HUMLEBK.- The Louisiana on Paper exhibition series continues in 2019 with a presentation of the Austrian avant-garde artist Birgit Jrgenssen (1949-2003), who has been gaining posthumous recognition in recent years. Jrgenssen’s sharp, humorous work mainly takes the form of photographs and drawings focussing on rigid gender roles and freedom of choice.
Birgit Jrgenssen belongs to a strong circle of Austrian women artists who emerged in the 1970s. Jrgenssen’s starting point was feminism, but she was not interested in joining any feminist movement – that, too, would have restricted her freedom. Rebelling against the notion of normalcy remained central to her work.
In 1975, Jrgenssen showed a humorous work in the exhibition MAGNA-Feminismus: Kunst und Kreativitt, organized by her colleague VALIE EXPORT. Housewives’ Kitchen Apron is a combination apron and stove. The door of the stove is open and out (or in) sticks a loaf of bread, both a metaphorical “bread in the oven” and a phallic symbol. Like a classic mug shot, a derived photographic work from the period shows a frontal and profile view of the artist wearing the apron. The work is light and playful. Characteristic of Jrgenssen, she wields the redemptive power of humour to make a political point.
Another iconic Jrgenssen photo shows the artist, in a classic Hausfrau costume, pressing her face against a pane of glass. On the glass is written “Ich mchte hier raus!” (I want out of here!) – out of the home, that is. Jrgenssen was deeply inspired by the work of path-breaking artists like Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) and Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985), whose surreal power of transformation grew out of a longing for freedom in everyday life. Being trapped in an imposed role is a central theme of Jrgenssen’s art in the 1970s, a time when the struggle for equal rights was coming to a head, at least in parts of the Western cultural sphere. This involved a demand for women to be seen as more than housekeepers and mothers – or more accurately, perhaps, women’s desire to be able to freely choose the life they want.
Along with a number of other Austrian women artists in the early 1970s – including VALIE EXPORT, Ulrike Ottinger, Renate Bertlmann and Ulrike Rosenbach – Jrgenssen helped create a space for sharp feminist work, in opposition to the dominant male Viennese Actionists, including Gnter Brus, Otto Mhl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler.
l’aprs midi (2001), a video work made only two years before her death, shows the artist in disguise sitting in a sofa in her tiny Vienna studio. The camera performs a 360-degree pan, and when it returns to her, she is wearing a new disguise. So it continues. Donning countless masks in her art, Jrgenssen strove to elude any kind of classification.
The Louisiana exhibition, the first presentation of Jrgenssen’s work in Scandinavia, gives viewers a chance to survey the artist’s production, from the earliest drawings and photographs to works made just before her premature death in 2003. In her diary, Jrgenssen wrote – aptly, regarding the body of work she left behind – “Be very creative, refuse your role.”
In connection with the exhibition, the Louisiana has acquired nine works by Jrgenssen for its collection. Overall, the exhibition presents more than 70 works by the artist.
Born in Vienna on 10 April 1949. At age 14, she is given her first camera and starts experimenting with the medium. In 1967, she makes an extended visit to France, acquainting herself with French literature, the theatre of Antonin Artaud, and Surrealism. That year, she is accepted to the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, in the graphic arts programme under Prof. Franz Herbert. Jrgenssen graduates in 1971. The next year, she resumes her studies with Prof. Herbert, experimenting with photography. In 1974, she encourages the DuMont publishing house to put out a book about women artists. In 1978, Jrgenssen has a solo exhibition in the Albertina Museum’s drawing and print collection. In 1980, she starts working as an assistant instructor in the Austrian painter Maria Lassnig’s class at the University of Applied Arts. In 1981, Jrgenssen has her first exhibition at Galerie Hubert Winter, which today manages the artist’s estate. In 1982, Jrgenssen starts teaching in the Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer’s class at the University of Applied Arts. Setting up photography classes, Jrgenssen ends up teaching for more than 20 years. In 1996, she publishes the artist’s book I MET A STRANGER, with her fellow artist Lawrence Weiner. In 1998, Jrgenssen has a retrospective exhibition at the Obersterreichisches Landesmuseum in Linz. The artist dies on 25 September 2003.
