Dialogical Performances & The Atlas Exhibition

12–13 June & 18 June–19 July 2025
kex – kunsthalle exnergasse, WUK

 

The Atlas (of Creative Mechanisms): [Curating–Conducting], an ongoing art-based research project, unfolds its performative and discursive layers through two public chapters in Vienna: Dialogical Performances (June 12–13, 2025) and The Atlas exhibition (June 18–July 19, 2025) at kex–kunsthalle exnergasse, WUK.

Through comparative analysis, the project maps the tacit knowledge, operating logics, and creative mechanisms inherent in ‘curating’ and ‘conducting’, seeking to uncover shared languages, vocabularies, positions, and methodologies within contemporary art exhibitions and concert music since 2000.

The project utilises a range of research tools, with The Atlas Online Platform playing a pivotal role as a multidimensional interface that archives and maps the project’s findings. The project analyses the subjective definitions and conceptual connections within these practices. Scheduled to launch in December 2025, The Atlas Online Platform features key tools, including The Atlas Dictionary—a repository of subjective terminologies emerging from curating and conducting practices—and The Atlas Cloud, a conceptual visualisation tool that reveals the interconnections between these terms. Both resources are grounded in the project’s most significant research method: The Atlas Dialogues, a series of in-depth paired interviews with 88 distinguished curators and conductors.

The project is structured through a collaborative framework involving several key teams, among which the Agents—six practitioners researching and operating within the overlapping terrain of visual arts, performance, and music: Bronwyn Lace, Hristina Ivanoska, Ilan Volkov, Isa Rosenberger, Timo Tuhkanen, and Yane Calovski—reflecting on the research findings through their artistic practices.

As the first public chapter, Dialogical Performances, curated by Basak Senova and David Chisholm, creates dialogical communication channels by facilitating and experimenting with the findings and outcomes of the research process. This time, artists and musicians play a crucial role: by employing panels in two chapters, the amalgamation of various techniques and approaches from the fields of contemporary art and concert music is experimented with, questioned, modified, and discussed. Spanning multiple formats—performances, exhibitions, panels, workshops, and lecture-performances—these chapters bring into public view the ongoing enquiries of the project through a dialogical, relational, and participatory approach, uncovering new ways of perceiving these creative processes through cross-disciplinary analysis. Participants include the Agents, alongside contributions from The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Christian Wolff, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Karl Salzmann, Lore Lixenberg, Microtonal Music Studios, Rebecca Minten, Susanna Gartmayer, Thomas Lehn, and Timo Tuhkanen.

As the second public chapter, The Atlas exhibition, curated by Basak Senova, is one of the key components of this research, showcasing various positionings, reflections, and visual/auditory notes from the six Agents of the project.

Both Dialogical Performances and The Atlas exhibition are realised within the context of The Atlas (of Creative Mechanisms): [Curating–Conducting], a PEEK project led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Basak Senova, with interdisciplinary input from key researcher Dr. David Chisholm, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and hosted by the Institute of Art Sciences and Art Education at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Doi: 10.55776/AR721

https://the-atlas.uni-ak.ac.at/