wiss. Mitarb. Mag.art. Michael Kargl
Michael Kargl, born 1975 in Hall, Tyrol, is an artist who lives and works in Vienna. Since 2016 he is an artistic researcher and co-leader of the project Originalcopy—Post-Digital Strategies of Appropriation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, financed by the Austrian Science Fund’s program for artistic research (PEEK). Since 2015 he mentors students in the MA program at the Department of TransArts – Transdisciplinary Art there. From 2006 to 2014 he was head of the interdisciplinary class at the Vienna Art School and from 2004 to 2006 he taught at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg in the Department of Fine Art, Arts- and Handicraft Education. In 2004 he completed his studies in Salzburg with an MA thesis on virtual architecture and cyberspace with a main focus on studies of sculpture. In his artistic practice, Michael Kargl interrogates the standardized modes of art perception. Starting from architectural conditions, he uses site-specific settings to question how spatial structures evolve into formal criteria of ordering, and how the standards of presentation in art institutions — especially the White Cube as an allegedly neutral white cell — ultimately configure the spectator’s perception. Additionally, in his artistic reflections he focuses on the experience of primary systems of ordering, whether they are principles of virtual or actual space. He challenges the viewers to grapple with the requirements of art, the parameters of its production, presentation and reception, and also with the institutional mechanisms on which the operating system is based that yields art. The artistic practice of Michael Kargl includes net art, sculptural objects, and installations as well as a transmedia area of activity, shaped by minimalism and conceptual art.
Michael Kargl has participated in exhibitions at various art institutions including the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Bogotá (2014), the Moscow Biennial (2011), and the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (2010). He was cofounder and a member of the collective CONT3XT.NET (2006–2012).
Contact
Office Hours: By Appointment
Phone: +43-1-71133-3551 (secretariat)
Email: michael.kargl[at]uni-ak.ac.at