H13 2020: Julischka Stengele

Performance and award ceremony: THU, 03 09 2020, 7:00 pm
Exhibition: FRI, 04 09 – SAT 12 09 2020 (with works by Julischka Stengele and Magdalena Fischer)
Artist Talk: SAT, 12 09 2020, 01:00 pm

In 2020, the H13 Lower Austria Prize for Performance will be awarded for the 14th time by Kunstraum Niederoesterreich. The aim is to foster and showcase performative works and make them accessible to an interested audience. The artist Julischka Stengele is the winner of the H13 Lower Austria Prize for Performance 2020. In addition to the award-winning performance and the award ceremony on 03 09 2020, the project will be documented and expanded in the course of an accompanying exhibition, which will be shown from 04 09  - 12 09 2020 at Kunstraum Niederoesterreich.

Her awarded project BALLAST | EXISTENZ adresses the representation of certain social groups who are often framed as being a burden for both economy and society - especially since the Covid-19 crisis. Stengele focuses on the ongoing devaluation of those bodies who are not willing or unable to adjust to the overwhelming demands of capitalism today. She draws parallels between contemporary debates about productivity and worthiness and fascistic ideologies of the “healthy” productive body. She investigates how these ideological factors can play an important part in current discussions about the Covid-19 pandemic and so-called “high-risk groups”. Because in the end, it all comes back to one question: Who is dispensable?

The Artist

Julischka Stengele lives in Vienna and works internationally as artist, performer, writer, lecturer and curator. She studied Design, Photography, Fine Arts, Performance and Queer/Gender Studies in Berlin, Helsinki and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

Stengele describes her art as socially committing. Her work deals with the consequences of power mechanisms and stigmatization as well as with the possibility of emancipation through art. She works in various artistic media, nevertheless, her trenchant performative pieces are what the artist is known for. Furthermore, she also published the periodic column leib&leben in Austria’s feminist magazine an.schläge. Her works have been shown in more than 20 countries around the world and received numerous awards. In September 2019 Stengele directed the queer performance festival Femmes Against Fascism that took place at the Otto-Wagner-Spital in Vienna.

BARRIER-FREE ACCESS

Kunstraum Niederoesterreich is barrier free. The side entrance (on the left side in front of the courtyard) and the complete exhibition area are fully accessible on the ground level and suitable for visitors in wheelchairs. There is a public toilet for the disabled with barrier-free access and another gender-neutral WC are available.

Handouts with information about the exhibition are available on site in black writing (German / English). Most of the works in the exhibition can be experienced visually, some also auditory and tactile. There are mainly standing rooms, but there are also sitting and lying areas. Therapy dogs can be brought into the exhibitions. The exhibition is suitable for children and accessible free of charge. Attention is paid to Covid19 safety and hygiene measures.

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