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Exhibitions

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To Know The Unknown - Austro Indonesian Arts Program top

Opening 29th of July 2011, SewonArtSpace and Austro Indonesian Arts Program in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Group Exhibition with Nural Hayat, Baskoro Latu, Arya Sukapura, Lukas Birk, Karel Dudesek, Marbod Fritsch.

With the opening exhibition of the SewonArtSpace we are trying to address our entry into this country, which is so foreign and unknown to us, and start to cooperate with locals.

Three artists from Indonesia and three artists from Austria are collaborating in a first art project, experimenting with words, colors, forms, time and space. In comparison to music, film and performance the cooperation in visual arts is rare and unusual. To increase the irritation the collaborating artists themselves do not know each other, nor do they know their works.

Three basic methods have been defined as a starting point:

1) Work descriptions of three art works by one artist were translated and given to the collaborating artist without any visual reference. The artist himself translates his own interpretation into a visual form.

2) Three advertisements made by designers for public spaces have been cut out. The motives were not recognizable due to the cutout from a bigger image, which was always a digital print. The cutout has already marks from viral advertisers advertising their own services. Furthermore, these marks have been over-painted by the authorities because of their illegality. These multi-layered images traveled across countries to be once again re-processed by a different personal understanding.

3) Three photographs printed on canvas were captured by the artist during his travels. They represent stages of his understanding and his personal circumstances. These images were selected for their strong iconography and variety of interpretation due to different cultural backgrounds. First, the receiving artist reflects on the given image, then he visually recodes the received image.

www.austroindonesianartsprogram.org

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Illuminati - the fake gHosts of reality, fake space, Beijing top

2nd of July till 30th of July 2010

exhibition and performance by Allen Au, Karel Dudesek and Lukas Birk

more images on the fake space website

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Junsui - this time in motion, AnniArt, 798, Beijing top

2nd of July till 25th of July 2010

lightboxes and a short film made of 6000 still images

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Kafkanistan at Kastiel, Tel Aviv top

27th of March 2010 till 15th of April 2010

Organized and produced by Nati Gershovich. With photos, video, installation and performance.
Sponsored by the cultural forum of the Austrian embassy (Gabriele Feigl).

Thanks to Dj Aviran Shefer and Vadim the shepherd for fantastic music and Ido Grummer for his wonderful photos.

Ethnic Afghan Jews dressing up in a Burqas posing as Christian nuns - yes that is Kafkanistan!!

see video from the opening

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To Know The Unknown - Media Reports Selection

more articles on http://www.austroindonesianartsprogram.org/category/categories/press-aiap

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Vorarlberger Nachrichten Article 2. April 2010 about Kafkanistan Tel Aviv show

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Kafkanistan at Anni Art, 798, Beijing top

...produced by Lukas Birk with photos, video, installation and performance pieces from Lukas Birk's and Sean Foley's project Kafkanistan.
Hosted by Anni Art Gallery and sponsored by the cultural forum of the Austrian embassy Beijing Kafkanistan's first multimedia show opened it's gates on June 20th with hundreds of people participating.

Images from the Opening 20th of June 2009

Photo - Paradise Corner .................................................Exhibition Elements

With plenty to ogle and interact with, “Kafkanistan” promises to be one of the summer’s most engaging exhibitions. (CityWeekend)

for films about the opening click here

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a moments departure - at Dun Gallery top

Dun Gallery (www.dungallery.cn) invited me to participate in a group show titled Living ElseWhere. Besides my Polaroids a Chinese sculptor and a Chinese oil painter were showing their work. 17th-November - 31st-December 2009.

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Kafkanistan - Pink Busan - Chaes Art - Busan, Koreatop

Opening 11th Decemer 2009

Together with 9 Korean and two Canadian artists I exhibited at Pink Busan a group show to connect cultures and ideas. It was an interesting challange to show Kafkanistan in a small space together with very different artwork...

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Interview with Loft Art Magazine - November 2009 Luktop

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City Weekend Beijing, November 2009 top

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a moment's departure - at Mifan, Austro Sino Arts Program Exhibition top

Opening 7th of November at Anni Art, 798, Beijing

Mifan is the first show of the Austro Sino Arts Program (ASAP) bringing 15 Austrian artists to China. All their work has been produced in China and is about China.

Fifteen Austrian artists show their works in China for the first time. This exhibition is exceptional because all works have been created by the artists during their stay in China. These works are personal explorations drafted in an individual artistic language which negotiates between the grammars of the East and the West. The exhibition offers an inside view of 15 Austrian artists: Lukas Birk, Karel Dudesek, Sylvia Eckermann, Kerstin von Gabein, Nikolaus Gansterer, G.R.A.M., Michael Hoepfner, Ulrike Johannsen, Ronald Kodritsch, Jasmin Ladenhaufen, Ralo Mayer, Matthias Meinharter, Gerald Nestler, Rainer Prohaska and Kamen Stoyanov, how their perception is inspired and translated into artistic methods, to project a different view on place, form and content. Fifteen Austrian artists lived in China, became accommodated to habits and rituals.
Fifteen artists from the other side of the world traveled east and sat down at table with the locals and tasted their food, which is so different from any Chinese restaurant food in Austria. Fifteen artists made friends and knitted relations which were supposed to last as long as possible. The artists are the first ones who live and work in the global space. Now China is in Austria and Austria is in China. We are one world, one nation, with different languages and rituals but similar desires. Fifteen Austrian artists with their diverse talents came to China to make use of their imagination and to interact.

They interacted with traditional painters, visited and interviewed local artists, composed songs with musicians, reflected the genderness of the media society, constructed their own vehicles to explore one of the biggest cities in the world, put up banners to manifest their irritation, worked with Chinese fashion designers and tailors to create new fashion, painted pictures, painted their faces, photographed the fast changing unknown, did research while walking trough cities and across China with their own individual methods, paid massive cab bills, visited wild markets and savoured the unknown smell of the oriental world and returned to Austria with the wish to come back to be able to continue their work in China. What they shared was one common thought: That there had not been enough time available – time actually needed to accomplish their work.

for more information and images see www.austrosinoartsprogram.org

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a moment's departure - at Mifan, Austro Sino Arts Program Exhibition top

Opening 17th December at babu gallery, Shenzhen

After the very succesfull exhibition in Beijing babu gallery invited 8 of the 15 artist to another show in Shenzhen.

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a moment's departure - at Pingyao Photofestival top

19th-25th of December 2009 at Pingyao, Shanxi Province China.

details on www.pipphoto.com

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Recent Online Articles, Interviews and Reviews top

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a moments departure - at CIGE 2009 Luktop

The cultural forum of the Austrian embassy Beijing, invited me to participate at the China International Gallery Expostion 2009. The cultural attaché Gabriele Feigl asked me to show images from a moments departure which haven't been shown anywhere yet (poject is still on-going ). I saw it as a preview or testing out how people would respond to it. I was especially interested in comments from Chinese visitors and their view on my China renditions.

CIGE 2009 Lukas Birk Arts Beijing Lukas Birk

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Junsui じゅんすい- secrets on display ll - 玄色的秘密 - JiuChang Beijing .....top

Opening: November 1st 2008, 16:00 开幕式: 2008年11月1,16:00

.read Junsui introduction (en/cn) / download poster

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Junsui - at Institut Franco-Japonais, Yokohama Luktop

Institut Franco-Japonais a Yokohama

Tokyo Art Beat

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a moments departure - at CNEX, Beijing Luktop

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Pecha Kucha 28th of February 2009 at the Yan Club Arts Centre at 798 Beijing top

about 400 people turned up at Beijing's 6th Pecha Kucha. I presented Kafkanistan.

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find out more on here and here

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Kafkanistan Review - Urbane November Issue

Lukas Birk