Lisa Großkopf00436769664433 lisa.grosskopf@gmx.net www.lisagrosskopf.net

In my postconceptual artistic practice and research I deal with the inter-

play of aesthetics and the conveyance of actuality in an experimental

and humorous way. By producing alternative models of action within

established mechanisms, I depict the problems of existing relation-

ships. Keeping an eye on a neoliberally governed world, I link timeless

humanistic questions with current socio-critical discourses. In my most

recent works, I examine the structures of institutions and deal with my

role in the global art world. My sometimes site-specific installations

and works employ diverse media and forms of expression, including

performative interventions in public space, photography, video and

printed matter such as posters and artist books.

South Sea, Palm Trees, Curry Sausage2019, performance lecture, 35’00 in cooperation with Lena Schwingshandl

In July 2019 I spent with Lena Schwingshandl spent 14 days traveling

inside the Tropical Islands Resorts as an attempt to understand the

fascination of this place, which counts about 6.000 visitors per day.

It‘s a five hectar big hall filled with the largest “indoor rain forrest”,

pools, playgrounds and wellness. Elements of nature, culture and

architecture of differents part of the world are randomly put together.

In the performance lecture South Sea, Palm Trees, Curry Sausage we

take turns in reading from our travel journals. While sitting in

canvas chairs we tell about the ups and downs of our adventures in

the Tropical Island Resorts.

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24.08.–25.08.19, Localize, Freundschaftsinsel, Potsdam, DE1 1

all mine2019, video, 6’11 in cooperation with Lena Schwingshandl

»The video all mine shows several shots of a white towel in a tropical

landscape. Lena Schwingshandl and Lisa Großkopf play with the

symbolism of space occupying towels on the holiday beach and

humorously thematize the claims of public space on holidays. However,

the scenery is not set on a holiday beach on the Mediterranean coast or

in the Caribbean, but in the Tropical Islands Resort in the interior of

Germany, far away from any open-air bathing resorts and natural sea

access. In the summer of 2019, Lisa Großkopf and Lena Schwingshandl

went on an artistic research trip to the Tropical Islands Resort together,

asking themselves, among other things, how that which is regarded as

authentic and artificially created merges into one another. The video

all mine is one of the works created in this context.«1

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text: Aline Lenzhofer 18.08.–20.08.20, TRAVEL APPARATUS, das weisse haus, Vienna, AT photo: Lea Sonderegger

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I should quit smoking2018–2020, videoperformances, various lenghts

To put it bluntly, one could understand artist residencies as the

embedding of tourism in the art system. The proximity to tourism

veils the fact that these trips, in contrast to other tourist practices,

are work stays. The videos show me while blowing up a huge globe

beach ball. The inflation costs me a lot of breath and is therefore

related to the real energy consumption caused by the increasing

mobility of artists due to these programs. By appropriating an

object usually associated with holiday and leisure, I refer to the

work-life-blending in artist residencies and their ambiguous

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I should quit smoking (Kunstluft), 2018, videoperformance, 17’38 I should quit smoking (ACAD), 2019, videoperformance, 15’53 I should quit smoking (Organhaus), 2019, videoperformance, 11’41 I should quit smoking (baseCollective), 2020, videoperformance, 13’22

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Kontakte knüpfen2019, bronze, friendship bracelets, 35 × 35 × 15 cm

Some artist residences primarly function as stepping stone for

emerging artists by establishing contacts with local gatekeepers.

The German expression Kontakte knüpfen means making contacts,

literally translated one would say knotting contacts. Picking up on this

play on words, I illustrate all the contacts that were made possible by

artist residencies with friendship bracelets that I made using the textile

technique of knotting.

30.09.–07.10.19, One Place after Another, Organhaus, Chongqing, CN1 1

To Whom it May Concern2018/19, video, 2’22

The starting point for To Whom it May Concern was the task of

producing a video about myself, suitable for publication in social

media. The person, who could acquire the most reactions on various

social media platforms, won a solo exhibition in Washington DC.

I refer to the presence of social media in our daily lives and locate its

origin in an economy of attention on which the competition itself was

based. The tongue-in-cheek clip examines user behavior in the digital

age, in which the border between the private and public spheres has

become blurred.

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To Whom it May Concern, 2018/19, video, 2’22, stills

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sometimes I would prefer not to 2019, twine, nails, inkjet print on transparent paper, wall

»The exhibition Pattern Recognition at the Kunstfabrik Groß Siegharts

[a former textile factory] presents 15 artists whose working methods,

approaches and themes not only reflect on the present of the factory as

an exhibition venue, but also take a critical look at the past and future

of textile and art production. The artists have explored patterns in

behavioral, thought and work processes in the contemporary art system

as well as in our everyday life and labour market.

“Sometimes I would prefer not to” says Lisa Großkopf. She quotes

Hermann Melville’s well-known literary character Bartleby1 — the

capable writing assistant who at some point reacts to the never-ending

bureaucratic workload with an “I would prefer not to” — and refuses to

do anything else. In a complex wall diagram made of paper and thread,

Lisa Großkopf presents the likewise endless work and decision-making

processes of an art project: who is invited, where does the money come

from, where does the material come from and what will become of the

ideas ... the magical aura that often surrounds an artist‘s existence is

transferred by Lisa Großkopf into the actual economies of art

production.«2

Melville, Herman: Bartleby.Stuttgart: Reclam, 1985text: Dominique Gromes 02.06.–14.07.19, Pattern Recognition, Kunstfabrik Groß Siegharts, ATphoto: Kaja Joo

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Concerns of the 21st century 2020, billboard, poster, 252× 356 cm 2019, billboard, poster, 200 × 300 cm

»HOW TO TITLE YOUR WORK OF ART? In Lisa Großkopf‘s

work, the billboard becomes the carrier of our current questions.

She uses the online portal, wikiHow, as the foundation. There you

can find countless step-by-step instructions for all sorts of everyday

challenges. The website offers not only instructions for tricky or

seemingly hopeless situations, but also answers very mundane and

bizarre questions. While some refer specifically to current problems

(for example, ‘How to Wear a Mask’), others answer existential

questions like ‘How to Find God.’ wikiHow involuntarily becomes

a humorous mirror of a late capitalist society.«1

text: Reclaim-Kollektiv16.06.–25.06.20, Reclaim Award, public space, Cologne, DE photo: Reclaim-Kollektiv

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Noticeably Unnoticeable 2018/19, performative action, 4 months 2019, video installation, variable size

In my performative action Noticeably Unnoticeable I explore the

current trend of self-optimisation. To attain perfection in my day job

as a museum supervisor I take various measures ranging from physical

training to acquiring professional qualifications and profound expertise.

I invest my entire income in my self-compiled education plan. In this

way, the ambivalent relationship of artistic and non-artistic work becomes

evident. The performanceas well as the documentation of this process

blurs the border between symbolic representation and economic reality.

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22.01.–25.01.19, Noticeably Unnoticeable, Heiligenkreuzer Hof, Vienna, ATphoto: Faksimile DigitalNoticeably Unnoticeable, 2019, video installation, stills 1

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Atopia2019, diasec, framed, different sizes

»The series Atopia portrays an extraordinary Romanian salt mine. Due

to the high salt content in the air, parts of the mine were converted into

a health-promoting leisure park for visitors. In order to make the time

underground as enjoyable as possible, games and sports equipment,

PC places, religious devotional images and bizarre-looking object

arrangements can be found there. Lisa Großkopf shows the rooms

depopulated, as absurd stages of human mise-en-scène.«1

text: Verena Kaspar-Eisert Atopia, 2019, diasec, framed, 50 × 60 cmAtopia, 2019, diasec, framed, 70 × 105 cmAtopia, 2019, diasec, framed, 50 × 60 cm

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WHAT IS LEFT 2018/19, oil on canvas, different sizes

»4cc91c6e1e6be2ba257331f04c6f7a35--oil-on-canvas after: Figures at the

Kibbutz belongs to a series of “conceptual paintings” created through

the following method: the artist went on Google image search and

downloaded several JPG images of Yohanan Simon’s famous “kibbutz

landscapes” which depict the members of the kibbutzim working in

the field and resting during Shabbat. After collecting several JPGs,

sometimes of the same painting, the artist herself digitally erased every

human presence from each and every painting and after that she sent all

the files to a painter in China who executed them with the new composi-

tion. This series, entitled WHAT IS LEFT, not only appropriates one of the

most iconic images of Israel’s “golden age”, it also analyzes, through

the role of labor and outsourced labor, how such ‘landscape’, and here

it must be taken metaphorically and playfully – what is left and what is

gone, what is left (wing) and what is right (wing) – has evolved over the

years, in Israel and beyond.«1

text: Nicola Trezzi12.12.19–01.02.20, Jonathan Monk – Exhibit Model Six, CCA, Tel Aviv, IL photo: Eyal Agivayev 2

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The Artist is Present 2018, performance, Kunstluft, St. Antönien (CH) 2018, video, 14’00

The Artist is Present was created during an artist residency in

Grisons (Switzerland). At the finissage I positioned myself at a

particularly busy spot on the art trail to paint the paint-by-numbers

painting Peaceful Mountain Landscape. The performance was a

response to the instrumentalisation of the participating artists by

the programme, which seemed to be in the service of local tourism

marketing. The (re-)production of the alpine cliché reaches a kitschy

climax and unmasks it as a projection surface of idyll.

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The Artist is Present, 2018, video, 14’00, still 1

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Alpenrösli 100%2019, wood, plastic, 10.5×14.8cm postcards (8×100 pcs), 180×75×35cm

Pictures that decorate the mountain inn Alpenrösli in Prättigau

(Switzerland) served as examples for an investigation of the Alps

as a space for imagination, emotion and images. Detached from

their natural habitat, they reveal the romantic view of the Alps. By

tagging the pictures using Google‘s artificially intelligent image

analysis, the romantic, kitschy landscapes are transformed into

sober mathematics.

09.06.–30.09.18, Kunstluft, kunstpfad, St. Antönien, CH1 1

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The Photo Studio2016 – (ongoing), installation, different sizes 2018/2020, diasec, different sizes

For the installation work The Photo Studio I turn the windows of vacant

shops into fictional photographic studios to display counter-hegemonic

queer imagery. Considering that shop windows of these studios usually

portray a traditional, heteronormative image of families and stereotypical

gender roles of men and women, I address and re-negotiate these gender

norms and present them side by side in the compressed space of the public

shop window.

The Photo Studio (Jägerstraße), 2018, diasec, 100 × 133 cm 1

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OPEN2016, national border sign, open sign 2017, diasec, 70×100cm

OPEN was a temporary site-specific installation, which I realized in

autumn 2016. This was about a year after many refugees crossed the

border between Hungary and Austria to (mostly) move on to Germany.

During these months in 2015, an unbelievable humane and respectful

treatment of these people seeking protection could be felt in parts of

Austria. This brief moment of humanity was followed by the closing of

the refugee route and other disreputable acts by the government of one

of the richest countries on the planet. By installing the inactive sign

Open at the national border, I would like to point out the ambivalence of

the border, which for some people can be crossed without difficulty, for

others it is an insurmountable border that separates not only the former

East from the West, but also the global South from the so-called First

World. By using a sign that is normally known from five-and-dimes,

I address the high expectations of refugees of the capitalism of the

“Golden West”, which often disappear into thin air soon after crossing

the border.

OPEN, 27.10.17 – 31.01.18, the smallest gallery, Graz, AT1

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#selfiextended2014, 120 photos, booklet, carpet, poster, website

#selfiextended was an installation addressing today’s selfie culture

in the time of social media. Installed on the walls of an open elevator

shaft, the installation picks up both content and formality of selfies.

The installation establishes relationships between amateur photography

and works of the Western art canon. The process of curating was done

subjectively and impulsively, imitating social media’s blogging culture

of spontaneous and individual image selection. The exhibition visualizes

the viewing of pictures on the Internet by means of spatial realization

in a lift shaft. Similar to scrolling a blog, the visitor quickly passes by

the pictures. The speed creates a wealth of stimuli reminiscent of the

accelerated pace of our time.

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#selfiextended, 18.10. – 2.11.14, Art University Linz, Linz , AT1

Lisa Großkopf

South Sea, Palm Trees, Curry Sausage

all mine

I should quit smoking

Kontakte Knüpfen

To Whom it May concern

sometimes I would prefer not to

Concerns of the 21st century

Noticeably Unnoticeable

Atopia

WHAT IS LEFT

The Artist is Present

Alpenrösli 100%

The Photo Studio

OPEN

#selfiextended