APRIL 29 TO
OCTOBER 4, 2015
SUSAN PHILIPSZ
WAR DAMAGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS (PAIR)
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is delighted to present a new work by
internationally-acclaimed artist Susan Philipsz, commissioned specifically for
the Theseus Temple in the Volksgarten.
For more than two decades Philipsz has worked with the medium of sound,
exploring its sculptural and psychological potential in relation to specific
sites, and its ability to reimagine historical narratives. She has rearranged and
performed in her own voice popular melodies, folk songs and ballads, and
reconstructed emotionally-charged historical compositions using a range of
different instruments. “Sound,” she has said, “is materially invisible but very
visceral and emotive. It can define a space at the same time as it triggers a
memory.”
Her new work produced specifically for the Theseus Temple, titled “War
Damaged Musical Instruments (Pair)”, presents recent recordings of a pair of
nineteenth-century trumpets. Once played by a signaller in a cavalry regiment
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, they would have called soldiers to retreat or
advance into battle. Both instruments were damaged in combat, and are
today preserved in the collection of the Münchner Stadtmuseum in Bavaria.
They have not been played for more than 100 years.
Through identical speakers suspended from the Temple’s barrelled ceiling, we
hear a series of faltering, hesitant sounds. Single notes gradually build into a
pattern of sound that fills the room. The tune that emerges‚ almost
unrecognisable, is “The Last Post”, a well-known military call that signals to
soldiers wounded or separated on the battlefield that the fighting is done, and
provides a sound for them to follow to find safety and rest.
With this work, part of an ongoing series of such recordings made over the
last few years, Philipsz has produced a soundscape of memory and loss that is
in keeping with the violent, militaristic history of the Temple: both its
location, the Volksgarten, a public park created on the ruins of the city’s
ancient fortifications that were destroyed in 1809 by Napoleon’s forces, and
Canova’s portrayal of Theseus in heroic combat with the centaur.
This is Susan Philipsz’s first solo exhibition in Austria. It is curated by Jasper
Sharp, and generously supported by the Contemporary Patrons of the
Kunsthistorisches Museum and the British Council.
CONTEMPORARY ART
AT THE THESEUS
TEMPLE
Beginning in 2012, the museum initiated a new series of exhibitions within
the Temple, a neo-classical structure built by court architect Peter von Nobile
in 1823 to be the home for a single work of then-contemporary art: Antonio
Canova's white marble masterpiece “Theseus Slaying the Centaur”. For
almost seventy years this artwork stood alone inside the building, until in
1891 it was moved to the newly-completed Kunsthistorisches Museum where
it still stands today. More than a century later, these exhibitions have
returned the Temple to its original purpose: to house remarkable artworks by
contemporary artists, one at a time.
Artists who have previously exhibited at the Theseus Temple include Ugo
Rondinone (2012), Kris Martin (2012), Richard Wright (2013) and Edmund
de Waal (2014).
BIOGRAPHY
SUSAN PHILIPSZ
Susan Philipsz was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1965. She trained as a
sculptor and received her MFA from the University of Ulster, Belfast, in 1994.
Her works have been presented in solo exhibitions across the world, and at
major international arts festivals including Skulptur Projekte, Münster (2007),
the 55th Carnegie International (2008) and dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel (2012).
They have also been acquired for the collections of the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum, New York, Tate, London, the Hirshhorn Museum and
Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Museum
Ludwig, Cologne, Castello di Rivoli, Italy, and the Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis. She was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize in 2010, and
currently lives and works in Berlin.
HISTORY OF THE
THESEUS TEMPLE
Pietro Nobile (1174-1854, Vienna’s foremost Neo-Classical architect)
designed the Theseus Temple in 1819-1823 for Emperor Francis I as part of
the new layout of the Volksgarten. These major building works were
necessary because the French army had razed the city’s fortifications in front
of the imperial palace when they withdrew from Vienna in 1809. Initially
devised as a private park for members of the imperial family, it was later
opened to the public, becoming the first imperial public park. Since 1825 it is
known as “Volksgarten” (people’s park).
The Theseus Temple, a neo-classical copy of the Theseion in Athens, was
conceived to house a single contemporary artwork: Antonio Canova’s
celebrated Theseus Slaying the Centaur, a seminal neo-classical group.
Antonio Canova (1757-1822, a leading representative of Italian neo-classical
sculpture) is also credited with devising this unusual building. In 1890,
Theseus was moved to the main staircase of the newly-built Kunsthistorisches
Museum, where it remains today.
The crypt beneath the Theseus Temple was accessed from a no longer extant
sarcophagus-shaped side entrance; it initially housed part of the imperial
Collection of Antiquities. From 1901, finds from Ephesus were shown in the
temple’s cella (i.e., the inner sanctum); today they are displayed in the
Ephesus Museum in the Neue Burg. Later the cella served as a venue for art
exhibitions staged by the Academy of Fine Arts and, from 1992, by the
Kunsthistorisches Museum. Totally refurbished in 2008-2011 in collaboration
with the Bundesdenkmalamt, the facades of the Theseus Temple are once
again painted with a dazzling polished lead-white. The newly-installed
electric lighting has turned the Theseus Temple into an elegant highlight of
the nighttime skyline comprising the impressive Hofburg complex and grand
buildings along the Ringstrasse.
The bronze statue “Young Athlete” (1921) in front of the Theseus Temple is
by Josef Müller.
Conservation Work on the Ceiling of the Theseus Temple
In the winter of 2014/15 the coffered ceiling of the Theseus Temple was
extensively restored. The Bundesdenkmalamt began by analysing the paint
layers to identify the ceiling’s original polychromy; then an expert analysed
the stucco to identify and record damaged areas. The results of these two
analyses formed the basis for the conservation work (consolidating loose
rosettes; reproducing missing pieces; isolating water damage; removing old
paint layers and applying a new layer of whitewash paint) that returned the
ceiling to its original state.
PRESS PHOTOS
Press photographs are available in the press section of our website free of
charge, for your topical reporting: press.khm.at.
Susan Philipsz
War Damaged Musical Instruments (Pair)
2015
Two-channel sound installation
Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, and Galerie
Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
© Photo: KHM-Museumsverband
Susan Philipsz
© Photo: Ken Adlard
Natural Trumpet in D#
(pair)
Bavaria, second half of the 19th century
© Photo: Münchner Stadtmuseum
Natural Trumpet in D#
(pair)
Bavaria, second half of the 19th century
© Photo: Münchner Stadtmuseum
Theseus Temple
© KHM-Museumsverband
Theseus Temple
Illuminated by night
© KHM-Museumsverband
Restored ceiling of the Theseus Temple
2015
© KHM-Museumsverband
Restored ceiling of the Theseus Temple (detail)
2015
© KHM-Museumsverband
Theseus Temple, cross section
Drawing by Karl Schmidt (1825)
after the design by Pietro Nobile (1820)
Vienna, Albertina, Architektursammlung
© Vienna, Albertina
Antonia Canova
Theseus Slaying the Centaur (1804–1819)
The statue at its original location in the Theseus Temple
Vienna, ÖNB, Picture Archive
© Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
ARTIST EDITION
Artist edition produced for the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Susan Philipsz
Untitled (Pair)
2015
Heliogravure print on handmade Zerkall Bütten paper
56.5 x 40.5 cm
Edition of 50 + 10 artist proofs
Purchase price: € 1.300 (incl. VAT, excl. framing and shipping)
Please contact [email protected] or +43 1 525 24 4035
to purchase the edition
PRESS CONTACT
Ruth Strondl, MAS
Communication & Public Relations
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
Burgring 5, 1010 Vienna
T +43 1 525 24 – 4024
M +43 664 605 14 4024
[email protected]
www.khm.at