For the exhibition "be dramatic ...", the painter Martin Schnur is embarking on new paths and taking a different approach to the art world: he selects, compiles, curates and tastes. The result is a compilation of works whose connection is to be found in the human person or their actions; often "dramatic", the human figure mostly alone, sentimental, fragmented or simply turned away from the world. "Our generation is shaped by film and television. As a result of this imprint, we are very familiar with impressions of human appearances or zoomed-in sections of the human body." Following this basic idea, Martin Schnur has put together seven positions.
Photography, which comes closest to the medium of television, is represented by three positions: Tracey Emin, Mahir Jahmal and Werner Schrödl.
In her work "I've got it all", Tracey Emin shows herself, unsparingly. Sitting on the floor in a haute couture dress by Vivienne Westwood, she spreads her legs and reveals ... of money! Coins and banknotes pile up and she grabs the "filthy lucre", because as bluntly as she draws attention to herself, she proclaims: "Money is sexy. Anyone who says it isn't is either lying or has never had any." The enfant terrible of the British art scene presents herself in her usual open-hearted and provocative manner.
Mahir Jahmal uses two-dimensional photography to enter space. He creates his photographic works in an expansive manner by literally crumpling up their basis and unfolding them again.
In addition to a large new photographic work, Werner Schrödl is showing his installation "loaded gun" from 2010, in which the visitor looks down the barrel of a loaded and cocked weapon, protected "only" by armoured glass.
Sonja Gangl, who will have a solo exhibition at the Albertina from October 2013, uses photography as a template for her precise drawings. Coupled with the play of the display case and the associated link to the medium of film, the viewer hopes to catch a glimpse of a sex orgy. However, the sudden onset of light as they approach the work denies this view ... The lovemaking can only be glimpsed from a distance: "be dramatic ..."
Manfred Erjautz also follows this exclamation when a lascivious-looking brunette with the words "white zombie" printed on her head stands on his veiled mannequin, while the member of the veiled man points erect in her direction.
Martin Schnur himself is showing pastel works in the exhibition he has put together. The painter, known for his figures, presents deserted landscapes: rocket shots and snapped trees - all set against a dramatic, painterly background.
Only Robert Muntean's position is even more open in his treatment of colour. His paintings appear almost abstract, are fragmentary brushstrokes and the figure appears only softly and lightly in this flood of painterly action, which also seems to dissolve the person at the same time. Pure painting in the interplay of abstraction and figuration.
What they all have in common is the lack of conversation and loneliness. Each character, each position stands on its own, dialogues with itself and remains intimate, sentimental or even extremely dramatic ...
