Reinhold Zisser (A)

Reinhold Zisser is an Austrian artist born in 1980 in Vienna. He studied philosophy, theater, film and media science and finally at the Painting Department of the Univeristy of Applied Arts in Vienna.
During the last years the central feature of Reinhold Zisser’s works has been the reflection and presentation of the relationship between artists and institutions. In his works he understands curatorial action and the "art institution system" as material to generate artworks. The artist slips like a hermit crab into new shells that he changes and leaves again. For this parasitic strategy of infiltration and visualization of the art institution (s) as form (s), he uses different materials and strategies. One of them was the building of an abandoned emergency church that he found in 2015, a place that symbolizes a collective identity of faith, but in reality is only an empty architectural shell. Furthermore, this wooden church is a reference to a historical moment, a building of ruins related to the Second World War. This material became the body of the golem, brought to life by the signs of the Notgalerie.
Reinhold Zisser recently received a grant from the Austrian State Scholarship for Fine Arts and a scholarship from The Otto Mauer Fonds. He created projects like Notgalerie, MUSOÄ (museum of social aesthetics), the artist run Space LLLLLL and Kunstland Nord. He has exhibitions all over Europe. Reinhold Zisser is also working on a series called “I could have been you” which deals with him as a painter. When the daily conceptual work is finished, he spends the evenings in the studio, working on the series. Detailed information can be found on his website reinholdzisser.com