The artist duo NICOLE SIX and PAUL PETRITSCH tests out spaces, situations and archives on their own bodies or conceptually in experimental arrangements, performance, film or photography. The starting point for their work in Buchberg was a comprehensive investigation of the space with regard to the castle’s axes, including a topographical exploration of the building’s surroundings.

With recourse to photography in a ‘concentrated, closed setting’ (SIX/PETRITSCH), the artists ultimately condensed their broad experimental area and combined it with camera obscura, a technique that is over 2,000 years old. They installed a camera obscura in darkened rooms in four places in the castle that faced north, south, east and west; the picture entering from outside – mirrored and upside down – was superimposed over the interior space and on the one hand revealed ascertainable, technoid-like details, while on the other hand producing pictorial, poetic moments that SIX/PETRITSCH captured as photographs, which are now spread across three rooms of the castle. In the pictures, the expanse of the exterior space appears to correspond to the seclusion of the interiors; similarly, the camera obscura was formerly considered a private space for retreat and observation of the world, which entails huge experimental potential.

(Text by Susanne Neuburger, inYesterday, Today, Today, booklet on the exhibition, Kunstraum Buchberg 2018)

Installed in the context of the exhibition Yesterday, Today, Today, curated in cooperation with the mumok − Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Buchberger Sommer 2018 [Buchberg Summer 2018]

www.six-petritsch.com