Tag Archives: biennale

“Hadrian” at the Industrial Art Biennial

Lena_Lapschina_Hadrian_Labin

The 4th Industrial Art Biennial, curated by Paolo Bianchi and Christoph Doswald, is up and running, and so is my piece, a media installation of four video streams with sound. It’s called “Hadrian”, and it’s a road movie, and it’s “not about what happens on this journey, but what Hadrian experiences in his head” (writes Paolo Bianchi in the catalogue).

The project resonates with the biennial’s theme, “Landscapes of Desire”, which confronts the viewer with longings, hopes and dreams and is a space for thought and playfulness and a workshop for the future.

Hadrian, the main character, is ready to explore the meaning of life. He does not lack earthly luxury – nevertheless, one day he sets out in search of a better life. He makes an attempt to escape the previous version of his life. This demands all his strength.

Join Hadrian on his journey: “Landscapes of Desire” – 4th Industrial Art Biennial, Labin, Istria: 13 May – 30 June 2023 extended to 29 July 2023. At the Pijacal.

Those Were The Days: an AR-enhanced media installation

You see a display cabinet containing stranded goods, sand and eelgrass, the remains of a photograph, and a triptych painting on antique panels. Somebody has told you that the panels might be coated with short films, visible only through the lens of a smartphone. You hold your smartphone over the scenery, and things begin to move, and you can hear voices. Soon you’ll be lost in thought.

“Those Were The Days” is a brand new, augmented reality enhanced media installation. Exhibition views from Mdina Biennale 2020 on Malta.

Drive-by muralism: The viewer becomes the producer

When FDR, the biennial art project of the State of Upper Austria, commissioned me to do a series of six murals themed “Uninvited Guests” along Marchtrenk, I carefully shopped for benevolent walls. So I got this grainy-textured, worn-out façade at a crossroads in the very center of the town, which would become shelter for a work of particularly ephemeral character. Lit by the cars’ headlights by night, the scene depicted in the mural became vivid: For a fleeting moment, drivers could see a group of people, burdened with their personal effects, hiking across the village. Only a split second later, and they had already disappeared into the dark again. Technique: tape.

Biennale – yet again

It is a mosaic, it is a waymark, it is a tape painting, it is digital equipment – my piece for the Mdina Biennale, on the historic ground of Malta. When it catches sight of a smartphone, it comes to life, immerses visitors in an extramundane environment… To give it a try, go to see it on site: The mural is prominently located at the grand staircase of the Cathedral Museum, Mdina, Malta.

“Waymarks & Dialogues” at Mardin Bienali

“İşaretler ve Diyaloglar” (“Waymarks & Dialogues”) is a situation-specific work for the 3rd Biennial in Mardin. Here, on the verge of Turkey, in the northernmost part of Mesopotamia, I’ve met with people and listened to conversations in order to record the most contemporary words in the various languages of Mardin. These words I’ve mounted in the medieval part of the city, in the narrow 1. Cadde (1st Lane), starting at the massive walls of Mor Efrem Manastırı. Intertwined with a series of lightboxes, which hide in the tiny workshops along 1. Cadde, a mythological footpath is formed. Visitors can discover both their history – and their destination.