Tag Archives: media installation

“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.

Some seldom shown pieces reunited for open studio show

During Vienna Art Week, I had a mini-show in a twelve-room apartment aka the Viennese studio. Old friends, like my neon sign “Girls wanted”, the pizza-boxed video series “17 Sekunden Kunst”, the Wittmann-manufactured cushions “Art-Free Territory” and the Mercedes-Benz tribute photo series “Communication”, joined forces with brand new stuff, like the installation “Curators’ Water”, the light-boxed photo series “Some things that long time do not exist” (Duratrans, light-box, crank), the xerography-inspired, Teheran-produced work “Role Models” (edition: 1), the photographed alphabet “Trees and poets, citified” (Dibond) and the post-future of painting series “Stuff”. Visitors also got a chance to preview the video series “Message to the World” while hanging out at the bar, and to engage in the participatory media installation “Get Fit With Dr. Lapschina”.
N.B.: “Thank you” to everyone who made this exhib possible, and especially to Mario Codognato for more than an hour of questions and answers.

Confessions of a media artist

A Viennese off-space, basically a shopfront composed of eighteen identical shop windows, is home to my latest media work of art. With “Propaganda”, I’m showing honour and reverence for the city’s great past in shop architecture.

The installation indeed is begging for the attention of passers-by, like any good window-dressing – but purely to bewilder them. Thanks to 5832 LED lamps switched at a speed of 30 cycles per second, I put visitors into a trance-like state, leave them in this state for a minute, and then slowly start to enlighten them as to what this is. The word “PROPAGANDA” appears, in glowing capital letters. And a confession: “LENA LAPSCHINA”. Smoke. Loop.

On view every day through Feb. 28th from dusk to midnight.

Note to conservators: This media installation uses 18 off-the-shelf Cielos Move LED panels, 5 Video Control Units, approx. 100 m of Ethernet wire, and a portion of Zumtobel-proprietary software.


“Propaganda”: 25 metres of shop window present the media installation to passers-by.


Please tap or click on any photo for a full-screen experience.

How artists can improve your work-life balance

For my recent show in the Tyrolean capital Innsbruck I married interior design with work-life balance with art. The blend was called “Einrichtungsberatung” – essentially a system of interior design and visual arts theory and therapy.

The installation, at Schauraum für zeitgenössische Kunst und Design, assembled work related elements – like the filing cabinet “Ordnungshalber” – and stuff for having fun – like the video work “The influence of alcoholic drinks on the social intercourse of the intelligentsija” (a piano-inspired TV-rack, a 56′ film, TV and DVD) – to an out-of-this-world living room.

Although I resisted to bring some of my paintings, the mansion was fully equipped with distinctive Lapschina-isms.

Ready to roll: “Ziel erreicht”

It apparently arrived from outer space. “Destination reached,” a monitor is breathing monotonously. It’s unclear if the message ever will be decoded.

A new piece – actually a three-channel video installation with sound.

Lapschina_Ziel_erreicht
“Ziel erreicht”
media installation
2013
[exhibition view, Kunsthalle Exnergasse at the WUK, Vienna]

Art en gare: An installation that never sleeps!

The Walloon capital Namur plays host to my solo show “Before I Start II”. Given the extraordinary location – it’s at the Central Station – I decided to make a monolithic installation which responds to the 24/7 opening hours.

New additions to “Get Fit With Dr. Lapschina” video series premiered in the Americas

The MUTE – Museo Municipal Tecleño – is currently presenting my very new video installation “Get Fit With Dr. Lapschina”. I had the chance to transform three halls into a parade ground (or a gym, depending on your point of view). Visitors are bewitched by the possibility to grab simple tools or fancy stuff and reenact in realtime what they are seeing on the screen.

Meant as a comment on the zeitgeist, the videos discuss public health and literacy, gadgets and glamour.

The series, which has significantly enlarged since a first preview at Zorzini Contemporary in 2012, currently consists of seven channels. Requirements for showing: a silent projector or a big plasma TV, good stereo speakers and a subwoofer.