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22 April 2024
Fashion.at remembers the immersive experience of Chiharu Shiota's art installations at the Venice Biennale and in Krems, and previews the upcoming made from 25 dresses at the Ebensee Concentration Camp Memorial Gallery.
Image: Fashion.at generated the picture showing a (fantasy) map and a red thread illustrating the journeys from Vienna to Venice, Krems and Ebensee with AI, Copilot on Bing.com, powered by DALL-E 3, on April 22, 2024.
Fashion.at has seen many impressive works of art over the decades since the magazine went online for the first time in the summer of 1996 under the URL it was named after. And the magazine has published numerous articles about artworks and exhibitions. But there is one artist whose work impressed every time it was seen, but who was never mentioned for an explicit work. The first time Fashion.at experienced one of the immersive installations by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, who was born in Osaka in 1972 and lives in Berlin, was at the 56th Venice Biennale Arte in 2015, where she presented the work 'The Key in the Hand' in the Japan Pavilion, showing two boats and red yarns, which were woven or network-like with entwined golden keys placed in the exhibition space. This combination of keys and boats triggered a firework of associations, such as opening doors to unseen rooms or navigating through a world without borders. The limitless atmosphere in this pavilion was breathtaking and shouldn't be limited by words in an article. It seemed as if the visitors were experiencing their own individual stories connected to the triggering artwork.
The second time Fashion.at entered a space with an installation by Chiharu Shiota was in Krems, Austria. It was a coincidence, because Fashion.at was there for another exhibition at the state gallery of Lower Austria, the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich. The art installation called 'Across the River' involved visitors in a story based on the geography of the Danube. This time, the boats were traditional Zillen used in Austria on lakes and rivers, and instead of keys, pages of maps of the river crossing different countries were intertwined.
Now, the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024 has sent out information about the opening of the upcoming exhibition of Chiharu Shiota's installation 'Where Are We Now?' at the Ebensee Concentration Camp Memorial Gallery. The press release and preview texts describe the artwork as addressing profound themes of human existence, particularly the expression of memory through everyday objects. In the Ebensee tunnel, Shiota's installation features red ropes intertwined with 25 larger-than-life dresses, referencing the atrocities of National Socialism. These garments, suspended amidst the red ropes, evoke a sense of veiled presence and provoke contemplation on concepts such as memory and existence. On https://www.salzkammergut-2024.at/en/projekte/chiharu-shiota-2/, Shiota says of the project: "In my installation, the dresses are surrounded by red cables. The blood vessels are normally inside the body, but they are outside in my installation. They keep the dresses captive and protect them as well. I often ask myself about the servicing of ourselves and of society. Why is it so ambivalent that we need each other and yet have to protect ourselves from each other?"
It's announced that the installation invites viewers to reflect on their own interpretations and emotions, fostering a feeling of "presence in absence."
Well, Fashion.at plans to be present. Visitors have the chance to experience the installation from April 27 to September 30. Closer information about opening dates and the location are published on www.memorial-ebensee.at.
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