DFEWA MALLNITZ KÄRNTEN: D. FLEISS & EAST WEST ARTISTS RESIDENCY MALLNITZ 2011

www.bios-hohetauern.at/de/aktuelle-bilder.html

Exhibition Openning at BIOS NATIONALPARK MUSEUM MALLNITZ
http://www.bios-hohetauern.at/

THE DUO GERALD & CHRISTOPHER at the openning
( on the right side)
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Official music at the DFEWA RESIDENCY
http://www.guitarraazul.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XTAK0avUEw
special thanks to CameLia Deznan

OUR HOUSE :
http://www.kaerntnerhof-mallnitz.at/
special thanks to Madame Elisabeth Koch

D.FLEISS & EAST WEST ARTISTS
RESIDENCY MALLNITZ
October 2011

We were invited, and of course, we came, like creatures drawn by the season.
From across Europe and from around the World, carrying our materials and essentials, like autumnal seeds drifting on a wind of goodwill, impatient to settle, put down our
temporary roots and to flourish in a new garden.
And what a garden! I am tempted to say “...of Earthly Delights!”, but it was a good deal
more innocent and simple than Bosch's painting, though the Earth was very present and so were the delights.
Mallnitz is a delicious little sip of a town lying in a huge cup of mountains.
At this time of year the trees are turning yellow, orange, red, or fading to soft greys, but the grass is still green and lush, the air fresh without being sharp and the sunlight, which blessed us nearly every day, was warm and clear.
The hotel Kaerntnerhof where we installed ourselves offered warmth and comfort, a space to work and the services of the ever-smiling Helga and her team.
We had only to empty our bags, get on with our work and enjoy the surroundings.
Like many other artists I spend much of the time working alone, so it is somewhat curious to work alongside other people. Some years ago I would even have said it was impossible.
Now I look forward eagerly to the opportunity. Apart from the stimulus, the provocation, the encouragement of working in a group atmosphere, I recognise a certain tenderness which is hard to explain, a sincere sharing of some basic pleasure, like singing in a choir or eating with friends or giving a present.
We did more than spend time in the studio, of course. Dorothea had planned several “mystery” outings, to her sculptor friend Heinrich's house, where we sampled home-made bread, cured ham and schnaps, saw his work and where Giuseppe was unable to discover the secret of the wooden ball-puzzle! There was the visit to the Nature Park with its tumbling rivers, towering peaks, reassuring calmness – and its swings, which have been absent from my life for too long! Another afternoon had us ascending the stiff slopes at the end of a valley to an auberge, where we ate, drank and sang like an off-duty music-hall troop, till it was time to light the candles and weave back to the bus. Or the ride up the funicular railway to breathe air that was as fresh as the sky and look eye-to-eye at the mountains.
The evenings at the hotel were no less special. After the evening meal we would descend to the studio/cellar, perhaps someone would be there working already, probably music would be playing, there would be that job left-over from the day before that needed finishing, a glass of schnaps or a beer to be drunk, a dance to be danced, and may be not too much later, a new morning to be greeted – and may be it's today we are going to Venice, we shall all buy splendid honking pigs at a filling station and LiLi will get lost in the Arsenale!
Given this intense activity and without witnessing the enthusiasm and application of the participants, one could be excused for imagining a transient feebleness in the works produced during this residency, but no.
The exhibition, in the lecture hall of the superb Bios NationalPark Museum, and whose hanging was ably supervised by Elisabeth Koch, contraried this idea: the walls were hung with a variety and quality of work which affirmed the professionalism of the artists taking part and the choice of Dorothea Fleiss when she sent out the invitations, to East and West, North and South.
Which is why we responded as we did. Because a residency such as this is more than just the opportunity to meet people and pass a pleasant time together.
The results of this coming together were works which will help to enrich the texture of other peoples lives, and the seeds of this artistic flowering will blow away to take root somewhere else, encouraging the harmony we shared in Mallnitz.
For myself, I am more than grateful for the chance to meet so many wonderful folks; to everyone, and especially those responsible this residency, diolch i chi a nes i ni yn cyfarfod eto*, as they say in Wales! (*thank you and till the next time)
ANTHONY WHITE

WORKS AT THE EXHIBITION

SANDRA SHUMAN, USA

Buddha der Sakralen Geometrie

90x50 centimeter, Acrylic and collage on canvas, 2011

Artist's Statement:

Painting helps me transform the workings of my inner vision into outer reality.
Like meditating it's a form of spiritual concentration that generates inspiration and peace.
I have been working on a series of Buddha paintings over the last several years. This one, The Buddha of Sacred Geometry, reflects the intense experience of joy I had while working together with the other artists I met in the DFEWA Residency in Mallnitz this year. Like the image of the Buddha the connection to them lit up my soul.

BETH GIACUMMO, USA

KAMILA BEDNARSKA, Poland

MAGDA UCHMAN, Poland

ADRIAN VERTIC, Romania

Giuseppe Strano Spitu, Spain

Quescente (wood)

Heather Layton (USA)

Extract
84 x 60” (213 x 152 cm)
acrylic on canvas
2011

Pluck
84 x 60” (213 x 152 cm)
acrylic and fabric on canvas2011

ARTIST STATEMENT
Narratives regarding the relationship between humans and land are not new, nor is the awareness of the power struggle between nature and technology. Leonardo da Vinci was already bringing this to public attention five centuries ago when he painted the bridge and roads cutting through the landscape behind Mona Lisa’s shoulder. While I am not prepared to say whether or not we are more or less cynical today, I can confidently say that this damage is becoming increasingly irreversible and that our own footprint is one of a growing crowd leading down a path to the destruction of animal and environmental existence as we know it. These paintings are visual stories about the contemporary relationship between animals, land, and technology. Whereas, in many stories, machines and humans and inextricably linked, I imagine a scenario where the machines are sophisticated and independent enough to form their own team, ultimately turning upon the humans who once invented and controlled it.

ANDREIA SAMPALEANU, ( ROMANIA)

The works that belong to the last year have in the center the woman. It was one of my ways to discover myself as an artist and as a woman as well. I am looking for my lost and found “ego”, to my lost and found feminity. I’m discovering the woman through my works using selfportraits, portraits of the body of women shown in different poses, moments of time, surrounded by graphic signs, spots…My works show my dreamworld, full of illussion, a mix beetween inocence and perversion. I try to reveal my chamging moods. Each work represents a state of being motivated by the will of self/knoledge.

LIA DEZNAN, ( USA)

MICHAEL LISKA ( POLAND)

1 "After image Begining 100x100 acryl on canvas

2"After image Opening 100x100 acryl on canvas

3"After image Conclusion 100x100 acryl on canvas

ANTHONY WHITE, France

Title : “Loose”Size : 50 cms x 70 cmsMedium :
water colour pencils on Sennelier hot-press paper

Note: I wanted to do a drawing because I had never seen someone do a drawing at a residency - even though drawing is one of the basic disciplines. This way of drawing grew from my childrens interventions on my work! The subject is a knot, which I think of as an emotional interruption on a piece of string. But this is a loose interruption ...

Dorothea FLEISS & CAMIL MIHAESCU

Assistent VIRGINIA PISCOREAN

CREDO- A journey inside yourself
Installation - Video
by DOROTHEA FLEISS & CAMIL MIHAESCU

THE COLLECTION WILL BY EXHIBITED AT
ARTOUR GALLERY BRUSSELS, BERLGIUM 2011- 2012

LINHONG ZHAO & LI LI