Markus Waitschacher | Artists in Residence | Kamov Residency

Photo: Alfred Lenz; Markus Waitschacher in: Alfred Lenz: untitled, viennacontemporary, 2020

• Biography
• The Project
• Organized by

• Markus Waitschacher

  Markus Waitschacher is an art mediator, curator and cultural anthropologist.
  His cultural anthropological research interests are the ethnographic turn in the visual arts, as well as questions of representational critique, both in ethnography and in the arts. His cultural anthropological practice focuses on urban research.

  Collectively with Adina Camhy, Coline Robin and Robin Klengel, he has brought out publications on various neighbourhoods and places in artistic-scientific research.

  He works as an art educator at the Universalmuseum Joanneum, where he is responsible for modern and contemporary art at the Kunsthaus Graz and the Neue Galerie Graz. On the side, he revises the publication of the art collection of the city of Graz together with Birgit Kulterer. They invite different artists to think about new and alternative forms of presentation of a collection.

  As a freelance curator, he works in various contexts, mostly site-specific and site-sensitive. Central moments of his curatorial practice are local phenomena, curiosities and legends, human and non-human relationships and the entanglements and connections of all this to larger histories.

  Markus Waitschacher has curated projects and exhibitions at Kunstverein Kärnten (Klagenfurt, Austria), Kunstverein < rotor > (Graz, Austria), Pavelhaus (Laafeld, Austria), bazament gallery (Tirana, Albania), viennacontemporary (Vienna, Austria), Centro de Desarollo de las Artes Visuales (Havana, Cuba) and Kunstraum haaaauch-quer (Klagenfurt, Austria).

  Since 2021 he is curator for visual arts at FORUM STADTPARK, an interdisciplinary art centre in Graz, Austria.

• Critical guide through the museum

  01.-17.04.2022.

  Markus Waitschacher is going to use his two-month stay as a curator-in-residence in Rijeka to create a ‘critical guide through the museum’. Putting an emphasis on the relationships between official and alternative narratives about the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, he examines how potential histories of the museum intertwine and communicate with its collections. With the foundation in his own transdisciplinary practice which resides on the intersection of art mediation, curating practices and anthropological approach, Waitschacher intends to carry out detailed research on the history of the MMSU’S collection, architecture and institutional structure. Along with interviews and discussions with the museum’s staff, artists from the collection and the museum’s visitors, Waitschacher will conduct ethnographic research in and outside the institution. The research results will be presented in analogue and digital forms.

  Markus will continue residency in Rijeka in July 2022.

  Residency is supported by the Cultural Department of the Styrian Regional Government.

• Museum of modern and contemporary art

  → www.mmsu.hr

  Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (HR) - MMSU

   

  MMSU in Rijeka founded in 1948, in its long tradition offers a committed support to innovative ways of approaching, producing and presenting art. From its very beginning the Museum has been building reputation of one of the most prominent visual art institutions in Croatia, entrusted with presentation of Croatian artists at prestigious international art events such as: Venice Biennial 1962, 1997, 2007, 2010, Sao Paolo Biennial 1967, 2004 etc. 

  The Museum rounds its programming around visual art education, parallel to different modes of exhibition concepts that address new discursive possibilities and transform it into a place of inspiration, idea exchange and active participation. Under the motto openness, creativity & engagement, together with artistic, cultural and community organizations, Museum furthers visual arts research, collaboration and exchange within the region and internationally, while aspiring to reach increasingly diverse audiences and to work in a close relationship with the community.

  Museum’s collection offers a diverse range of artistic visions with over 8,000 artworks dated from the end of the 19^th century to the present day. From 2017 Museum is located at new address, Krešimirova 26c, in ex-industrial complex Rikard Benčić. Since then, some important exhibitions were organized at MMSU in the framework of the pre-program and program of Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture, i.e. Tomislav Gotovac: Crisis Anticipator - Don't Ask Where We're Going (2017), Vlado Martek: Exhibition with Many Titles and Goran Petercol: Don't Worry About Poetics, They Will Arrive on Their Own in 2019 and David Maljković: With the Collection in 2020..