I is something else - group exhibition

24.10 - 22.11.25

Based on the famous quote by French poet Arthur Rimbaud, ‘Je est un autre’, the exhibition “I is something else” presents various artistic positions that focus on the self and forms of its articulation. In the tension between self-stylisation and self-destruction, the self-manifests itself through the artistic use of fictional biographical set pieces and social role models.

What constitutes identity? How is the self-defined in a social environment? These are questions that are being asked more urgently than ever before at the turn of the millennium. Manipulations made possible by brain research and genetic engineering, but also by the possibility of leading fictitious existences on the Internet, have radically exacerbated the problem of identity. This is particularly evident in aesthetics, where the self-evaporates into multiplied or manipulated identities.

The internet entices us with the complete dissolution of identity. To emulate the media world, we seek social acceptance, which exposes people to great psychological stress and constraints. We are willing to switch from one state to another. In doing so, the network connection overcomes all physical barriers and allows us to assume a wide variety of personalities. With their capacity for self-transcendence, people can think of themselves as something else. This gives rise to self-representations that conceal the real self.

In an age increasingly dominated by the media, the question ‘Who or what am I?’ is even more poignant. The problem of the individual, the subject or identity becomes a reality in the life of every human being. In particular, the latest possibilities offered by research and science as well as electronic media to change one's appearance have intensified the question of the self, its identity and self-image.

Sigmund Freud said that humans are by no means masters of their own minds but are determined and driven by the forces of the subconscious.

The mirror serves the purpose of self-exploration and self-awareness, but it only shows what is presented to it. This raises the question of seeing and not seeing, and of a lack of insight. The drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, created in 1558 and entitled ‘Elck’, meaning ‘everyone’ or “all”, has not lost its moral message even today. It shows several people searching in vain for themselves in the objects of this world – the distractions of life – and finally having to conclude: ‘No one knows themselves.’

Information technology and, above all, the recent proliferation of data networks have led to a radical intensification of the identity problem. In the visual arts, this manifests itself in a wide variety of different forms of expression. The contours of personality are being blurred by the invention of fictional identities and a whole arsenal of obsolete concepts. Francis Bacon already depicted a human body that tends towards the formless and morbid, transforming, dissolving, decaying and passing away.

Undoubtedly, the telematic world is characterised by lightness, transformability, universality, virtuality, hybridisation, etc. In the long term, it could modify and condition our perception to such an extent that our practical reality takes on the character of the unreal. If everything can be changed on the internet and simulation determines our understanding of the world, there is a danger that reality can be constructed according to taste.

The exhibition “I am something else” aims to explore different perceptions of the self through self-portraits by various artists. Self-portraits open the image inwardly and show us many approaches to depicting character, emotions and the influence of external circumstances. The genre of self-portraiture leads us to consciously reflect on the problem of personal and social identity.

Participating artists: Josef Kostner, Gothard Bonell, Klaus Rungger, David Moroder, Marko Kostner, Christine Runggaldier, Valeria Stuflesser, Anton Christian, Marlies Baumgartner and Fabrizio Senoner