Mladen Bizumic
COPIA: Collection of Post-Industrial Arts
Not many people know that the space now occupied by Georg Kargl Fine Arts gallery was once a printers, the Druckerei Guberner & Hierhammer, whose printing presses were located in the gallery’s largest space. Today, this kind of printing is fading from sight, replaced by the digital files pulsing across our screens. Mladen Bizumic’s exhibition COPIA: Collection of Post-Industrial Arts examines and contests this shift, weaving together historical and contemporary photographic techniques into hybrid images, mixtures of analog and digital technology that form part of his ongoing practice of media archeology uncovering our past in order to understand our present.
Bizumic’s practice traces technological and cultural transitions and mutations, focusing on how photography has changed as it moves from analog to digital techniques. Bizumic’s ALBUM series, which forms the centre of his show at George Kargl Fine Arts is typical of his approach. Each image records its own construction through a mixture of digital and analog technologies and techniques. The works begin with an old HP Scanjet G4050 scanner that the artist bought in 2005 to digitise slides and had put in storage, until he recently needed to scan his passport. After doing so, he saw a lot of squiggly lines on the digital image, lines that were certainly not on his passport. These lines were inside the machine, and were not damage but mycelium, an organic fungus made up of branching, thread-like hyphae. In an attempt to see it better, Bizumic placed a piece of glass on the scanner, hoping to enlarge the lines, but instead the glass refracted the scanner’s light, casting its glittering fragments through the image. This was the beginning of the ALBUM series, works that reached their final form when Bizumic selected the ‘million colours’ option on the computer application, which installs a very slow scanning process. During the scan the artist moves the object, something the machine cannot properly process and translates it into glitch-rainbows. Bizumic’s method does not, therefore, utilise the speed of digital processing and the ubiquity of its networks, but instead takes advantage of the slowness of its supposedly redundant technology to produce an image that fails to properly register its object, constructing as it does a photograph that is entirely specific to its singular process. The digital image files produced are then printed once onto canvas, giving them the appearance and uniqueness of paintings.
The artist writes: "I was intrigued by media reports of AI's ability to see images, which I related to my scanner’s malfunction. After some research, I found out that American engineer Russell Kirsch developed the first digital image scanner in 1957 at the National Bureau of Standards. I emailed Russell´s son, Walden whose portrait as a four-month-old baby was the first digital image ever. Walden suggested that I speak to his mother, Joan Levin Kirsch who knew a lot more. I discovered that Joan, Russell’s widow was an art historian who worked at MoMA and the Smithsonian and had influenced her husband's computer inventions but received no recognition. And so, appropriately enough, it turns out that the marriage between the early computer scientist and the modern art curator is a foundation of my current series ALBUM.”
In the ALBUM series Bizumic explores digital photography in new ways, proposing alternative uses of technology to explore its more abstract and emotional modalities. But perhaps most significantly, his work resists the instantaneity of digital images, their simultaneously unavoidable and transitory existence, as they flash and disappear in the continuous turnover of the feed. Bizumic’s work instead provides a slower touch, a temporal embodiment that goes beyond the frenzied swipe of our finger. Nevertheless, the artist’s position is not against but within, and rather than rejecting digital technology, his work instead tries to go beyond its everyday ubiquity and extend its limits. He does this by stretching its instant, introducing time into its image and in this way suspending the picture between analog and digital, eye and hand, and finally between painting and photography. But Bizumic’s work is neither one nor the other, because both are disturbed in the process of their combination, which opens a space for something new.
Dr. Stephen Zepke, 2023
Biography
Solo Exhibitions
2023
COPIA: Collection of Post-Industrial Arts, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2019
The Ecology of Attention, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
Interiors of Photography (with Sophie Thun), Camera Austria, Graz
2018
Kunstbüro (with Yuki Hugashino), Vienna
BOOK (Photo Boom Photo Box), Kunstraum, Retz
2016
Kodak Employed 140.000 People. Instagram 13., MOSTYN. Wales
2015
Kodak: Reorganization Plan, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
Artissima (with David Maljkovic), Oval, Turin
2014
Bankruptcy and Reorganisation, ZAMEK Centre for Culture, Poznan
Kodak: la présence de l’image, galerie frank elbaz, Paris
2013
Kodachrome Presents, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
Keep Me. Protect Me. Share Me, Galerie Karin Sachs, Munich
2012
Hotel Jugoslavija, Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade
180° (with Andreas Fogarasi), Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Vienna
Hotel Jugoslavija: A Repository with a View, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
2011
Untitled (Window Painting #5) (with Benjamin Hirte), Ve.sch, Vienna
2010
From Cube To Ball (Chapter 1), Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland
From Cube To Ball (Chapter 2), Adam Art Gallery, Wellington
2009
Global Truths vs. Local Reflections, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland
America (with Ovul Durmusoglu), Parallel Event/Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul
After the Party, Hirschfeld, Berlin
Everyone is Welcome!, Uszynska Schaufenster, Vienna
2008
1st Translator’s Note – Le desir de philosophie, Zoo Galerie, Nantes
Everyone is Welcome!. Te Tuhi - Centre for the Arts, Auckland
2007
How If - A Translation in III Acts, Künstlerhaus Bethanien & PROGRAM, Berlin
Colonial Atmospheres, Physics Room, Christchurch
An Expedition Yet To Happen, Two Rooms, Auckland
2006
Superstructure Doubled (with Øystein Aasan), Korridor, Berlin
Crystal Memorial, Charim Galerie, Vienna
2005
Planet Wittgenstein, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland
2004
event.horizon.black.hole, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin
Aipotu: Love Will Tear Us Apart, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland
Aipotu: Love Will Tear Us Apart (again), Hocken Collections, Dunedin
2003
Fiji Biennele Pavilions, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
The Night Shift, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland
event.horizon, Ramp Gallery, Hamilton
2002
Tauranga Guggenheim, ARTSPACE, Auckland
A Beautiful Afterlife, Window, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
7000 Rimu Trees, Rear Window, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin
2001
Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland
Group Exhibitions
2024
By the Means at Hand: Vlatka Horvat, Croatian Pavilion, 60th Venice Biennale
Bringing Owls from Athens, Georg Kargl BOX x Callirrhoë, Athens, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
2023
Synchron, Ela Nord Studio, Vienna
Unearthing the Collection: October Salon Collection, Cultural Center, Belgrade
Little Precious Things, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2022
Metadata: Rethinking Photography from the 21st Century, The Ringling, Sarasota, FL
AFFAIR, Savremena Galerijy Contemporary Gallery Subotice, Szabadka
Mutual Aid, Neadertal, London
2021
Enjoy - the mumok Collection in Change, mumok, Vienna
GEORG KARGL EDITIONS, Georg Kargl Permanent, Vienna
2020
OUTGOING DISPATCH, Artspace Aotearoa, Auckland
Would You Be Available…, Georg Kargl Permanent, Vienna
Bakelite: The Georg Kargl Collection, MAK, Vienna
Mulberry Tubes, Galerie Göttlicher, Krems
2019
Uncanny Values, 3rd Vienna Biennale, MAK, Vienna
Dialogue, Gesellschaft für projektive Ästhetik, Georg Kargl, Vienna
2018
Futurs Antérieurs, Maison Guerlain, Parcours Privé de la Fiac, Paris
Between Us, Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade
Concentration - A Tribute, Gesellschaft für projektive Ästhetik, Georg Kargl, Vienna
Reduction, Gesellschaft für projektive Ästhetik, Georg Kargl, Vienna
2017
Traces of Time, Leopold Museum, Vienna
Ponovo Upotrebiti, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
Out of Site, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington
Secret Art Sale, Te Tuhi – Centre for the Arts, Auckland
2016
A Matter of Memory, Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York
This Is Your Replacement, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf
Ouverture pour inventaire, FRAC Pays de la Loire, Nantes
Undreamed of..., Dunedin Public Gallery & Hocken Collections, Dunedin
2015
Le bon ton, Cultural Centre Belgrad, Belgrade
Repeat / Personal, Porous Space, Vienna
New Acquisitions, Moderna Galerija, Subotica
Etiquette: New Acquisitions October Salon, Cultural Centre of Belgrade
Our Hearts of Darkness, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
2014
Hier & Jetzt, Stift Klosterneuburg, Klosterneuburg
Cut it, Scratch it, Stitch it, Keep it, Fotogalleriet, Oslo
Artists Using Photography, GESSO, Vienna
Freedom Farmers, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
2013
Chambres de luxe, Kunstmuseum, Thun
Memory of Space – Space of Memory, Moderna Galerija, Subotica
Was ist Kunst? Resuming Fragmented Histories, KM – Künstlerhaus, Graz
Ephemeral Self, Finite Projections, The Gallery of the National Technical Library, Prague
21st Century Collecting, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington
2012
Good Life, 53rd October Salon, Belgrade
Long Day, Fei Contemporary Art Centre, Shanghai
2011
Erschaute Bauten, MAK, Vienna
Dancing in the Rhyme, Kumho Art Museum, Seoul
Pawn Shop, Kopfbau, Basel
This is Happening II, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Opening Borders/Opening Objects, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
Wallpaper, Motel Campo – espace d’art polyvalent, Geneva
Drift of Summer, RM, Auckland
Dienstag Abend Editions, Ve.Sch, Vienna
First Impressions, TSB Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland
All Black, Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga
2010
Phoenix vs. Babel, Fondation d'Entreprise Ricard, Paris
Thriller, Rigaerstr. 69, Berlin
The Forgotten Bar, Galerie Im Regierungsviertel, Berlin
2009
Video from Aotearoa, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg
For Keeps, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
2008
Common Affairs, steirischer herbst festival, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
Space Chase, Magnus Müller Galerie, Berlin
Zapping Unit, Le Ferme du Buisson, Paris
If You Carry A Hammer A Lot of Things Look Like Nails, Skalitzerstr. 64, Berlin
Earth Matters, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
Video from Aotearoa, Co-Lab, Copenhagen
In Shifting Light, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
Drawings, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland
2007
Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul
00s’, Lyon Biennale, Museum Of Contemporary Art, Lyon
Art of the Nation, Te Papa – Museum of New Zealand, Wellington
Through the Painting, 2nd Moscow Biennale, Federation Tower, Moscow
Invisible/Invincible, Curators Without Borders, Berlin
2006
Hidetide, Zacheta National Art Gallery, Warsaw
Hidetide, CAC, Vilnius
Busan Biennale, Metropolitan Art Museum, Busan
Don't Misbehave, SCAPE Biennale, Christchurch
Play, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth
Play, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington
2005
Re: Modern, Künstlerhaus Wien, Vienna
Truer Than the Truth, Charim Galerie, Vienna
Playground, Art Play Architecture & Design Centre, Moscow
Skin Oil, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
Small World, Big Town, City Gallery, Wellington
Showcase, The Wallace Trust Gallery, Auckland
2004
We are the World, Chelsea Art Museum, New York
Everyday Minimal, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
Break-Shift, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
International Art Fair and Cake Stall, Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin
2003
Vecu, Conical Artspace, Melbourne
Break, Govett-Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth
2002
Sublime Indigo, Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton
Botanica, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland
7000 Rimu Trees, Rear Window, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin
Video, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland
I See, The Croft Institute, Melbourne
2001
Bright Paradise, 1st Auckland Triennial, Auckland
Public Collections / Museumssammlungen
MUMOK - Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna
MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst / Gegenwartskunst Vienna
Fotosammlung des Bundes – Museum der Moderne Salzburg
FRAC - Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain, Nantes
Te Papa - Museum of New Zealand, Wellington
Victoria University Art Collection, Wellington
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland
Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
Hocken Collections, University of Otago, Dunedin
Moderna Galerija, Subotica
October Salon Collection, Kulturni Centar, Belgrade
Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York
Inquiry
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