From wall drawing to logbook. Works commissioned by the evn collection
As a corporate collection, the evn collection, which has existed since 1995, acts as a mediator between the company and contemporary art. Being in no way restricted thematically, its selection of works offers an opportunity to link subjects of social and artistic relevance to issues concerning the company. We perceive art as an inspiration and exchange of ideas, meant to facilitate and elicit communication. In this, we make use of various options. Besides the acquisition of works of art that are created outside of the company’s context and integrated into the corporate environment both figuratively and literally, our commitment to art also takes a different course: artistic concepts or individual works are conceived with the company in mind. They are commissioned and developed for the company’s self-interrogation before they are presented to the public. Entrusting artists with the production of such works puts the way we view ourselves into perspective and allows us to approach our inner structures in unprecedented ways.
History has shown us that the results of how commissioned artists deal with our company may differ. The evn collection owns four important works that are to be viewed against this background.
Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing (1998) at the EVN Customer Center in Wiener Neustadt immediately relates to the historical and contemporary architecture surrounding the building. Franz Pomassl’s sound installation Volume (2002) at the Theiß power plant near Krems is aimed at the perceptual apparatus of visitors: they perambulate ranges of high and low frequency at the very production site of electric power. In 1997, Hans-Peter Feldmann compiled a documentation in black and white photography of the EVN AG’s supply area in Lower Austria. His volume of photographs Ein Energieunternehmen, austerely and distinctly depicting spatial situations and work processes, as well as private impressions, is a reflection of the company’s social infrastructure. The artist’s perception has been made available to all EVN stakeholders. Now, ten years after it was made, this publication constitutes a historical portrait of the company. |
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Over this past decade, EVN has changed – its advance to an energy supplier operating on an international scale is convincingly attested to by its share in two electricity-supply companies in southeastern Bulgaria. From the company’s perspective, Hans Peter Feldmann’s volume Ein Energieunternehmen can thus be regarded as a role model for the present DVD, in terms of both intention and function.
The starting point for the project realized by Lisl Ponger (born in Nuremberg in 1947, lives in Vienna) and Tim Sharp (born in Perth/Scotland in 1947, lives in Vienna) was a desire to look at the company’s changing environments from a different point of view. Ponger and Sharp, who only work together on special projects for certain periods of time, are critical observers. During their search, they have found things long forgotten and detected what has been hidden.
The very title of the project by Lisl Ponger and Tim Sharp, Logbook 2006/2007: A Bulgarian Journey, points to two essential thematic components. On the one hand, it calls to mind such famous travel books like Goethe’s contemplative Italian Journey (1786–1788) – a collection of essays that primarily served the author as a means of self-introspection. It is also reminiscent, though, of Michel de Montaigne’s descriptions of the customs and habits in the Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy by Way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581. On the other hand, the term “logbook” creates a contrast to these literary allusions. Logbooks are used in medical surgery, radio communication, large-sized industrial plants such as power plants, as well as in navigation, aviation, and space travel. They contain accurate chronological descriptions of daily routines and work processes and are of a documentary nature.
The way in which Lisl Ponger and Tim Sharp, in their work Logbook 2006/2007: A Bulgarian Journey, have dealt with the “EVN country” of Bulgaria combines both aspects: literary and descriptive elements as well as empirical data.
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