Video installation by Lisa Spalt and Otto Saxinger
From the IPA – Institute for Poetic Everyday Improvement
Website: youtopia-plan.be
YOUTOPIA – Plan B
Atlas of a Utopian World
Opening: Thursday, March 9, 2023
Exhibition dates: March 10 to March 31, 2023
YOUTOPIA – Plan B is the result of intensive sessions of a special imagination training: Over two years, Lisa Spalt and Otto Saxinger interviewed people in Bucharest, Upper Austria, Vienna, Kassel, and Bielefeld about their utopian visions. The project was modeled on the letters of complaint collected before the French Revolution, which contributed to a last-minute change in the situation. The artists’ primary aim—to address complaints—was to counteract feelings of powerlessness by presenting solutions. In some cases, these solutions were fantastical. However, Lisa Spalt and Otto Saxinger always left the project with a sense of possibility and a desire to take action.
Photo: Reinhard Winkler
Photo: Reinhard Winkler
Photo: Reinhard Winkler
Otto Saxinger
Born 1967 in Kollerschlag, lives in Linz. Studied at the University of Art and Design Linz, Master Class in Experimental Visual Design. Recent projects include: 2015 film “Pension Cesky,” HD, 30 min; 2017 film “Ant Delirium” (based on a text by Lisa Spalt), HD, 29 min; “Tracing Clues,” public art project, Gallneukirchen Fire Department; publication: “X-RE Magazine,” Edition Kleine Brötchen, Linz; 2019 exhibition “Behind the Mirrors,” Galerie Kulturformen Linz; exhibition “X-Re Archive,” Galerie im Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg; “Rearview Mirror,” photobook, Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz 2020; 2021 exhibition, Landkreisgalerie Schloss Neuburg, Passau/Germany (with Michael Lauss). Public art project “Fire-Water-Wave”, Kollerschlag/Upper Austria; Public art project “EyesEarsMouth”, Gallneukirchen/Upper Austria. 2022 Public art project “Model Students”, Renner School, Linz; “Time Past in Time Present@Pula”, exchange project in Pula, Croatia (participation). Various projects on the green and utopian: “Houseplants”, Galerie MAERZ, 2008 (organization and participation); 2014 “Hanging Gardens”, Galerie MAERZ (organization and participation). Video installation “Youtopia”, presentations at the Literaturhaus Wien (May 31 to August 31) and at the Kunsttempel Kassel (from October 14). Awards: First prize in the competition for the design of the euthanasia memorial in Salzburg 1991 (rebuilt and redesigned after destruction in 2014). “Examples – Winners of the Upper Austrian Cultural Prize, OK, Linz, 1998.
Otto Saxinger und Lisa Spalt
Photos: Reinhard Winkler
Lisa Spalt
born 1970 in Hohenems, lives in Linz. Studied German Philology and Romance Studies at the University of Vienna. Works on action in language, images, and objects. The sole permanent staff member of the Institute for Poetic Improvement of Everyday Life (IPA), supervisor of the transformational form “Manisoft of Psittacism,” and editor of the “Edition kleine Brötchen” (Small Bread Roll Edition). Numerous collaborative works, including with visual artist Otto Saxinger (most recently the video installation “Youtopia / Plan B”, 2021), composer Clemens Gadenstätter (2017 “Daily Transformations”, “Wien Modern”, video by Anna Henckel-Donnersmark; 2019 Nero’s Lyra, Musée Kanal of the Centre Pompidou in Brussels; currently working on the radio play “Break Eden. Songs for Sirens”, commissioned by ORF) and the band “Die Ex-Gewichtsheberin” (“On the Wave of Frau Stöhr. Fictional Radio Play”, 2022). 2019 “Circle Line Project” with Theo Nabicht, Joke Lanz and Alexandre Babel: music and text on the Vienna Ring Tram, presented as part of “Wien Modern”; Robert Musil Scholarship 2019; Latest publication: Das Institut (Czernin, 2019). Recent awards: 1st Prize Floriana 2020, Outstanding Artist 2020, Heimrad Bäcker Prize 2021, Veza Canetti Lifetime Achievement Award 2022. “Green Hydra of Calembour” will be published by Czernin Verlag in spring.
