Ok. oskar: 70 Years School of Seeing

Ok. oskar: 70 Years School of Seeing

The anniversary program OK. oskar will continue in June 2023 with the exhibition Sebastian im Traum (Sebastian Dreaming) by Polish artist Karol Radziszewski and the film The Wonderful Years by Ukrainian filmmakers Svitlana Shymko and Galina Yarmanova.

OK. oskar: exhibitions

April – September 2023

Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus

Karol Radziszewski: Sebastian im Traum (Sebastian Dreaming)

17 June – 8 July 2023

Friday, 16 June

6 pm Artist’s talk

7 pm Opening

The exhibition Sebastian im Traum (Sebastian Dreaming) bears the title of a poem by Georg Trakl. Karol Radziszewski (b. 1980, Białystok) speculates on possible histories and missing artefacts in the Austrian poet’s archive in the house where he was born (today a research and memorial site). The artist recontextualises his film MS 101 (2012) about an imaginary encounter between the poet as well as the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and his lover David Pinsent. The philosopher came to Krakow as an Austrian soldier in 1914, where he wanted to meet Trakl, who was stationed there as a medical lieutenant. Since the latter died shortly before his arrival at the military hospital, all that remains is to imagine what attraction lay at the root of their encounter. The portraits of this invented ménage-à-trois and the icon of queer encounter. The portraits of this invented ménage-à-trois and the icon of queer movements, Saint Sebastian, form an ancestral gallery of homoerotic stories and their potential omission in reading the archives.

The artist Karol Radziszewski (*1980, Białystok) dedicates his research and works to queer personalities to identify voids and ruptures in canonised histories, especially in Eastern Europe. He is also known as the editor of DIK Fagazine (since 2005) and the founder of the Queer Archives Institute in Warsaw (2015). The exhibition Sebastian im Traum at Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus presents his work for the first time in Austria.

OK. oskar: screenings

April – September 2023

Kunst im Traklhaus showroom

On Solidarity is a curated film programme that explores films by Ukrainian artists in times of war and violence.

Svitlana Shymko / Galina Yarmanova, The Wonderful Years, 2018

17. Juni – 8 Juli 2023

The Soviet state built ‘socialist family units’ through housing policies prioritizing married couples with children. Many queer women complied with the state pressure to get married and have children and navigated dating life outside their marriages. At the same time, others chose to stay alone but also to live with women secretly. The montage film The Wonderful Years (2018) explores the lives of queer women in Ukraine in the late Soviet Union based on historical video materials and interview excerpts from recent research projects.

Address

Kunst im Traklhaus, Waagplatz 1a, 5020 Salzburg Austria

Opening hours

Tuesday – Friday 2-6 pm; Saturday 10 am – 1 pm

Free admission

OK. oskar: Team

Adelaide D’Esposito, Till Gathmann, Sophie Goltz, Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga, Maximilian Lehner, Benedikt Meixl, Gaia Tovaglia.

The full Jubilee Programme will be published at the beginning of June 2023.

Press

For further press material and images please contact: Adelaide D’Esposito at email: presse@summeracademy.at or phone: +43 (0)662 842113

Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts

The International Summer Academy of Fine Arts at Hohensalzburg Fortress was founded in 1953 by the renowned Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) as the “School of Seeing” and is the oldest of its kind in Europe. Around 20 courses are offered every summer and are attended by more than 300 participants* from over 50 countries, making the Academy a lively place for international artistic and creative exchange. The Academy offers: open application process for all interested parties, no degrees required; unique opportunity to study with outstanding international artists*, curators, collectives, art educators, scholars and writers; Space to devote oneself exclusively to the artistic process or the development of ideas while learning and reflecting on art and its discourses; courses based on both personal attention and group discussion; unique historical course setting in the midst of an alpine landscape; art education programme with cultural partners, in Salzburg et al; access to art literature and journals.

Funded by: Province of Salzburg, City of Salzburg, Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES).

Supported by: Cultural Fund of the Provincial Capital Salzburg, ERSTE Foundation, American Austrian Foundation (AAF/Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts), zt: Chamber of Civil Technicians, Architects and Engineers, Initiative Architektur, Province of Vorarlberg, Zurich University of the Arts, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg, Art Academy Münster, Kingston University London, Friends of the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, Marmor Kiefer.