Bernard Ammerer Bernard Ammerer

OPENING
Thursday, 29.11.2007, 6.30 pm

WELCOME
Ludwig F. Steinbauer, Board member, STRABAG AG 

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Florian Steininger, BACA Kunstforum, Vienna

Bernard Ammerer evokes the enigmatic in his figurative painting. Committed to painterly realism, we encounter young people in his works who are involved in a pictorial event that eludes any clear explanation. Moments of irritation and danger inherent in the images are negated by the demonstrative serenity of its protagonists. Sitting, standing or lying down, directing their gaze into the viewer space or gesturing into it, they interact both with one another and with the viewer. The scene of the action is the dusty periphery, the fringing zone of urban civilization, which can be understood both locally and globally. There are no specific locations that form the action space, but replaceable and omnipresent backdrops in front of which the action unfolds. It is similar with the people shown. Although they have individual features, they do not serve the functions of the portrait. In T-shirts, jeans and sneakers, they prove to be representatives of a young generation that freely and independently chooses their world of experience and proves their existence through constantly heightened, apparently arbitrary actions. The cool distance and superiority to what is happening and the viewer, which are expressed in the body language, counteract the signs of loss of control and crossing borders. The potential for violence is delegated to the viewer, who is confronted with the consequences of the inner pictorial action and not least with his own imagination. At this point, the previously so vehemently postulated sovereignty is replaced by a feeling of ambivalence and the levels of reality of the image and viewer space merge. Are we up to the game of danger or are we victims of our own empathy? Ammerer's pictures subtly disturb the equanimity of the viewer and that is precisely where their appeal lies.
Katerina Cerny, art historian and freelance curator, Vienna

>Bernard Ammerer
>bernardammerer.com

Photos: STRABAG ART