Body Missing, 1994
6 channel videoinstallation, photo walls, lightboxes and Boxes
Vera Frenkel
In her work, multimedia artist Vera Frenkel (born in 1938) has explored the experience and problematic of forced migration, exile, and diaspora. Despite her European background, she was raised in North America, where everyday practice and moral commitment differ from that in Europe. Her works revolve around the representability of memory and history, the abuse of political power and the consequences that result. From a palimpsest of memories, rumors, absences, and a “testimony in the absence of witnesses,” she constructs a discourse of historiography that, in contrast to scholarship, is beyond facticity and composition, and overlays historical image with other images. One of her most famous works, Body Missing, a video installation and web presence, deals with the Nazis’ “Special Mission Linz,” the “Führer Museum” that had been planned for Linz and the fate of the artworks that were assembled for it. Linking historical details and documentary material, Frenkel approaches the unexplained location of these works within a fictional framing narrative around a bar.
Her works have been exhibited at Documenta IX, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1985), Setagaya Museum, Tokyo (1995), OK, Linz (1996), MoMA (1999), and the Venice Biennale (1997 and 2001), amonst others.
Biography
born 1938 in Bratislava, lives and works in Toronto
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2014
Ways of Telling, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto
2010
Beyond the Archive (working title), SBC Gallery, Montréal
2008
Once Near Water: Notes from the Scaffolding Archive, video installation and related works, Akau Inc. Project Space, Toronto
2005
The Institute™, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa
The Institute™: Or, What We Do for Love, Art Gallery of Sudbury
2003
The Institute™: Or, What We Do for Love, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Hart House) - University of Toronto, Toronto
Body Missing, Sigmund Freud Museum, London
2002
Body Missing, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Body Missing, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris
Videoculture 2000, Wayne State University Video 2000 Festival, Detroit
2000
Body Missing, Goethe-Institut, Toronto
1999
Centre d’Art Contemporain, Hérouville-St. Clair
Messiahs, Migration and Loss, Museum of Modern Art, Department of Film and Video, New York
»…from the Transit Bar« and Body Missing, Göteborg Konstmuseum, Göteborg
1996
Body Missing, GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen
Body Missing, Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz
1995
Body Missing, I.S.E.A. Inter-Society for Electronic Arts, Montréal
1993
Raincoats, Suitcases, Palms, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto
1990
Messiah Speaking, Piccadilly Circus Spectacolor Board animation, London
Metro-Centre Messiah, Squires Foyer, Newcastle Polytechnic, Newcastle
1989
Mad for Bliss, Multidisciplinary performance, Music Gallery, Toronto
1987
Trust Me, It’s Bliss, The Hugh Hefner/Richard Wagner Connection, Playboy Mansion [Hefner Hall], Chicago
1985
Les bandes vidéo/The Videotapes, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
1983
The Screening Room, Main Gallery, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis; Artculture Resource Centre, Toronto
1982
In Search of the True-Blue Romance, Exiles/Images of Woman, Artculture Resource Centre, Toronto
Likely Stories: Text/Image/Sound, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021
Domestic Drama, Halle für Kunst Steiermark, Graz
Bodies of Water, 13th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai
2020
PRESS RECORD: Prints from the Open Studio Archive, Contemporary Printmaking Studio, Toronto
2019
Dunkle Energie, xE Ausstellungsraum der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna
2018
Hearing a Video, Vtape, Toronto
2016
"Chéer à rebours vers l'exposition": The cas of Aurora Borealis, VOX, Montreal
2015
MemoryLab - Photography challenges history, Mudam Luxembourg, Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
2014
MemoryLab: The Sentimental Turn, Gropius Bau, Berlin
2013
Continental Drift - Conceptual Art in Canada: The 1960s and 70s, Badischer Kunstverein, Kalsruhe
Continental Drift - Conceptual Art in Canada: The 1960s and 70s Part 1, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Toronto
2012
Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980 - Part 1, Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, Montreal
2011
Archival Dialogues, Ryerson University Gallery and Research Centre, Toronto
2010
Contributor to Screen 2010 Exhibition 12: Consumerism – I shop therefore I am? Cultural Olympiad Project, Vancouver
Analogue: Pioneering Artist´s Video from the U.K. Canada and Poland, (final three venues of tour of Canadian museums)
2009
Once Near Water: Notes from the Scaffolding Archive, Candian premiére of performance version of high-definition video with musicians from Continuum Contemporary Music, Isabel Bader Theatre, Toronto
2008
Recollecting: Raub und Restitution, MAK, Wien
Messiah Speaking, Two-channel video installation, Elevator 10, Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario
Shift: movement and meaning between The Netherlands and Canada, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam
City Poem/Poem City, Penex-Metropolis Video Wall, Yonge/Dundas Square, Toronto
Tiefenrausch, OK Centrum für Gegenwartskunst, Linz
2006
Telling Stories, Secret Lives, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston
2005
Blow Out, Prefix Gallery, Toronto
Wer Visionen hat soll zum Arzt gehen, Gesellschaft für aktuelle Kunst, Bremen
2004
Vera Frenkel/Ho Tam, Archive Gallery, Toronto
2002
MY GENERATION: Video art from the 70’s to the present day, Atlantis Gallery, London
2001
Head Start, Campo Santa Marina, 49th Venice Biennale, Venice
1999
Not On Any Map: Travel and Identities of Displacement, The Film Center, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Fragile Electrons, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Track Records, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg
LAB VII, Centre of Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
1998
Track Records, Alberta College of Art & Design, Calgary, Centre Culturel de Sherbrooke, Mackenzie Gallery, Regina
Second Skin: Looking at the Garden Again, The Gallery, Stratford, Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Ontario
1997
Lab VI, Centre of Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
Video Art Plastique, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie, Hérouville
Virtualität des Verschwindens, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin
The Destabilized Landscape, Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
1996
In the Realm of Freedom, YYZ artists’ Outlet, Toronto
Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen, (contri-bution to Joerg Geismar’s project), Galerie Gabrielle Rivet, Cologne
1995
Beyond National Identities, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, National Modern Art Museum, Kyoto, Hokaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo
1994
Body Missing, in Andere Körper, Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz
4th International Film/Video Festival, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
1993
The Grief Journey, Toronto Cybercity Project, Toronto, Aperto, Venice Bienniale, Venice
Empowering the Word, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa
The Other Revolution, John Spotton Theatre, NFB National Film Board, Ottawa, Goethe-Institut, Toronto
1992
documenta IX, Kassel
1991
War, Media & The New World Order, Centre international d’art contemporain, Montréal
Video Positive Festival, Liverpool
1990
Issues in Contemporary Video, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon
Technologies et imaginaires, Vidéothèque de Paris, Paris
1988
The Fukui International Video Biennale, Fukui
Censored, or The Making of a Pornographer, A.I.R. Gallery, London
Aurora Borealis, The Showroom, London
1987
Toronto: A Play of History, The Power Plant, Toronto
The Lunatic of One Idea, Public Pixelboard project, Square One Mall, Mississauga
1986
Attention: Lost Canadians, Canada Pavilion, Expo ’86, Vancouver
Video as a Social Tool, Video Inn, Vancouver
1985
Visual Facts, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
Aurora Borealis, Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal, Cité du Parc, Montréal
1984
Vestiges of Empire, Camden Arts Centre, London
1982
Projected Parts, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Lump in the throat or the Adam’s Apple: A True Story of Eve, Koffman Union, Minneapolis
1981
Women’s Film and Video Festival, Amsterdam
Gallery Exhibitions
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