Josef Dabernig

Sports grounds and structural approach

14.1. – 5.3.2011

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Josef Dabernig
Sports grounds and structural approach

14. Jänner bis 5. März 2011

Eröffnung: Donnerstag, 13. Jänner 2011 19 Uhr

Fotografieren bedeutet für Josef Dabernig, sich einer Differenz über die wiederholte
Befragung der Konstanz zu vergewissern. So nimmt der Künstler in stets gleich
bleibender Dramaturgie Panoramen von verwaisten Sportplätzen und Stadien auf. In der
Regel steht er dabei an der Mittellinie und schießt aus freier Hand mittels Kleinbildkamera
drei Aufnahmen nach links und drei nach rechts, die aneinandergereiht ein Halbrund von
180° beschreiben. Im Zusammenhang mit Panoramafotografie rückt Dabernig in einem
Text die leeren Zentren in den Mittelpunkt seines Interesses: „…The centres are empty
and a potential dramaturgy is shifted to its margins. The virtually missing plot is probably
the main motive in my work and is related to the idea of desire and expectation. The
productive significance of the void might have different reasons, for me it is essentially a
lack of content. It is like the precise construction of nothing, very clear in form, very
open in meaning.” 1

Josef Dabernigs Fotografie richtet sich so gesehen in einem Zwischenraum von
struktureller Präsenz und inhaltlicher Flüchtigkeit ein. In seiner nunmehr zweiten
Ausstellung in der Galerie Andreas Huber versucht der Künstler ungeachtet der
konzeptuellen Schärfe eine narrative Vielfalt innerhalb seiner Sportplatzpanoramen
nachzuweisen. Darüberhinaus sind die acht in Brasilien (2009) und der Ukraine (2010)
aufgenommenen Bildfolgen in ein ausdifferenziertes Verhältnis mit skulpturalen
Exponaten (1987, 1991) und der filmischen Arbeit „Herna“ (2010) eingebettet. Dabernig
intendiert damit einerseits diesen Panoramen skulpturale und filmische Referenzen
zuzuschreiben, andererseits Fotografie und Film vor dem Hintergrund seiner Ausbildung
als Bildhauer einem erweiterten skulpturalen Szenario zuzuordnen.

 

1 Florin Tudor im Gespräch mit Josef Dabernig, “The domesticated spaces of the new arenas”, in
Football and the Public Sphere, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu (Hg.), Cluj: IDEA, 2011 (in Kürze
erscheinend).

Josef Dabernig:
Sports grounds and structural approach

January 14 to March 5, 2011

Opening: Thursday, January 13 7 p.m.

For Josef Dabernig to make photographs means to ascertain a difference in the repeated
inquiry of consistency. Thus, following a uniform dramaturgy in most cases, the artist
makes panoramas of abandoned sports grounds and stadiums. As a rule, he stands on
the middle line and with a 35mm camera makes three freehand shots pointing to his left,
and three to his right. Placed next to each other, these picture a 180° semi-circle. In a
recently published text in the context of panorama-photography, Dabernig highlights the
void centres as his focus of interest: „…The centres are empty and a potential
dramaturgy is shifted to its margins. The virtually missing plot is probably the main
motive in my work and is related to the idea of desire and expectation. The productive
significance of the void might have different reasons, for me it is essentially a lack of
content. It is like the precise construction of nothing; very clear in form, very open in
meaning.” 1

Viewed in this way, Josef Dabernig’s photography constitutes itself in an intermediate
space between structural presence and contentual volatility. In his second exhibition at
Galerie Andreas Huber, the artist attempts to establish a narrative variety in his
panoramas of sports grounds, despite their conceptual severity. In addition to this, the
eight photo sequences taken in Brazil (2009) and in Ukraine (2010) are presented, in a
complex setting, showing relations to sculptural objects (1987, 1991) and Dabernig’s
cinematic work „Herna“ (2010). On the one hand, Dabernig intends to attribute
sculptural and cinematic references to his panoramas; on the other hand, due to his
education as sculptor, he wants to associate them with an extended sculptural scenario.

1 Florin Tudor in conversation with Josef Dabernig, “The domesticated spaces of the new arenas”,
in Football and the Public Sphere, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu (ed), Cluj: IDEA, 2011 (forthcoming).