Bettina von Zwehl
WUNDERKAMMER
Photography

23th September 2020 until 13th February 2021
Cut-out #10, 2020, Gelatin silver print, 30 × 40 cm
© Bettina von Zwehl
23th September 2020 until 13th February 2021

For this series, INN SITU invites art photographers to produce new work in response to the region of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. Before Bettina von Zwehl’s exhibition, Carlos Spottorno and Guillermo Abril turned the BTV Stadtforum into a walk-in comic with their reportage exhibition, which was a cross between a graphic novel and a photo story comprising images of the border between Austria and Italy in Tyrol.

After focusing on this portrait of a political landscape, we shift our viewpoint towards the institution of the museum, a paradigmatic focal point of European culture, which lies at the heart of Bettina von Zwehl’s work.

 

Eye portrait (Madeleine), 2012, C-type print, 41 × 31,5 cm
© Bettina von Zwehl

Collect and conquer

Ambras Castle in Innsbruck is the oldest museum in the world and holds the only Renaissance Chamber of Art and Wonders (Kunst- und Wunderkammer) of its kind to have been preserved at its original location. The collection that was systematically created by the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand II marks the beginning of the modern museum in Europe.

Making-of of the exhibition WUNDERKAMMER by Bettina von Zwehl
Editing, camera:
Thomas Osl, STUMMLAUT Tonstudio.

Bettina von Zwehl focused her attention on the subjects of history, architecture and the collections at Ambras, however, she also looked for another way to link the various themes in situ through her collaboration with a group of students from a specialist grammar school in Innsbruck, who she has used as subjects for her work. The museum as an institution and the strategies applied to portraiture as a process are the two main strands of the artist’s work. Both areas of focus have produced new works of art for INN SITU, which can be viewed in the exhibition and in the accompanying publication.

The museum is therefore seen as a repository in which the history of the portrait and its various aesthetic manifestations are memorialised. The viewer is taken on a journey through cultures, dynasties, religious movements, ideologies, different forms of presentation and visual techniques. Furthermore, the museum represents the dominance of the discourse of power in society that centres on who is portrayed, and on who or what is left out.

At the periphery of drawing and sculpture

Working in the studio represents the artist’s interest in the interaction between photographer and model. Bettina von Zwehl experiments with various compositions and the degree to which they lean towards control or freedom. For example, when the Innsbruck students activate the camera by means of a wire and decide when they want the shot to be taken themselves or when the children are photographed holding and caring for a live snake.

Bettina von Zwehl’s Wunderkammers are her studio and darkroom. This is where her brilliantly crafted prints are created, alongside razor-sharp miniatures, negatives as a three-dimensional material exposed to light at differing levels over several weeks as well as perfectly adapted passepartouts. The work is often developed in a meticulous fashion, but can also be ripped or cut in a spontaneous way: in other words, created and destroyed. The photographs begin to transcend the boundaries of the medium and to transform. Silhouette portraits move towards drawing, whilst cut outs lie at the periphery of sculpture.

Bettina von Zwehl

is a visual artist who works predominantly with photography and installation. After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London, she focused on the interaction between photography and portraiture. Renowned internationally for her profile portraits and silhouettes, she has completed several residences around the world, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Freud Museum, London, and the New York Historical Society Museum and Library.

Her work is exhibited in a number of collections, amongst them the Solomon R. Guggenheim Collections, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Arts Council Collection, London, the National Portrait Gallery, London and the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. The artist lives and works in London.

R.E.T. Brassband
DIE VERWERFUNG
Music

Finissage:
7th of August 2022,7 p.m.
Free entrance
© RET Brass Band
©
Finissage:
7th of August 2022,7 p.m.
Free entrance

The opening week in April with exhibition opening, concerts and dialogue could not take place due to the corona lockdown. An occasion for us to end this extraordinary INN SITU project with a finissage in the BTV Stadtforum.

R.E.T Brass Band
THE FAULT LINE
Concerts

Two short concerts in response to the exhibition of 30 minutes each.

The artistic director of R.E.T. uses the special acoustics of the foyer and concert hall in the BTV Stadtforum for a special sound experience.

For everyone interested:
Guided tour of the exhibition before the concert with the two Spanish reporters Carlos Spottorno and Guillermo Abril and the artistic director Hans-Joachim Gögl. The tour takes place in English.

 

INN SITU
music and photography in dialogue

For the INN SITU series, we invite international photographers to the region to develop a new exhibition that reflects their encounters with Tyrol and Vorarlberg twice a year. At the same time, for each exhibition we invite outstanding musicians and composers from Tyrol and Vorarlberg to stage a new concert which resonates with the photographer and his or her work. R.E.T. Brass Band, conducted by Andreas Lackner, will prepare a programme resonating with the graphic novel on the border between North and South Tyrol by Carlos Spottorno and Guillermo Abril. The region has a vibrant brass music tradition of excellent quality in both the north and the south. R.E.T. Brass Band stands among the leading ensembles of this music genre.

This time the concert format in response to the graphic novel over the border between North and South Tyrol was taken over by the R.E.T Brass Band under the direction of Andreas Lackner. The region has a lively brass music tradition of exquisite quality in both the north and south. The R.E.T. Brass Band is one of the leading orchestras in this genre

Due to the corona virus situation, we had to cancel the concerts scheduled for April 1st and 2nd, 2020.

Review of the Finissage

© I. Ascher
© I. Ascher
© I. Ascher
© I. Ascher
© I. Ascher
© I. Ascher
© I. Ascher
© I. Ascher
© I. Ascher
© I. Ascher

Three formations, three locations

The dramaturgical response to crossing borders in the exhibition by Artistic Director Andreas Lackner is captivating: in the course of the concert, R.E.T. Brass Band moves through three locations in three different formations. The programme starts with a short concert in the square in front of BTV Stadtforum with all members of the roughly thirty-strong band. Later, there is a smaller ensemble in the building’s foyer, and finally a fading-out in the form of a chamber music quintet in Ton Halle.

R.E.T. Brass Band

Founded in January 2014, this Tyrolean band has set out to perform sophisticated brass band literature at the highest level. Already in the first year of its foundation, the ensemble won its first Austrian brass band competition and represented Austria on a European competitive level. Moreover, it is important to R.E.T. Brass Band to promote young professional brass players in Tyrol. To this end, the Alpine Brass Band Academy was founded. Approximately 50 children and young people immerse in the brass band world on the grounds of Stams Abbey every summer. In 2019, the young musicians of R.E.T. Brass Band brought the European Brass Band Championship title from Montreux to Austria.

MOUNTAINWORKS
Dialogue

5 October 2018, 7 p.m.
BTV Stadtforum Innsbruck
Free entrance
5 October 2018, 7 p.m.
BTV Stadtforum Innsbruck
Free entrance

A scholarly take on the exhibition, for the artist. Dialogue with Konrad Kuhn, specialist in the cultural history of the mountains, film historian Christian Quendler and Melanie Manchot. With musical commentary by Siggi Haider (accordion) and Juliana Haider (saxophone).

New Formats for Discussion and Reflection

The dramaturgical triad of the INN SITU series is always rounded off by an accompanying dialogue. Personalities from academia, mainstream culture and music are invited to provide their responses to the exhibition and we experiment with new discussion formats.

Each of the three speakers will select a photograph from the exhibition and discuss it with the photographer. Free-flowing dialogue with music, reflecting different points of view, inspired by Melanie Manchot’s exhibition.

 

Konrad Kuhn

Christian Quendler

 

Musical Commentaries and Summaries

Siggi Haider

Iris Krug

Juliana Haider

About INN SITU