TAVOLATA – students´ works at our festival exhibition

Locations

Postsparkasse, GCP - Georg-Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna Floor 1, Department of Digitale Kunst

Mahdi Bakhshi with Golara Ghofrani, Yazdan Asadi, Reihaneh Kosari Mehr

a house occurs

Is the house simply an illusion caused by a defective memory and wishful thinking? The idea that the (past) is superior and easier than the (now) is always with me. If I could go back, would things be as I keep in mind them? In reality, we’ve probably all imagined a house for ourselves in the past, where we could seek sanctuary in many different situations. A residence that is not based on reality. But with this performance, I want to leave this home and explore the world outside of it. In this performance, a miniature house is created of papier-mâché, and the audience can see inside through the windows and follow my narration of the house using the (Pepper’s ghost) approach.

Margo Dubovska

To the one I was not let to become

to the one I was not let to become is showing a non-linear process of healing and coping with trauma of facing war by encoding personal experience of dealing with anger, grief, loss and despair into a mourning necklace, braided of fake hair from “I will find myself waiting” (2022). Dedicated to someone potentially (not) existing, the work is made using the technique of the hairwork, which was used 15-18th century to create mourning jewellery from the hair locks of a dead (and loved) ones.

Element Lee

FOLDING SCREEN

The word “screen” has multiple meanings. 1, a fixed or movable upright partition used to divide a room, give shelter from draughts, heat, or light, or to provide concealment or privacy. 2, a flat panel or area on an electronic device such as a television, computer, or smartphone, on which images and data are displayed.

This work uses both meanings to have the form of a traditional folding screen and the color of an electric LCD screen. It’s about the aesthetics of scales. From particles to celestial bodies, we the human living in between.

Isidor Forster

DiscForce

The project DiscForce explores the aesthetics and design of major shipping companies from a fresh perspective, staging shipping boxes as installations to underscore the ubiquity and symbolism of shipping packaging materials in our consumer society. The project critically questions the presence and impact of logos and design language of major online retailers, employing creative interventions to foster new perspectives. Additionally, it engages with the medium of print, particularly packaging, utilizing it as a medium for artistic expression and conceptual work.

Lea Gander

Bruxism: Synaptic Warfare

The installation Bruxism: Synaptic Warfare (2024) explores the landscapes of subconscious worlds and desires. A cloud, usually intangible, acts as a reflective surface, aiming to pierce the layers that obscure the true nature of dreams, bringing them closer to the material world. Longings, such as the desire to take a walk inside another body, are visualized on a display. What is typically used as a channel to the outside turns into a tunnel to the inside. Floating in physical space, the sculpture acts as a material manifestation and as a portal. Simultaneously, it symbolizes the stream of consciousness of others, which we can never fully perceive, and reminds us of the omnipresence of death and our proximity to it and deceased loved ones in subconscious states and realities.

Lea Gander & Matthias Sanoll

1/2/1

1/2/1 is a social experiment that blurs the boundaries between art, communication, and interpersonal relationships. Through the collaborative creation of a carpet speech bubble, a space for self-reflection, empathy, and connection is created, extending beyond the limits of physical togetherness.

Zita Kayser

Sound of Scrolling

At the centre of the installation is a smartphone that is controlled by a stylus. The stylus is attached to a rotation motor and can therefore only operate the smartphone on one axis (vertically). It scrolls monotonously down the infinite Instagram feed.

David Obradović

475 km bis nach Jasenovac

The stone flower memorial on the Croatian-Bosnian border in Jasenovac commemorates the hundreds of thousands of victims who were executed in the Jasenovac forced labor and extermination camp during the Second World War. After the collapse of Yugoslavia, the memorial was the scene of conflicts and political controversies in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. Its history is still being discussed and instrumentalized politically today.

David Obradović focuses his attention on the construction and meaning of the monument in order to remember his personal story and, like the Spomenik*, to find an identity in a new world. The installation reacts to the spatial and cultural difference between Vienna and the Balkans and connects childhood memories with today´s perception.

*Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian for monument

Alena Prinz

Crystal Comfort

In this piece, a chandelier takes center stage, adorned not with traditional crystals, but with rows of ibuprofen blisters delicately suspended from chains. Each blister, like a glimmering jewel, catches and refracts the light of the fixture, casting a soft, soothing glow. The artwork seeks to shed light on the commonly endured discomfort of period cramps, by playfully inviting viewers to reconsider the significance of such experiences.

Rage

Pseudomorphia

Three Egglike objects sitting in a nest on the floor. Within reside three creatures of extraordinary nature – a tardigrade, a pseusoscorpion and a lithobiomorphia. Their point of view is a blurred vision of the world, from the inside out and our view, from the outside in, is equally as blurry. The shell they exist in is made of an organic gel derived from different kinds of algae. They are made to break down quickly and leave no trace of their existence after a short period of time. The creatures inside are made out of hardened resin, a material engineered to withstand natural atmospheric circumstances. Like a fossil, the faux archeological findings represent the remains of the seemingly endless production of plastics. The objects are made in collaboration between the BioArt Lab and the 3D printing lab of the Digitale Kunst department.

Matthias Sanoll

Feedbackschleife

The auditory sculpture is made of unfired clay, a material that is raw, solid, porous, and thus possesses an inner resonance released through touch, sound, and vibrations. The clay disc bears the traces of its own creation and embodies the idea of natural imperfection and constant change. The built-in overhead microphone captures the rough texture of the clay and amplifies it through an amplifier in the structure. With each rotation of the disc, the microphone captures the sound waves from the speaker, amplifies the sound, and creates a self-reinforcing feedback loop.

Feedbackschleife symbolizes the constant exchange of ideas and opinions. It represents the process of listening and responding, which is crucial for the growth and development of individual and collective perspectives.

the Futile Corporation

covid test

A decidedly medieval achievement of the Covid pandemic was to normalize ramming a stick up your nose in front of other people. Secreting and handling bodily fluids got democratized. Sure you can take a nose swab on that park bench. Anyone can handle bio-hazard waste bags if they want to! Before these wonderful everyday experiences slowly fade from our collective memory, covid test puts them center stage one more time. Visitors can submit their bodily fluids to a fully automated digital covid test strip. Within a few seconds, the reusable test places them into an opaque (yet colorful) diagnosis that they can compare with their friends. Diagnostic fun for all ages!

Moritz Wunderwald

No Horse Zone

An autobiofictionally imprecise series of events watched through sore non-blinking, unblinkered, restlessly dissociating eyes while ghostly kin is lurking in the foreshadows. Even in the depressing stableity of a moldy homestead in doomed and hostile plains between the misty forest and the rotting ferris wheel, through the fever dreams and nightmares, a tiny spark cannot be extinguished. Imagine - have you ever had a dream that, that you, um, you had, you’ll, you would, you could do anything? Salvation comes – if you never give up.