Book presentation

28.01.2019, 7 pm

A performative reading by Veronika Burger (editor, artist), Elisabeth Kemeter (lampshade designer), and Katharina Brandl (curator, art historian, and artistic director of Kunstraum Niederösterreich) in the course of the exhibition ‘If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t.’ by Sophie Dvořák and Andrea Salzmann. The book is interested in the diverse linguistic forms of (non-) archiving of women’s living and working situations. In particular, the publication focuses on the correspondence (emails, interviews) that emerged in the process of realizing the installation ‘even if the lights go out, there is still light’ (2016-17) by Veronika Burger and draws attention to the former working environment of the Viennese lampshade maker Elisabeth Kemeter, who made two light blue lampshades in 1989 for the James Bond movie ‘The Living Daylights’. These lampshades were cut out of the final version of the movie, their original patterns no longer exist. In contrast to the seemingly complete and hegemonic history, fragmentary is used as a strategy and narrative form in this artist book. The publication is intended to depict a cross-generational line of women who have passed on crafts and knowledge to each other. Their self-image is due to their craft, not to the arts and was denied publicity in the present and the past.