"Spending Time, Holding Space"

Solo exhibition by Christiana Perschon, Erste Bank Art Awardee 2024

Opening: 10.09.2024, 17 - 22h

Exhibition Duration: 11.09. - 19.10.2024
DAS WEISSE HAUS | Hegelgasse 14, 1010 Vienna

Christiana Perschon's films are portraits that do not pierce intimacies, tributes that do not sacralize, images that do not represent, frames that do not separate. Spending time means working, devoting oneself and caring. Holding space means embracing, occupying and maintaining. These actions characterize feminist artistic work as much as reproductive labor. Attached together, the four words that form the show's title describe core methods of the artist's practice, along with listening, noticing and being affected by others. In her works, she builds a framework for her protagonists to appear, interact and create moving images together with her camera - to which she confers its own agency.

Christiana Perschon intervenes in the relationship between the filmmaker, the camera and the protagonist(s), as much as between the viewer and the film itself, recalibrating these around relationality and interdependence. The collective creation process operates outside dominant (patriarchal) norms of representation and regimes of gaze - commonly based on a one-sided relation between who films and "what" is filmed, who looks at and "what" is looked at, determined by objectification and fetishization. Understanding film as the materialization of encounters, relations, affects and effects, Christiana Perschon's films are opaque, mysterious, sensible and sensuous.

"Spending Time, Holding Space" is the first solo show of artist and filmmaker Christiana Perschon in Vienna, taking place from 11 September until 19 October 2024 at DAS WEISSE HAUS.

This year's award is presented in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum Ottawa and the SAW Centre Ottawa.

Our special thanks go to the team of Erste Bank Sponsoring Program for the cooperation and support and to the jury of Erste Bank Art Award 2024!

Kunstverein das weisse haus
Hegelgasse 14, 1010 Vienna

Contact:
Ralitsa Petkova ralitsa@dasweissehaus.at
+43 681 20728507

About DAS WEISSE HAUS
DAS WEISSE HAUS is a unique self-organized art institution in Austria, the main purpose of which is to serve as a liaison between Viennese emerging and professional art scenes, different communities and audiences, as well as between international and local artists and art professionals.

Under the previous guidance of its co-founding director, Alexandra Grausam, DAS WEISSE HAUS has been making a significant impact on the contemporary art scene since 2007. The integral parts of the organization are the physical exhibition space at Hegelgasse 14 in Vienna, the elaborate studio and residency program STUDIO DAS WEISSE HAUS, and the online platform dwhX.

The goal of DAS WEISSE HAUS is to maintain a vibrant platform that empowers emerging talents and centers overlooked perspectives through amplifying critical voices, nurturing collaborative learning, and enhancing international recognizability.

Led by BLOCKFREI Collective since 2024 and supported by the dedicated team, DAS WEISSE HAUS works on cultivating a dynamic, experimental, and inclusive space where diverse voices converge through art, questioning and dismantling systemic barriers and advocating for equal representation and economic justice.

This release was published on openPR.