Devotion to Unintentionality / Hingabe an die Absichtslosigkeit

What differentiates being a child from being adult? The game, the unintentionality, being independant of economical constraints? In our society these realms seem to be strictly seperated, yet seminars for creativity and management aim at bringing these worlds together, profiting especially from what is often attributed to artists.

In this multi-part project Barbara Holub developed for the Porschehof in Salzburg and her solo show at the Secession she addressed this area of conflict. She invited employees of the Porsche Company in Salzburg to perform a car race with Carrera race tracks in the lobby of the Porschehof company thus investiigating the free space for play in the professional/ job environment in the name of art.
The game events served as material for a large wall piece for the lobby of the Porschehof. On a parallel level the artist conducted conversations with the employees as well as with people from her personal context and her artist collegues, which resulted in a double video-projection at the Secession in Vienna.

This project marks Barbara Holub's beginning of her ongoing interest in using games and play for exploring societal conditions by involving people in the various contexts as active participants.

Installation Porschehof Salzburg
Inkjetprint on PVC, 2.45 x 8.50 m

Employees playing with the Carrera race tracks -  this participatory engagement was the basis for conceiving the wall piece/ installation

Porschehof Salzburg
1999

in cooperation with Salzburger Kunstverein

Secession Wien/ Vienna
1999
link to "With veiling hand"/ "Mit vorgehaltener Hand" double video installation at the Secession (left video)

The project was realized in the frame of a collaboration between the Porsche Holding and Salzburger Kunstverein dedicated to the topic "speed", where a series of temporary public art projects was installed at the Porschehof, starting in 1998.

The jury nominating the artists consisted of: Hildegund Amanshauser (Salzburger Kunstverein), Johanna Hofleitner (art critic for Die Presse and international art magazines) and Eva Schlegel (artist and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna).