Andi Schmied

During a residency in Vienna I would focus on the production of an object-based performance series and I would work on strengthening my regional network by getting to know and working together with artists and curators around Museum Quartier.
PRACTICE
Throughout my artistic practice I explore architectural anomalies and the underlying psychological patterns of urban landscapes that do not follow conventional logic. These include places that developed far from their original function, to utopian architectures and senseless elements in otherwise utilitarian cityscapes.  My working process involves visiting these places and documenting aspects of their everyday life that affect them in subtle – yet striking – ways. I continue by creating physical interventions in these landscapes that, at first glance, appear to emerge naturally from the place’s way of life. Since 2011, I have applied this working process to urban areas in China, Japan, US, and the UK.  Each project culminates in a publication and installation in which both the existing and the modified environments are represented. These combine photography, video, and text, often in conjunction with altered reconstructions and scale models of the original cityscapes.
VIENNA
As I have not visited Vienna in my adult life, I would like to re-discover the city by using it as a stage set. Drawing upon its history of artists using performance to alter public space, I want to continue my engagement with the irrational but with a focus on the live environment. This would shift my practice from architectural compositions to integrate active interventions and live situations. During the residency, I would treat the city as a ‘live model’ by adding temporary sculptural objects to existing architecture. These physical structures and situations would act to catalyse irrational human actions, which I will record using photography and video. By the end of the residency I would like to put together a publication that would gather all the interventions and their life cycle through photography and texts.
REGIONAL NETWORK - CONTINUOUS REAL TIME FEED-BACK
Key to the residency is the physical encounter between the viewer and a performative actions. With the community of artists and visitors at the Museum Quartier, I aim to develop a repeat audience who witness and collaborate in the change of the installations over time. For this I would organize talks and screenings about the progress of the work and I would also like to collaborate with guest writers to develop critical texts about the project’s development over the course of the residency.
Since my residencies have been so far overseas, and my studies in Spain and the UK, a residency at Museum Quartier would also be very meaningful for me, to strengthen my regional artistic network.