A commission for a publication
7 double page images
Das Cathrin Pichler Archiv von RPU-Artaud-001 bis DAV-Plakate-029
Mark Pezinger Books
Images from the series © Pille-Riin Jaik
Leafing through RPU Cosmologies, one comes across numerous schematic illustrations of the cosmos, all of which have the arrangement of concentric circles in common. For Pille-Riin Jaik, this repetition of circular shapes, which lie on top of one another like layers, has an allegorical relationship to the archive and the methodological approach of Cathrin Pichler, which was shaped by her interest in epistemological reflections on the world and a philosophical positioning of humans in it, as well as their negotiation in culture and art. For “an itch in my eye”, the artist collected both the unconscious byproducts of these processes, as well as examples of very empirical procedures. She takes notes out of their context and arranges them in front of macro shots of different types of onion. Quick sketches that Pichler drew during interviews or on the phone stand next to complex calculations or long tables that are used to record survey results. Pille-Riin Jaik concentrates on fragments from RPU Cosmologies , RPU Sociology/Psychology and TS Notes by Cathrin Pichler. These reflect both Pichler's work as a curator and her early sociological research projects since the 1970s: countless notes on art and science, as well as those that cannot be assigned to a specific time or content; mathematical formula collections; documents for conducting sociological studies, for example on smoking behavior. The handwritten notes seem to move weightlessly - like fleeting fragments of thought, they appear briefly before disappearing again into the folds of the protective onion skin that surrounds them.
text written by Leon Hösl and Magdalena Stöger
BACKGROUND OF THE PUBLICATION
Magdalena Stöger und Leon Hösl invited five artists to interpret, rearrange, situate, and make visible (anew) the near 4,000 archival documents of the Cathrin Pichler Archive with reference to their own artistic-research practice. Over a period of several months, they worked with selected materials and compilations from the archive, they referred to it and to Cathrin Pichler in terms of content, form and structure.
The index of the near 4,000 archival documents of the Cathrin Pichler Archive extends across the entire publication. It conveys the character and diversity of the archived material and becomes the background noise of the publication, in which the artistic contributions and accompanying texts are embedded. Editorial notes, selected and extracted from the archive by graphic designer Astrid Seme, appear on some pages of the book as enigmatic commentaries. In addition to the contributions by the artists and an introduction by the editors, Martina Genetti and Magdalena Stöger have sketched a portrait of the curator and researcher Cathrin Pichler, which draws connections between her projects and research focuses exclusively on the basis of documents from the archive. In her afterword, the head of the archive Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein reflects on Cathrin Pichler, the practice of the “slow archive” and its significance for the publication Das Cathrin Pichler Archiv von RPU-Artaud-001 bis DAV-Plakate-029.
With contributions by: Nika Autor, Patrizia Bach, İpek Hamzaoğlu, Leon Hösl, Martina Genetti, Pille-Riin Jaik, Miriam Stoney, Magdalena Stöger, and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein.
Edited by: Leon Hösl, Magdalena Stöger, Cathrin Pichler Archive for Art and Sciences
The publication is available via the Mark Pezinger Books webshop and in the shop of the Academy's Paintings Gallery