HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark

• Exhibition

4/24/2026 - 4/26/2026

Ulrike Ottinger. Die Berlin Trilogie

Ulrike Ottinger is one of the most influential avant-garde filmmakers of her generation. Since the 1960s, she has developed an expressive, non-linear, sometimes surreal style. On the occasion of Galerientage 2026, her Berlin trilogy will be shown at HALLE FÜR KUNST on three consecutive evenings. With Bildnis einer Trinkerin (Portrait of a Drinker, 1979), Freak Orlando (1981), and Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse (Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Tabloid Press, 1984), she depicts West Berlin as a garish stage for excess, exclusion, and identity change, exposing history and the media as spectacles of power and projection.

• Artists:
• Ulrike Ottinger
• Ulrike Ottinger is regarded as one of the most significant avant-garde contemporary artists and filmmakers of her generation, having gained recognition particularly through her cinematic work. Born in Konstanz in 1942, Ottinger can now look back on more than six decades of artistic creation, a journey that not only took her to various places but also led her from the visual arts to filmmaking. In the process, she developed a non-linear and at times surrealistically bizarre film style. Determined to become an artist, she moved to Paris at the age of 20, trained in etching at Johnny Friedlaender’s studio, and attended lectures by Claude Lévi-Strauss and Louis Althusser at the Collège de France. During her seven-year stay in Paris, she worked as an artist in the fields of painting, photography, and performance, and in 1966 wrote her first screenplay, titled *Die mongolische Doppelschublade*. In 1969, she returned temporarily to Konstanz, where she founded the filmclub visuell in cooperation with the University of Konstanz and opened the gallery and publishing house galeriepress. It was during this time, in the early 1970s, that she began her long-standing collaboration with the artists Tabea Blumenschein—with whom she produced her first film, *Laokoon und Söhne* (1971–1973), which premiered at the Arsenal Berlin—and Magdalena Montezuma. In 1973, she finally moved to Berlin, where she achieved her first international successes. In addition to her documentary and feature film projects, in which she engages intensively with ethnological and anthropological questions, she also creates works for the stage, both for theater and opera, and develops artist books.

• Exhibition

2/7/2026 - 4/26/2026

Susanne Wenger. Àdùnní Olórìṣà

Susanne Wenger (1915, Graz; †2009, Òṣogbo, Nigeria) is seen as a key Austrian post-1945 artist and also an early contemporary of surrealism. Her work includes sculptures, paintings, drawings, prints, and batik textiles, transcending aesthetic categories and combining art, spirituality, and myth. Working together with the Susanne Wenger Foundation in Krems, which has done great service to preserving the artist’s work, HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark presents a judicious selection of Wenger’s multi-facetted work.

• Artists:
• Susanne Wenger
• Susanne Wenger (1915–2009), also known as Adunni Olorisha, was an Austrian-Nigerian artist, sculptor, and Yoruba priestess renowned for her fusion of European modernism and African tradition. Born in Graz, Austria, she studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and initially worked in Europe before emigrating to Nigeria in 1950. In Nigeria, Wenger dedicated herself to preserving Yoruba culture and the sacred Osun Grove in Osogbo. She collaborated with local artists to restore and adorn the grove with sculptures and shrines, transforming it into a living cultural and spiritual site. Her efforts led to the grove’s designation as a national monument in 1965 and later as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Wenger’s diverse oeuvre includes painting, sculpture, batik, and architecture, all deeply rooted in Yoruba mythology and spirituality. She is celebrated as a key figure in both Austrian and Nigerian modern art and was honored with numerous awards, including the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art.