Ursula Neugebauer
"tour en l´air"

at assembly Design Festival in Graz, Austria
14 - 17 May 2009


Fashion & the absence of the body

The Austrian Design Festival assembly celebrates with the opening of the exhibition "tour en l´air" by German artist Ursula Neugebauer four days of fashion, music, art, interior design and virtual worlds on the catwalk, in exhibitions, lectures, temporary shops, concerts and parties with works by more than 70 designers/artists from Austria and South East European countries during 14 and 17 May in Graz (Styria).

fig.: "tour en l´air" by Ursula Neugebauer. 7 red taffeta dresses, mannequin bust, computer-controlled electric motors. Fotograf: Lutz Bertram. Courtesy WERKSTADT GRAZ.

14 May 2009 Vernissage: Body and identity are central themes for the understanding of fashion such as you can find in Ursula Neugebauer's installation. She works on 'body' and 'identity' in a feministic-ironic way. The installation 'tour en l'air' combines architecture, fashion and art: the 7 mannequin busts - dressed in red ball gowns - make their pirouettes up to the ceiling of the room in movements that become more ecstatic the faster the motors work. When the dresses are flying higher they show that the mannequins don't have any legs; you can hear the fabric playing with the air the 'taffeta-sound'. After one and a half minutes the computer stops the rotating motors - silence fills the room.

14 May Fashion Show:
After the vernissage, the festival visitors are invited to the opening fashion show with 12 international designers like Ep_anoui (A - interview with the designer about the FW2009/10 collection fashionoffice.org/design
/2009/epanoui4-2009.htm), Etna Maar (HR), Lucja Wojtala (PL)...
and music by the Austrian musician Klaus 'Waldeck' at a former garage.

Video: 'Make my Day' by Waldeck from the album 'Ballroom Stories' (2007), directed by Mira Loew and David Altweger www.waldeck.at.

15 May 2009 Lecture: Ursula Neugebauer will hold the lecture "Aus der Haut gefahren". The German title comes from a saying to express a troublesome experience. Free translated, it means as much as leaving ones own skin. The artist will speak about her work of presenting the body in his absence and the psychic condition of loosing control. The lecture will focus on the theme identity.

Ursula Neugebauer (born 1960) is living in Berlin. She has studied at the Arts Academy Munster, class of Timm Ulrichs. The artist has received several awards such as the Female Sculptors' Award of Northrhine Westphalia (2004), since 2003 Ursula Neugebauer holds a Professorship at the Universität der Künste (University of Arts) Berlin. On Ursula Neugebauer's website you can find the whole biography and the documentation of her artworks such as the video 'hair', 2007/08 about three women from different religions who have to handle three different, learned approaches to make up their hair ursula-neugebauer.de.

Check out the detailed program on www.assembly-festival.at.


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