At the end of January, Brigitte Kowanz surprisingly passed away at the age of 64. And so the new exhibition “ISTR” in the Linz Castle Museum unintentionally mutated into a posthumous tribute to the great light artist. Until the beginning of the year, she herself worked on the extensive installation, which has now been finalized according to her drafts. This artistic farewell of the light magician can be experienced from tomorrow, Friday.
For Kowanz, ISTR was the acronym of I Seem To Recall. And this thought, grounded in melancholy in the face of death, can now also be found in the first room of the show, in which four pillars are draped, each with a letter of the Morse code ISTR. As a result, a space of light and reflection that is so typical of Kowanz unfolds, a field whose boundaries are undefinable, into which the viewer reflects in multiple senses of the word.
In Linz, too, it can be seen once again that despite all the poetics in the design, Kowanz always viewed her oeuvre with humor. In Linz, for example, stylized emojis can be found as moon-like light figures. Linz is one of the places where the Viennese-born artist left shining traces. During her lifetime, she not only presented works at the Venice Biennale, but also developed more than 50 installations for public space. Since 2020, for example, large rings of light have greeted nocturnal viewers from the MQ dragonfly on the roof of Vienna’s Leopold Museum.
(SERVICE – Brigitte Kowanz “ISTR” in the Schlossmuseum, Linz, Schlossberg 1, from April 29 to July 24, Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. www.ooekultur.at/exhibition-detail/istr-i-seem- to recall)
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