Burning Angel

Performance Ignaz Kienast, Reinhard Halsmayr, Alfred Götzinger, Los ANGELes & Wiener Engel
photography / multi-exposures by Hannes Glaser

My soul takes photographs of other souls;
like my eye percieves the others eye
and my body touches the other one.
Touches, one above the other,
one beneath the other, interweaved in each other.
The light is shining for us in the dark.

Studio KulturAXE,
Thursday March 16.-Friday March 31. 2000
Opening: Wednesday March 15. 2000, 19.00
Welcome: Doris Weißmüller
Opening: Ernst Woller
Speech about the works: Prof. Angelica Bäumer

Within the districtwide angel project in march 2000 in Vienna 3 the KulturAXE art association presented the project CHERUB 2000 as interdisciplinary art action. Objects, music, photography and an opening performance with violin, angel and fire.
Ignaz Kienasts objects represent angels, (like his works “black angel”, “cherub”, “guardian angel”) made of wood, barrel parts and bronze. Hannes Glasers photography / multi-exposures originate from the project “Angels in Los Angeles” and from works in Vienna.

Performance BURNING ANGEL:

Ignaz Kienast: burnt angel
Reinhard Halsmayr: violin
Alfred Götzinger: pyrotechnics

An Angel will burn. Smoke starts filling the room, towards the “burnt angel”, creating a mystic atmosphere. Inside a cloud of smoke the violinist Reinhard Halsmayr steps at the angels side. As soon as the smoke vanishes and the violinist can be seen, the angel sets ablaze with electronic distant ignition. In this vera moment the violin starts to play. This mis en scene of burning sculpture, smoke and the rooms atmosphere inspire Reinhard Halsmayr to delicate improvisations and spontaneous compositions in harmony with the flames. Unique is the harmonic combination of violin, angel and fire, that arises an “associative sea of flames”.
The violins tunes set with the fires extinction.

There was much feedback after the performance in the MAK (museum of applied art), in the “Cairo Berlin Art Gallery” in Cairo and in the Ruprechtskirche, Vienna.

After the fires extinction the room will be lighted slowly with candles on heavy chandeliers, objects of Ignaz Kienast. In the room the art works representing angels get visible again and carry on the atmosphere. The performance may be repeated on this evening.

Presentation Los ANGELes & Wiener Engel
Photography and multi exposures by Hannes Glaser

... analog multi exposures ... a log ... sketches ... exchange of light and darkness ... Los Angeles
The works ANGELS IN LOS ANGELES (multi exposures in camera) originate from a working grant in Los Angeles. In the beginning of February 1994 37 photos were digitized together with a short biography in the E-Lab of the Center for Visual Anthropology at the University of Southern California, and fed to the internet on a fileserver.
“But angels are everywhere, especially in Vienna.” The works in Vienna were performed in the context of Viennas cultural history and trying to see angels as light objects.