April 5 - July 21, 2019
Katharina Gaenssler
Atlas und Sequenz
Westlicht. Schauplatz für Fotografie, Westbahnstraße 40, 1070 Wien
Katharina Gaenssler has specialized in the photographic compression and transposition of spaces. In thousands of separate pictures she scans places with her camera, which she then re-erects elsewhere in ephemeral installations as wall-sized collages and binds them in massive, often multivolume atlases. Concurrent with the historical travel and architecture photography of the Baldus albums, WestLicht for the first time in Austria offers a view on the comprehensive oeuvre of books by the internationally displayed and awarded artist. The exhibition focuses on the book as a space of time, as an analogue hard drive in relation to its materiality and physicality. Systematically constructed according to a strict order and grid, Gaenssler’s encyclopaedias are specific formats whose sculptural appeal goes hand in hand with the enveloped sequences of quasi-random, seemingly abstract fragments of reality. By browsing through the pages the artist’s journeys – like her six day trip with the Trans-Siberian Railway – and the artworks and spaces she has captured, which are often inaccessible to the public, can be re-experienced. Tangible and resisting at the same time, the books can be read as archives and reflect contemporary theories of the image as much as an alluring obstinacy of things.
Curated by Rebekka Reuter
Due to events and the preparations of WestLicht Photo Auction the exhibition is closed from 22. to 26.04., on 09.05. from 4 pm, from 13.05. to 03.06. and on 12.07.
Image: Katharina Gaenssler, Munich, 13 – 22 March 2006, 2006, book object, 18×27,5×13 cm, 2700 photographs, 2700 pages, color laser prints, plasticised cover, Copyright the artist