Weekly Conversations… Katharina Aigner

In this week´s conversation we are talking to Katharina Aigner, who recently moved into one of our studios at Hegelgasse 14.

katharinaaigner.net

Interview by Juliana Furthner






Photo: Katharina Aigner by Kelly Ann Gardener, Videostill Ohne Titel (Bücher; Flurstücke 313, 314, 317, 318, 103/2, 109), work in progress

Can you give us a short overview of your artistic practice – especially the media you’re working with, as well as the themes and projects you are focusing on?
I am mainly working with videos and installations, which often have a performative aspect to them. In my artistic practice, I am very interested in queer lesbian (her)stories, recent projects circle around the writer Natalie Clifford Barney and a group of lesbian artists that formed around her salon in Paris during the 1920s.

In June, you received a one-year scholarship for media arts in Salzburg with your project I sketched, barely visible in pencil, our walk in her notebook…, in which you investigate the stories of queer, lesbian women in times of the National Socialism. Congratulations! What are your plans within this award?

I am researching about lesbian relationships during the Nazi regime with a focus on Ravensbrück, the biggest women’s concentration camp of the Third Reich situated in the north of Brandenburg. For this project, I would like to explore how care work expanding beyond filling historical gaps can lead to a discussion of the inherent fictionality of queer narratives and how this can be used to tell opaque, non-linear, ambiguous narratives that challenge our current views of history and emphasize the urgency of revisiting the archives.

You have recently moved into one of our studios at Hegelgasse, where you share the space with artist David Meran. Does this affect or influence your work in any way?
David and I have very different schedules and have not gotten to share a lot of studio time yet. However I really enjoy having my studio at Hegelgasse. It´s a super nice space and I love working alongside very interesting artists.