YAM Val / Wave / Welle: Paris, Vienna, Jerusalem, Maribor by Claudia HIRTL and Christine LJUBANOVIĆ

YAM – Val / Wave / Welle: Paris, Vienna, Jerusalem, Maribor by Claudia Hirtl & Christine Ljubanović provides insight into the debut of the collaboration between Hirtl and Ljubanović that took place in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1996 — in the context of the International Theater and Performance Festival PHENOMENA. Over several years both artists have continued their project and have articulated their idea via different kinds of media and techniques.

KiBela Gallery shows YAM Leporello, YAM video book, the “impressit” book and the film “W”.

How it started:

1996 Invitation to the International Theater and Performance Festival PHENOMENA, Jerusalem (Israel) — Shared planning (lasting for six days) of a performance and exhibition —adaptation of the oeuvres: HIRTL / LJUBANOVIĆ (painting / graphic work) — Signs and Alphabets — Tempera painting “impressit”: Alphabets&Signs, Letters/Lands, original printing techniques, video “W” — Design for Space of Performance: YAM as synonym for Jerusalem: Ocean / Wave translated from the four dominant alphabets of the city: Hebrew, Arabic, Armenian, and Latin — Live Performance at Night: “Writing” via stencils and paint pigments — Live broadcast to an exhibition space of the Festival facility.

Content: YAM Artists Book as well as YAM Video Book is based on the concept of language and its many layers of meaning and communication.

The Exhibition YAM shows how interpretations (the term is used in its broadest meaning) of writing, form, color, and mixed media can deepen the understanding of a special place and its people. YAM Book / Leporello together with YAM Video / “impressit” capture a city and its culture of 4 languages and alphabets (Latin / Arabic / Hebrew / Armenian).

Each presentation of YAM with its two artistic statements – Book and Video – depicts an interactive actuality and its choice and particular decision of what can be seen, written and interpreted.

‘YAM’ and ‘impressit W’ juxtapose writing – Latin: yam = sea / wave, Arabic: bachr = sea / wave, Hebrew: yam = sea / wave, Armenian: zov = sea / wave – with original Garamont (Garamond) punch engraving and book-print history; a multi-layered presentation / interpretation of places, signs and traces of existence.

YAM (short-hand for Jerusalem as well as “sea” – wave) became by virtue of translations into other languages (the predominant four alphabets in the City of Jerusalem, Hebrew, Latin, Arabic and Armenian), signs, and alphabets, as well as associations a pictorial, gestural and textual medium.

The pochoir “painting” was performed live (by Claudia Hirtl) during five evenings, on a large, flat roof (stage) during the Phenomena Festival in Jerusalem. From a building balcony (Sam Spiegel Film Institute) opposite the roof, a camera transmitted the painting sessions by video-transmission onto a large-sized screen in the exhibition room, so the audience could also watch the evolution of the painting sessions “live” inside the Institute, and from the outside – balconies – like a stage performance (nighttime, spot-lights). The Christine Ljubanović video “impressit W” (4 min) video-loop (BETA SP) is projected on a smaller monitor in the exhibition room (hall), simultaneously next to the big screen. On the big screen, we saw the live-transmission of the painting-pochoir technique, and on the smaller screen – one other working process, registered (punch-engraving-hand letter press-history – Imprimerie Nationale Paris). On the floor of the room were two showcases, in one was displayed the colour pigments used on the particular day, in the other the bound book: “impressit” ALPHABETS&SIGNS, LETTERS/LANDS, by Christine Ljubanović.

The long and difficult preparation for the participation in the Phenomena Festival, with its on-site problems, roles played by various technicians, searching of materials throughout the city, and the consequent communication obstacles: all these, when taken together make YAM a complex project, a composite work produced by the multimedia community.

YAM – the artist books and the Video YAM function as a “medium of mediation”. YAM consists of connections and dialogues in and by means of 4 languages, signs, topographies, and countries (portrait of a city and country), all highly diverse materials as well as attitudes, communication and interpretation.

Claudia Hirtl, Austrian painter, works in Vienna.

www.hirtl.com

Christine Ljubanović, Austrian photographer and graphic artist, works in Paris.

www.c-ljubanovic.com

22 April 2011 – 4 May 2011

Opening: 22 April 2011 at 8 pm

KiBela / KIBLA Maribor

Kindly welcome! Admission free.

KiBela, Space for Art, is open every day 9.00 am to 10.00 pm, Saturdays 4.00 pm to 10.00 pm, and closed Sundays.

MMC KIBLA wishes to thank the following for their support: EU-EACEA, Culture Programme, Brussels, Slovenian Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Maribor and Office of Youth.

KiBela programme is part of the European X-OP project.