14 Apr Projections / Re-Making Hügel, 2018

Workshop and exhibition

These workshops were conceptualised and carried out at the invitation of my friend and colleague Peter Haselmayer as part of a larger project of his own. Our project enters into a creative dialogue about imperial relations of gaze and power through artistic investigations and revises colonial Austrian constructions through artistic workshops with students from the photo and video class of the Bundesgymnasium XIII in Vienna, Austria.

The photos and videos (Encounter 1 and 2) of the exhibition deal with the theme of projection as a reference to the psychological meaning of the term. Our artistic idea was to re-make Hügel’s projections of inferiority onto non-Europeans. Re-make, however, not in the sense of a simple repetition of imperial power relations, but in the playful, creative process of creating photos through projections onto our bodies. In addition, two videos were shown at the exhibition in the video installation Encounter, which deals with the theme of engaging with the “other”.

The aim of both the workshops and the exhibition is to dismantle the false idea of the borders that separate us. A decolonial exercise that seeks to demonstrate that one can see better with one’s eyes closed.

This project was part of the Europe for Culture programme, European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 and won an honourable mention from the Austrian Ministry of Education and Culture.

Thank you Petz for the invitation.

Exhibited in: Projections in The District Museum Hietzing, Vienna, 2018.