Brigitte Konyen: Between Fact and Fiction
© Brigitte Konyen: Installation view: "all or nothing", 2017
Artist Statement
My artistic practice comprises mostly of photographic images which I never consider as an end product but as material for further appropriation. In addition to dealing with my own biography and examining components as memory and time, I intend to raise questions concerning the informational value of photographs and the common structures of perception.
At first the process of appropriation is a destructive one, as for example in my photo-weavings or in my montages of small-torn photographs, I see this as an important act to create something new. The digital deconstruction and reconstruction of photographs is part of this practice.
One of my key themes is the complex nature of memories. For this I often revert to my private archive in order to recreate my own realities. Memory is an artificial and vague construct, shaped by forgetting, repressing, selecting, reinterpreting and forming. Sometimes I take these facts to the extreme and create longed for versions of memories as in my series "Une enfance (im)possible avec mon père“, where my father is suddenly present throughout the different stages of my childhood, or as in my work "all or nothing“, where the actors and rock stars I once worshipped are now part of my adolescent love life, whereas in reality things were far less glamorous.
Another work with a personal background is "Snapshots“. This series of photo collages shows my female ancestors and their attempts to free themselves from traditional and religious restrictions – images that could serve as a cultural memory.
In fact, the intensive work on the material, the de- and reconstructing of the images, has led me to delve deeper into my past and family history, creating images that can trigger specific feelings or attitudes. My aim is that the viewers should be able to relate their own lived experiences and personal history to the work.
In this sense, autobiographical art can operate as an apparatus for experimential relational viewing, as a powerful catalyst whereby viewers draw upon their own life stories to connect with the work.
© Brigitte Konyen 2019
Brigitte Konyen is an Austrian artist and curator, living and working in Vienna.