Silke Otto-Knapp, questions of travel

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This publication accompanies parallel exhibitions by Silke Otto-Knapp in two contrasting locations: Fogo Island, Newfoundland, and Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz, Vienna. The selection of works reflects the differing influences of rural and urban settings, highlighting the relationship between art and its contexts. The exhibitions raise questions about the tensions between nature and culture, serving as a backdrop for the artwork's activation. Included are essays by Susan Morgan and Vanessa Joan Müller, along with a conversation between Otto-Knapp and Nicolaus Schafhausen. Müller examines the tensions in Otto-Knapp's work as integral to its experience, while Morgan discusses three key influences: cultural geographer J. B. Jackson, avant-garde dancer Anna Halprin and landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, and poet Elizabeth Bishop. In his dialogue with Schafhausen, Otto-Knapp describes the exhibition as a "theatre situation" that exists both separately from and engaged with reality. The viewer, as an activating element, embodies the reality of the artwork's engagement. The project title, 'Questions of Travel,' is drawn from Bishop's poem of the same name, which is included in the catalogue. Exhibition dates: Kunsthalle Wien - Karlsplatz, Austria (12.3.-25.5.2014) / Fogo Island Gallery, Canada (16.4.-31.8.2014).