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.

© 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.

Great composers. Old, classic and contemporary music. Violin, cello, grand piano and synthesizer. Held in the high-ceilinged entrance hall of the Stadtforum and with the intimate acoustics of the concert hall. For the INN SITU series, we invite international photographers to the region to develop a new exhibition that reflects their encounters with the 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. We have commissioned Vorarlberg-based composer Johanna Doderer to devise the concert format in response to Bettina von Zwehl’s exhibition WUNDERKAMMER.

Due to the coronavirus situation, the concerts on September 23 and 24, 2020 were canceled.

Johanna Doderer

has been performed to great critical acclaim in the great concert halls of the world alongside classical and contemporary repertoire. After years of engaging with techniques found in contemporary music, she has found her own compositional language that fully encompasses tonality. It is loved and keenly interpreted by eminent artists all around the world. Her collaborations and friendships with outstanding artists, such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja – to whom she dedicated her own violin concerto – Marlis Petersen, Angelika Kirchschlager and the Signum Saxophone Quartet form the very essence of her work.

Opera is the main focus of Johanna Doderer’s work. She is currently working on commissions for the Wiener Musikverein, which will be performed in 2020 to mark the anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the Swedish O/Modernt Festival in Dalarna and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. In addition to works for chamber music orchestras, she has written several orchestral pieces. The premiere of Johanna Doderer’s latest opera Schubert’s Travels to Atzenbrugg (Schuberts Reise nach Atzenbrugg) is taking place during the 2020/2021 season in Munich. The work has been commissioned by the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz. Peter Turrini wrote the accompanying libretto.

The Ensemble

© Victor Marin Roman

Gabriel Meloni, piano

Gabriel Meloni is the winner of several competitions. In 2012 he won the third prize at the international “Jenö Takacs Competition” in Burgenland, as well as a third prize at the international piano competition “Nuova Coppa Pianisti” in Osimo (IT) in December 2019. He also won several first prizes and special prizes at the national competition “Prima La Musica “. He has already taken part in the “Vienna Young Pianists” masterclass in Vienna three times, where he won the interpretation prize twice and the Munich piano podium prize once. In October 2015 he took part in a master class with Lang Lang at the Wiener Musikverein, 10 out of 350 children worldwide were chosen for this camp. He attended other master classes with Paul Gulda, Pierre Réach, Michel Béroff, Pavel Gililov, Cristina Karajeva, Arnulf von Arnim, Ian Fountain and Ruben Dalibaltayan.

© Sebastian Kocon

Ádám Jávorkai, cello

“What the cellist got out of his instrument bordered on wizardry.” (Festival der Klänge, Vienna) He has performed as a soloist or chamber musician at many prestigious venues, including the Tokyo Opera City, Vienna’s Musikverein and Concert Hall, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Philharmonie Luxembourg. He was granted honorary membership of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation by Baruch Tenembaum in 2014 for his work against discrimination and for promoting international understanding. Ádám Jávorkai plays a cello made by Antonio Stradivari in 1701.

© Georg Schiessler

Sándor Jávorkai, violin

The globally renowned violinist has been awarded first prize in numerous international music competitions for his profound musicality and virtuosity. He plays first violin with the Mozarthaus Vienna String Quartet and was granted a scholarship at the Herbert von Karajan Centre in Vienna. The artist was jointly awarded the title “Artist of the Year” by Jeunesse Vienna with his brother Ádám. He plays a rare violin made by Pietro Giovanni Guarneri (Pietro da Mantova) in 1696.

© Patrick Doderer

Patrick Doderer, synthesizer

Patrick Doderer attended a sound engineering course at the SAE Institute in Vienna. In 2015, he wrote the music score for the series Juwele des Landes by Georg Riha (ORF III, ARTE). He has also produced two music films with Sebastian Kubelka (2017). The artist primarily focuses on film editing, sound synthesis and collaborating with live musicians, combining electronic, film and contemporary music.