Lisa Großkopf00436769664433 [email protected] www.lisagrosskopf.net
In my postconceptual artistic practice and research I deal with the inter-
play of aesthetics and the conveyance of actuality in an experimental
and humorous way. By producing alternative models of action within
established mechanisms, I depict the problems of existing relation-
ships. Keeping an eye on a neoliberally governed world, I link timeless
humanistic questions with current socio-critical discourses. In my most
recent works, I examine the structures of institutions and deal with my
role in the global art world. My sometimes site-specific installations
and works employ diverse media and forms of expression, including
performative interventions in public space, photography, video and
printed matter such as posters and artist books.
South Sea, Palm Trees, Curry Sausage2019, performance lecture, 35’00 in cooperation with Lena Schwingshandl
In July 2019 I spent with Lena Schwingshandl spent 14 days traveling
inside the Tropical Islands Resorts as an attempt to understand the
fascination of this place, which counts about 6.000 visitors per day.
It‘s a five hectar big hall filled with the largest “indoor rain forrest”,
pools, playgrounds and wellness. Elements of nature, culture and
architecture of differents part of the world are randomly put together.
In the performance lecture South Sea, Palm Trees, Curry Sausage we
take turns in reading from our travel journals. While sitting in
canvas chairs we tell about the ups and downs of our adventures in
the Tropical Island Resorts.
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24.08.–25.08.19, Localize, Freundschaftsinsel, Potsdam, DE1 1
all mine2019, video, 6’11 in cooperation with Lena Schwingshandl
»The video all mine shows several shots of a white towel in a tropical
landscape. Lena Schwingshandl and Lisa Großkopf play with the
symbolism of space occupying towels on the holiday beach and
humorously thematize the claims of public space on holidays. However,
the scenery is not set on a holiday beach on the Mediterranean coast or
in the Caribbean, but in the Tropical Islands Resort in the interior of
Germany, far away from any open-air bathing resorts and natural sea
access. In the summer of 2019, Lisa Großkopf and Lena Schwingshandl
went on an artistic research trip to the Tropical Islands Resort together,
asking themselves, among other things, how that which is regarded as
authentic and artificially created merges into one another. The video
all mine is one of the works created in this context.«1
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text: Aline Lenzhofer 18.08.–20.08.20, TRAVEL APPARATUS, das weisse haus, Vienna, AT photo: Lea Sonderegger
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I should quit smoking2018–2020, videoperformances, various lenghts
To put it bluntly, one could understand artist residencies as the
embedding of tourism in the art system. The proximity to tourism
veils the fact that these trips, in contrast to other tourist practices,
are work stays. The videos show me while blowing up a huge globe
beach ball. The inflation costs me a lot of breath and is therefore
related to the real energy consumption caused by the increasing
mobility of artists due to these programs. By appropriating an
object usually associated with holiday and leisure, I refer to the
work-life-blending in artist residencies and their ambiguous
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I should quit smoking (Kunstluft), 2018, videoperformance, 17’38 I should quit smoking (ACAD), 2019, videoperformance, 15’53 I should quit smoking (Organhaus), 2019, videoperformance, 11’41 I should quit smoking (baseCollective), 2020, videoperformance, 13’22
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Kontakte knüpfen2019, bronze, friendship bracelets, 35 × 35 × 15 cm
Some artist residences primarly function as stepping stone for
emerging artists by establishing contacts with local gatekeepers.
The German expression Kontakte knüpfen means making contacts,
literally translated one would say knotting contacts. Picking up on this
play on words, I illustrate all the contacts that were made possible by
artist residencies with friendship bracelets that I made using the textile
technique of knotting.
30.09.–07.10.19, One Place after Another, Organhaus, Chongqing, CN1 1
To Whom it May Concern2018/19, video, 2’22
The starting point for To Whom it May Concern was the task of
producing a video about myself, suitable for publication in social
media. The person, who could acquire the most reactions on various
social media platforms, won a solo exhibition in Washington DC.
I refer to the presence of social media in our daily lives and locate its
origin in an economy of attention on which the competition itself was
based. The tongue-in-cheek clip examines user behavior in the digital
age, in which the border between the private and public spheres has
become blurred.
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To Whom it May Concern, 2018/19, video, 2’22, stills
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sometimes I would prefer not to 2019, twine, nails, inkjet print on transparent paper, wall
»The exhibition Pattern Recognition at the Kunstfabrik Groß Siegharts
[a former textile factory] presents 15 artists whose working methods,
approaches and themes not only reflect on the present of the factory as
an exhibition venue, but also take a critical look at the past and future
of textile and art production. The artists have explored patterns in
behavioral, thought and work processes in the contemporary art system
as well as in our everyday life and labour market.
“Sometimes I would prefer not to” says Lisa Großkopf. She quotes
Hermann Melville’s well-known literary character Bartleby1 — the
capable writing assistant who at some point reacts to the never-ending
bureaucratic workload with an “I would prefer not to” — and refuses to
do anything else. In a complex wall diagram made of paper and thread,
Lisa Großkopf presents the likewise endless work and decision-making
processes of an art project: who is invited, where does the money come
from, where does the material come from and what will become of the
ideas ... the magical aura that often surrounds an artist‘s existence is
transferred by Lisa Großkopf into the actual economies of art
production.«2
Melville, Herman: Bartleby.Stuttgart: Reclam, 1985text: Dominique Gromes 02.06.–14.07.19, Pattern Recognition, Kunstfabrik Groß Siegharts, ATphoto: Kaja Joo
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Concerns of the 21st century 2020, billboard, poster, 252× 356 cm 2019, billboard, poster, 200 × 300 cm
»HOW TO TITLE YOUR WORK OF ART? In Lisa Großkopf‘s
work, the billboard becomes the carrier of our current questions.
She uses the online portal, wikiHow, as the foundation. There you
can find countless step-by-step instructions for all sorts of everyday
challenges. The website offers not only instructions for tricky or
seemingly hopeless situations, but also answers very mundane and
bizarre questions. While some refer specifically to current problems
(for example, ‘How to Wear a Mask’), others answer existential
questions like ‘How to Find God.’ wikiHow involuntarily becomes
a humorous mirror of a late capitalist society.«1
text: Reclaim-Kollektiv16.06.–25.06.20, Reclaim Award, public space, Cologne, DE photo: Reclaim-Kollektiv
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Noticeably Unnoticeable 2018/19, performative action, 4 months 2019, video installation, variable size
In my performative action Noticeably Unnoticeable I explore the
current trend of self-optimisation. To attain perfection in my day job
as a museum supervisor I take various measures ranging from physical
training to acquiring professional qualifications and profound expertise.
I invest my entire income in my self-compiled education plan. In this
way, the ambivalent relationship of artistic and non-artistic work becomes
evident. The performanceas well as the documentation of this process
blurs the border between symbolic representation and economic reality.
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22.01.–25.01.19, Noticeably Unnoticeable, Heiligenkreuzer Hof, Vienna, ATphoto: Faksimile DigitalNoticeably Unnoticeable, 2019, video installation, stills 1
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Atopia2019, diasec, framed, different sizes
»The series Atopia portrays an extraordinary Romanian salt mine. Due
to the high salt content in the air, parts of the mine were converted into
a health-promoting leisure park for visitors. In order to make the time
underground as enjoyable as possible, games and sports equipment,
PC places, religious devotional images and bizarre-looking object
arrangements can be found there. Lisa Großkopf shows the rooms
depopulated, as absurd stages of human mise-en-scène.«1
text: Verena Kaspar-Eisert Atopia, 2019, diasec, framed, 50 × 60 cmAtopia, 2019, diasec, framed, 70 × 105 cmAtopia, 2019, diasec, framed, 50 × 60 cm
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WHAT IS LEFT 2018/19, oil on canvas, different sizes
»4cc91c6e1e6be2ba257331f04c6f7a35--oil-on-canvas after: Figures at the
Kibbutz belongs to a series of “conceptual paintings” created through
the following method: the artist went on Google image search and
downloaded several JPG images of Yohanan Simon’s famous “kibbutz
landscapes” which depict the members of the kibbutzim working in
the field and resting during Shabbat. After collecting several JPGs,
sometimes of the same painting, the artist herself digitally erased every
human presence from each and every painting and after that she sent all
the files to a painter in China who executed them with the new composi-
tion. This series, entitled WHAT IS LEFT, not only appropriates one of the
most iconic images of Israel’s “golden age”, it also analyzes, through
the role of labor and outsourced labor, how such ‘landscape’, and here
it must be taken metaphorically and playfully – what is left and what is
gone, what is left (wing) and what is right (wing) – has evolved over the
years, in Israel and beyond.«1
text: Nicola Trezzi12.12.19–01.02.20, Jonathan Monk – Exhibit Model Six, CCA, Tel Aviv, IL photo: Eyal Agivayev 2
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The Artist is Present 2018, performance, Kunstluft, St. Antönien (CH) 2018, video, 14’00
The Artist is Present was created during an artist residency in
Grisons (Switzerland). At the finissage I positioned myself at a
particularly busy spot on the art trail to paint the paint-by-numbers
painting Peaceful Mountain Landscape. The performance was a
response to the instrumentalisation of the participating artists by
the programme, which seemed to be in the service of local tourism
marketing. The (re-)production of the alpine cliché reaches a kitschy
climax and unmasks it as a projection surface of idyll.
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The Artist is Present, 2018, video, 14’00, still 1
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Alpenrösli 100%2019, wood, plastic, 10.5×14.8cm postcards (8×100 pcs), 180×75×35cm
Pictures that decorate the mountain inn Alpenrösli in Prättigau
(Switzerland) served as examples for an investigation of the Alps
as a space for imagination, emotion and images. Detached from
their natural habitat, they reveal the romantic view of the Alps. By
tagging the pictures using Google‘s artificially intelligent image
analysis, the romantic, kitschy landscapes are transformed into
sober mathematics.
09.06.–30.09.18, Kunstluft, kunstpfad, St. Antönien, CH1 1
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The Photo Studio2016 – (ongoing), installation, different sizes 2018/2020, diasec, different sizes
For the installation work The Photo Studio I turn the windows of vacant
shops into fictional photographic studios to display counter-hegemonic
queer imagery. Considering that shop windows of these studios usually
portray a traditional, heteronormative image of families and stereotypical
gender roles of men and women, I address and re-negotiate these gender
norms and present them side by side in the compressed space of the public
shop window.
The Photo Studio (Jägerstraße), 2018, diasec, 100 × 133 cm 1
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OPEN2016, national border sign, open sign 2017, diasec, 70×100cm
OPEN was a temporary site-specific installation, which I realized in
autumn 2016. This was about a year after many refugees crossed the
border between Hungary and Austria to (mostly) move on to Germany.
During these months in 2015, an unbelievable humane and respectful
treatment of these people seeking protection could be felt in parts of
Austria. This brief moment of humanity was followed by the closing of
the refugee route and other disreputable acts by the government of one
of the richest countries on the planet. By installing the inactive sign
Open at the national border, I would like to point out the ambivalence of
the border, which for some people can be crossed without difficulty, for
others it is an insurmountable border that separates not only the former
East from the West, but also the global South from the so-called First
World. By using a sign that is normally known from five-and-dimes,
I address the high expectations of refugees of the capitalism of the
“Golden West”, which often disappear into thin air soon after crossing
the border.
OPEN, 27.10.17 – 31.01.18, the smallest gallery, Graz, AT1
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#selfiextended2014, 120 photos, booklet, carpet, poster, website
#selfiextended was an installation addressing today’s selfie culture
in the time of social media. Installed on the walls of an open elevator
shaft, the installation picks up both content and formality of selfies.
The installation establishes relationships between amateur photography
and works of the Western art canon. The process of curating was done
subjectively and impulsively, imitating social media’s blogging culture
of spontaneous and individual image selection. The exhibition visualizes
the viewing of pictures on the Internet by means of spatial realization
in a lift shaft. Similar to scrolling a blog, the visitor quickly passes by
the pictures. The speed creates a wealth of stimuli reminiscent of the
accelerated pace of our time.
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#selfiextended, 18.10. – 2.11.14, Art University Linz, Linz , AT1
Lisa Großkopf
South Sea, Palm Trees, Curry Sausage
all mine
I should quit smoking
Kontakte Knüpfen
To Whom it May concern
sometimes I would prefer not to
Concerns of the 21st century
Noticeably Unnoticeable
Atopia
WHAT IS LEFT
The Artist is Present
Alpenrösli 100%
The Photo Studio
OPEN
#selfiextended