wanja hack

High Noon
Group show
University of Arts Linz
4 March – 18 March 2020

A light breeze. Water dripping, a clock ticking. The tension is immense and keeps growing. Breathing is hard. It’s slowly getting unbearable. It will all be over soon, but for now time seems infinite. The scenery is equally before and after the climax. A dragging heaviness competes against a redeeming levity. Petrified and melting, inside and outside of form. In the space itself, as in every object it is constructed out of. A gun cocked. In the blink of an eye, all ambiguity between ease and suspense spills into a single story. The trigger pulled. Seconds turn into years. Eyes follow like echoes. The redeemer is a gunshot away.

High Noon is the name of a Hollywood Western by Austrian filmmaker Fred Zinnemann, released in 1952. It was shot in real time, building up to the final shootout at 12 o’clock. In the movie the towns esteemed marshal just retired from his position awaiting his successor the following day. But soon word arrives that a former bandit got out of prison and is one his way to have revenge. He will arrive on the noon train already awaited by his gang members. A frantic hunt for volunteers begins. Over the course of 85 minutes the movie builds up more and more tension, leaving the viewer in a certain petrified limbo, before it suddenly erupts. The exhibition shows works by Volo Bevza, Neckar Doll, Ina Aloisia Ebenberger, Judith Gattermayr, Lenard Giller, Sebastian Lou, Mimi Neitsch, Felix Pöchhacker, Aiko Shimotsuma and Kiky Thomanek. The poster was designed by Sebastian Lou. The show was curated by Wanja Hack.

(→ Poster)  (→ Press Release)

Exhibition views, High Noon



enchanted chain, Ina Aloisia Ebenberger



O I, Kiky Thomanek



Bild, Lenard Giller




Angepatzt (Performance), Mimi Neitsch
Angepatzt (Performance Relict), Mimi Neitsch



Prove you‘re not a robot, Volo Bevza



60er nach Rodaun, Sebastian Lou



Untitled (landscape), Felix Pöchhacker



PRECIOUS IS YR BODY, Judith Gattermayr



To accept, Aiko Shimotsuma



Ouroboros, Neckar Doll