2009

In her filmic and photographic works Katharina Gruzei focuses on socio-political, gender-specific and media-analytical issues. She has established a research-oriented photo archive based on mixed portrait photographs by August Sander in the collection of the Oberösterreichische Landesmuseen (Upper Austrian State Museums).

The matte collodion photographic prints by Sander from his years in Linz from 1901–1909 are shown between photographs of different provenance: historical studio portraits and amateur shots from the flea market hang side by side with Sander-reproductions and selfportraits of the author – predecessor and successor without hierarchical differentiation, without marking of Sander’s vintageprints through a museal advice to admire them. The anonymisation of the »masterpieces« and the »museal« upgrading of the prints – having become »found footage« – create space for comparisons. Correspondences are recognisable and make evident the degree to which motifs, compositions and poses follow the staging specifications of fixed pictorial canons. In a studio setting beyond this study, the artist has adopted fragments of this repertoire and has alienated them ironically. In this process, the unique copy-technology of the ferrotype refers to the forming of collective pictorial worlds through photographic reproduction. The gender-critical self-stagings as performances mix inconspicuously in the picture with the ladies and gentlemen..

Stefanie Hoch

published in the catalogue of Linz Triennale 1.0