Since late 2013 many different positions of contemporary art production in the expanded Styrian region have been shown in the exhibition format Raum D in the exhibition space of the same name, located in the basement floor of the Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien. The series, Starting from Hystyria, which always includes the production of a fanzine, will be continued with "IMAGE PACKAGE", a presentation of current photographs by the artist Christina Tsilidis.
In her explorations of myths and their construction, Christina Tsilidis (born 1976 in Graz, lives in Vienna) prefers to use photography and video. The Vienna-based artist studied at the Meisterschule für Photographie at the Höhere graphische Lehranstalt, Vienna, and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, before receiving her diploma from the Viennese Akademie der bildenden Künste, having studied under Eva Schlegel. Tsilidis is not only interested in what lies behind the creation of media myths, but she also researches motifs depicting the widespread longing for ersatz realities and escape from the here and now of everyday life. Employing precision, persistence, and meticulous detail, the artist attempts to see through and behind the facades of an artificial reality created by media, film, television, and advertising. Our everyday, media-saturated lives, the world of consumerism and commercialism surrounding us, the general mobilization of media, and the illusionary techniques of western civilization are all starting points for her elaborate works of art. Givens are taken up, abstracted, altered, and then placed in a new context with expanded opportunities for reflection. In her exhibition "IMAGE PACKAGE" her staged photographs of packaging materials create intriguing analogies between motifs and the means and materials used to elaborate them in photography. The resulting change in meaning becomes the core of the artistic statement made by a kind of conceptual photography that always takes into consideration the social context of photographic images in every analysis of the medium.
Exhibitions (selected)
Staged Mimicry, BSA, Eyes on - Monat der Fotografie Wien / Vienna; Ubik Space, WUK Project Space, Vienna (2014)
The Exposure Award Show, See.Me NYC gallery, NY City (2013)
Raum Linksrechts, Hamburg (2012)
MAK NITE Lomography 25 Anniversary, MAK Wien / Vienna; rewind/fast forward, Neue Galerie, Graz (2009)
Galerie Hilger - Siemens Art-Lab, Vienna (2008)