Austria with Mathias Poledna

The artist Mathias Poledna will represent Austria at the Venice Biennale in 2013. At a press conference today in Vienna hosted by the Federal Minister for Education, Arts and Culture Claudia Schmied, the selection was announced by Commissioner Jasper Sharp. Poledna will present an exhibition of new work in the Austrian Pavilion.  Born in Vienna in 1965, Mathias Poledna has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2000. His work examines the interconnections between art and entertainment, modernity in architecture and design, the language of film, cinema and the process of image making in our culture. Often informed by extensive research, his projects of recent years have taken the form of minimal and highly evocative film installations that suggest a complex tension between their visceral attraction and concepts circulating around them. Poledna’s work is represented in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; MUMOK, Vienna; and the Generali Foundation, Vienna, among others.  Federal Minister for Education, Arts and Culture Claudia Schmied: “I am delighted to have appointed Jasper Sharp, a young art historian and curator with extensive experience of Venice and its Biennale, to be Commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion in 2013. In his engagement with Austrian art and artists he brings an informed and international perspective. With the selection of artist Mathias Poledna, Jasper Sharp has prepared the ground for the Austrian participation at the 55. Biennale di Venezia, and has chosen an artist with broad, interdisciplinary attributes and a distinct artistic language reflecting culture and its history.”  Commissioner Jasper Sharp: “Mathias Poledna has, for a long time, been recognised within Austria as one of the most gifted artists of his generation. In recent years his work has gained significant institutional recognition on a more international level, with museum exhibitions in both Europe and the United States. I believe that it is the ideal moment for him to take on the challenge of Venice, and together with the team, I look forward to work with him to develop his project for the Austrian Pavilion next year.“  To accompany the exhibition in the Austrian Pavilion, a landmark publication examining Austria’s participation at the Venice Biennale from 1895 to today is currently being prepared. This scholarly, 400-page book will present, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of each individual exhibition, with the help of previously unpublished photographs, plans and correspondence drawn from public and private archives in several different countries. The book will be launched in May 2013.

Office of the Austrian Pavilion La Biennale di Venezia 2013 Schleifmühlgasse 1, 1040 Vienna www.labiennalevenezia.at

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Mathias Poledna, artist Solo exhibitions include: Secession, Vienna (2013); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2012); Galerie Buchholz, Berlin (2012); Raven Row, London (with Florian Pumhösl, 2011); Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (2010); Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2010); New Museum, New York (2009); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2007); Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2006); Richard Telles Fine Art (2005); and MUMOK, Vienna (2003). Recent group exhibitions include: the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Warsaw Museum of Modern Art; Musée Rodin, Paris; Secession, Vienna. Poledna also participated in the Yokohama Triennial (2008); the Whitney Biennial, New York (2006); the Liverpool Biennial, Tate Liverpool (2004); the 3. Berlin Biennale (2004), and Manifesta 1, Rotterdam (1996).

Jasper Sharp, commissioner Jasper Sharp (born 1975) is a British art historian and curator. He worked from 1999-2005 at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, and has lived in Vienna since 2006. He is Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, where is currently preparing exhibitions of the work of Joseph Cornell, Ed Ruscha, and Lucian Freud. He is an advisor to the Outset Contemporary Art Fund and curator of the talks programme for the inaugural Frieze Masters in London in October 2012.