“Problems” is the title of Philipp Timischl’s exhibition at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg. It appears to designate something as a frame that cannot be objectively grasped, but instead seeks to be individually charged and understood, while possessing trans-subjective validity. Even if the title lets one assume a „too much“ of personal intensity, the show is not about Timischl’s problems, but about problems in general, or the problem of having problems, and thus, if one likes, also about those of Philipp Timischl.

For the exhibition, he transforms the Halle fuer Kunst into a movie theater. The windows are darkened, a film is projected onto the front wall, with several benches or pedestals as seats. On them—as spectators, so to speak—are several flat-screen sculptures covered with furs and fabrics that have holes as faces and are thus personified. The fabrics in turn are covered with medical strips, patches, mends and/or seams indicating that something was or still needs to be fixed. “When shit is complicated you keep on going”, “World gone totally mad!” or “No Future” can be read on the patches (embroidered by the befriended artist Victor Lizana), hinting at what is or could have been broken; each entangled in their own world, in their own film, since different videos are playing on the flat screens. For example, two videos by YouTubers, who talk for hours to the camera or the unknown audience, as if it were a therapy session.

Therapy also seems to be the main theme of the projected film, titled „Problems“, which the flat-screen sculptures appear to be watching. It is thematically and formally embedded in the American series “In Treatment” that deals with the problems of psychotherapy patients and those of the therapist himself. Framed as an image inside an image of the opening sequence of the series—a blue, watery streak swirling across the screen—a dialog commences through the addition of various sequences from the series that do not lack urgency and intensity. However, due to the source material— originally ranging for example from events on an English estate in the 18th century (“Downton Abbey“) to the present in the south of the United States (“True Blood”)—, various actors and actresses and a wide variety of emotions the film is characterized by misunderstandings and abrupt subject changes.

While the motif of a psychological problem is condensed here, also by being projected diagonally onto a wall-size picture of a baby recognizing itself in a mirror, it also becomes apparent in another part of the exhibition. Canvases were placed over the five windows, each with one large letter of the exhibition title. Painted in a negative form, so that not the motif but the surrounding area is covered with paint, dim light enters the room through the letters. It looks a bit like frosted glass or a drumhead and is basically a sort of effect painting through which the problems flow in from the outside. Since the pictures were explicitly made to darken the room and therefore enable the projection of the film, they have an unquestionable mission—where art-making is otherwise often accompanied by the gnawing question: “What, how and why?”.

Programme

"Members guide" with Nele Wulff

Wednesday, 21 September 2016, 6pm

Screening

"RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 2"

Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Friday, 30 September 2016

Friday, 07 October 2016

Friday, 14 October 2016 (Finissage + Season Finale)

each 7pm

"Abgefilmt" Workshop for children and teenagers with Anna Prinz

Saturday, 24 September 2016, 11am - 01pm

For children and teenagers aged 8 to 14

Guided tour

Friday, 07 October 2016, 6pm

"Art and Cake"

Sunday, 09 October 2016, from 03pm

With generous support by Land Niedersachsen, Sparkassenstiftung Lüneburg, Lüneburgischer Landschaftsverband, Bundeskanzleramt Österreich Kunst und Kultur, Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung, VGH-Stiftung and Hansestadt Lüneburg.

Works by Philipp Timischl (*1989 Graz) have been presented et al. at Vilma Gold, London (2016), KW - Insitute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2016), Martos Gallery, Los Angeles (2015), Luma Foundation, Zurich (2015), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2015), Moderne Museet, Stockholm (2015), Kunsthalle Wien (2015), KM-K Künstlerhaus, Graz (2014), Galerie Emanuel Layr, Vienna (2014), Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt a.M. (2013), Serpentine Gallery, London (2013) and 21er Raum @ 21er Haus, Vienna (2013).