In Ja, which Heinrich Dunst has realized for WWTBD – What Would Thomas Bernhard Do, and in his previous installation and text/image works, Dunst takes as his subject matter the disparity between text and image, highlighting through his gestures, this “rift” that separates the two spheres. He reflects upon “Thomas Bernhard’s linguistic and literary attacks on the violent grouping of specific (social) relationships”. He goes on to ask whether “various media fragments (such as projections, text, image, screen, letter, book, material gesture, etc.) can be arranged along the walls as a sort of meta-text, or in such a way that differences develop from a reading without a dictated direction, order, or syntax, or in such a way that the differences in visibility and speakability generate a modification of its readability”. This gap is paramount here; and as such will be given special consideration in the discussion with Vanessa Joan Müller.
Heinrich Dunst (*1955) is an artist. He lives and works in Vienna. Dunst has held various exhibitions in Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten in Klagenfurt, Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, as well as MAK and mumok in Vienna. In 2011 Dunst was awarded with the Kunstpreis des Landes Salzburg.
Vanessa Joan Müller (*1968) is head of dramaturgy at the Kunsthalle Wien. She lives and works in Vienna.