domanovic in conversation with Carson Chan 4th September 2024, 6pm
Prior to the opening of the exhibition, Domanovic will be in conversation with Carson Chan,
Director of the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural
Environment at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Exhibition Publication The exhibition is accompanied by the first monographic publication on Aleksandra Domanovic’s work. The book includes an extensive interview between the artist and Michelle Cotton, Artistic Director of Kunsthalle Wien alongside essays by curator Carson Chan, the curator and writer Caitlin Jones, the editor and writer Pablo Larios and the critic and essayist Marcel Štefancic.
Language: English and German ca. 224 pages with 92 illustrations, hardcover
Editor: Michelle Cotton Texts: Carson Chan, Michelle Cotton, Caitlin Jones, Pablo Larios and Marcel Štefancic, Graphic design: Martha Stutteregger Publisher: Kunsthalle Wien The publication will be available from Kunsthalle Wien from October 2024.
About
Aleksandra Domanovi? (b. 1981, Novi Sad) has held solo exhibitions at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (2018); Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (both 2017); Oakville Galleries (2016); ICA Winnipeg; Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Georgia; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (all 2015); Kunstverein Hildesheim; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Firstsite, Colchester; Passerelle Centre d’art contemporain, Brest (all 2014); Kunsthalle Basel (2012). Her work has also been presented within numerous international survey exhibitions including the Greater Taipei Biennial of Contemporary Arts (2022); the 34th Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts; the 58th Belgrade Biennial; the Baltic Triennial 14, Vilnius (all 2021); New Museum Triennial, New York (2015); Shanghai Biennale (2014); 12th Biennale de Lyon (2013); First Kyiv Biennale and the Marrakech Biennale 4th Edition (both 2012). Domanovi? lives and works in Berlin.
Kunsthalle Wien is the City of Vienna’s primary institution for contemporary art. At its locations in the Museumsquartier and on Karlsplatz, it presents an annual programme of exhibitions alongside public and educational programming that seeks to engage diverse publics. We provide a platform for artists, commissioning new works and partnering with individuals and institutions, both local and international, to develop exhibitions and publications based on original research. Kunsthalle Wien is committed to providing an inclusive space for exchange and debate and furthering the discourse on contemporary art in all its forms.
Kunsthalle Wien thanks Kunsthalle Wien is financed by Magistratsabteilung Kultur der Stadt Wien (MA7) / Department for Cultural Affairs of the City of Vienna (Municipal Department 7) The exhibition by Aleksandra Domanovic is realised with the kind support of SKICA (Slowenisches Kulturinformationszentrum / Slovenian Culture Information Centre). ‘Becoming Another’ by Aleksandra Domanovi? was originally commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary, exhibited in Berlin in 2021. ‘Audemars Piguet Contemporary is the brand’s dedicated art programme, commissioning international artists to create contemporary artworks. Audemars Piguet believes that creativity feeds culture, connects people and gives purpose to our lives.’
