Dani Gal: Vienna, 2019

Curated on behalf of Blood Mountain Projects

Dani Gal, Fields of Neutrality, 2019 (32 mins), still © The Artist & Galerie Kadel-Wilborn

Artist-in-Residence
Vienna, Austria

October to December 2019
Organised by Blood Mountain Projects
In partnership with Vienna Wiesenthal Institute

Dani Gal investigates how personal and collective histories and memorisations are produced, selected and carried through time and space by means of intense research and the examination of historical visual, written and audio documents, in dialogue with current political occurrences and cultural narratives.

The artist reconstructs and reconfigures pre-existing documentary materials in his video and sound installations through subtle re-appropriations to emphasise collective histories and personal stories, which have fallen prey to oblivion and await the attention of historians and other cultural commentators. The artist pays special attention to re-adapting historic sources of language and sound into performative environments: emphasising the circumstances of the source’s production, cultural relevance and thus creating new connections between historic materials and contemporary cultural contexts.

During a production-based residency in Vienna, Gal conducted primary research at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute’s historical archives for origins of post Words War Two and contemporary nationalism in Austria. He was the first artist to take part in its reputable fellowship programme. He also participated in a number of public events in Vienna and Budapest, which greatly extended the knowledge and reception of his practice in the region.