Heimspiel 2024

Dates and Events at Kunstraum Dornbirn

Press Preview
Wednesday, 11 December 2024, 10:30 a.m.

Opening
Thursday, 12 December 2024, 7 p.m.

Artist Talk
Friday, 13 December 2024, 2 p.m.
with Katharina Fitz, Ursula Palla, Judith Saupper and Lucie Schenker

After-Work-Tour
Thursday, 6 February 2025, 6 p.m.

Family afternoon: guided tour and open studio
Saturday, 22 February 2025, 2-5 p.m.
with Christa Bohle, for adults with children around 6 years old, in German
free of charge, registration until 18 Feb 2025 at  office@kunstraumdornbirn.at

Artists at Kunstraum Dornbirn

Katharina Fitz www.katharinafitz.com
Ursula Palla www.ursulapalla.kleio.com
Judith Saupper www.judithsaupper.com
Lucie Schenker www.lucieschenker.kleio.com

Overview of the exhibitions and openings in Switzerland:

Friday, 13 December 2024
Official opening “Heimspiel” at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen
Opening of Kunst Halle St. Gallen

Saturday, 14 December 2024
Opening Kunsthaus Glarus

Sunday, 15 December 2024
Opening of Werk2 Arbon

For more information on the exhibition venues and events as part of “Heimspiel”, please visit www.heimspiel.tv

“Place and Space – Heimspiel 2024” at Kunstraum Dornbirn

As part of “Heimspiel 2024”, Kunstraum Dornbirn is showing under the title “Place and Space” sculptural works by four artists of different generations: Katharina Fitz, Ursula Palla, Judith Saupper and Lucie Schenker. Arranged in groups of works, the sculptural and installative approaches are placed in an exciting dialogue in the open architecture of the historic assembly hall.

One condition under which the exhibition was developed was unusual for Kunstraum Dornbirn: the conceptual basis for “Heimspiel” and all exhibitions curated within its framework has a geographical component. Participation was based on the applicants’ relation to the designated countries and Swiss cantons.

The second condition of the exhibition is fundamental to Kunstraum Dornbirn: its particular exhibition space. In the historic assembly hall, with its surround lattice windows, natural lighting and climatic conditions, the architecture itself becomes a determining factor for the selection of artists and their respective works. Kunstraum Dornbirn’s programmatic specialisation in expansive installations and sculptures is derived from its space and is particularly exciting when the exhibiting artists enter into dialogue with the architecture and allow it to take effect in their work.

Fitz, Palla, Saupper and Schenker deal in various ways with places and spaces in different contexts, such as their individual and socially relevant use and definition. Through their work we have to do with the spheres of both urban space and natural space and our role in them. From the studio as a place of production, we move to the institutional exhibition space and the question of how space can be physically filled, shaped and restructured through works of art. It is a question about both what is concretely localizable in place and space and their fictional momentum, about the existing or newly constructed relationship between nature and man, and always about the search for a concrete form of the elusive or unsayable.

All four artists develop their sculptural forms and languages in diverse and highly independent, sometimes contradictory ways – for example, fact-based or subject to the pure aesthetic experience of space. These artistic approaches skilfully master the various aesthetics and can complement or comment on each other. The exhibits’ craftsmanship, their conceptual quality and consistency, make visiting the exhibition a pleasurable experience that can expand and reorient our view of the often abstract concepts of “place and space”.

The four artists’ works are briefly presented below.

“Heimspiel 2024”

For the third time, Kunstraum Dornbirn is taking part in the cross-border exhibition format “Heimspiel” 2024, which offers a platform for artistic creation in the field of visual arts in Vorarlberg, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the cantons of Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Appenzell Innerrhoden, St. Gallen, Thurgau and Glarus.

“Heimspiel” is an established cross-border exhibition format at the Four-Country Point, in which the participating cantons and countries join forces to make local contemporary art visible. Institutions with an international focus open their programmes every three years for group exhibitions with artists who have a connection to Vorarlberg, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the five cantons of Eastern Switzerland. The artists are invited to present their work by submitting a public call for entries in March 2024.

Five cultural institutions will be showing juried and curated exhibitions from the portfolio of applicants from 13 December 2024. In addition to the Kunstraum Dornbirn, which is taking part in the initiative for the third time, the exhibition venues are the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen and the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, the Kunstmuseum Thurgau’s Webmaschinenhalle Werk2 in Arbon and the Kunsthaus Glarus. The renowned and the new, the established and the experimental alike, have their place here. There will also be an “open studios” weekend, during which all participating artists are invited to open their workspaces to the public.

The exhibition cooperation is intended to foster encounters, networking, communication and international exchange. The programme of Kunstraum Dornbirn focuses on extensive spatial installations and environments created by national and international artists, which are usually specifically designed for and produced in the space. In “Heimspiel”, we depart from this programmatic focus.

The sponsors include the Appenzell Innerrhoden Cultural Office, the Appenzell Ausserrhoden Office for Culture, the Glarus Main Department of Culture, the St. Gallen Office for Culture, the Cultural Promotion City of St. Gallen, the Thurgau Cultural Office, the Liechtenstein Cultural Foundation, and the Vorarlberg Culture Department.