Hello Pal, Imitation of Life
This publication presents and contextualizes the current Austrian contribution to the most important of all international art exhibitions. In his work, Mathias Poledna deals with connections between art and entertainment culture, modernism in architecture and design, the language of cinema and the history of exhibiting. His works are characterized by a rigorous examination of the medium of film and the function of images in the present and past.
In recent years, they have mostly taken the form of extremely concentrated filmic installations with diverse references to the culture of the 20th century. Poledna's new project finds itself in this field of tension and follows his artistic process, which is characterized by both continuities and deliberate breaks. The publication, designed by the artist in collaboration with Martha Stutteregger, contains contributions by the curator and commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion Jasper Sharp, the cultural scientist Diedrich Diederichsen and the professor of political aesthetics Esther Leslie.