MY MASK MY MIRROR
12.08. – 18.08.2022
ALBA Salzburg
Imbergstraße 51A-5020, Salzburg
Margot Pilz (*1936, Haarlem, NL)
Margot Pilz belongs to the very first concept and media artists. In recent Austrian and international art history her approach is experimental and conceptual. Her rich artistic production stems from the spirit of that avant-garde period of the 60s and 70s, which is now increasingly being rediscovered and of which the immense importance and potential is only now, in the new millennium, perceived in many exhibitions and publications. Radical, actionist and feminist in the best sense – and also self-determined.
Margot Pilz is an interloper, daring and curious, as her oeuvre shows. Throughout her life. Stopping at high level brings fame and notoriety, steady continuing is striking and shows courage. One of the first artists in Austria to use not only the computer for her creations, but also digital thinking. Media-sculptures with intergrated screens, that focus on monitoring or ethnographical namegivings. Thinking in images, thinking in motion pictures. By Margot Pilz pictures are taught to move and think. A pioneer of the transformation of the personal into the public, into public space. “Kaorle am Karlsplatz”- already in the 80s, a lucid as well as enjoyable temporary installation as a public beach with sand, palmtrees and parasols, copied and commercialized 100 times. The bitter irony of the “Too Early”, the pioneers for those who harvest the fruits and present similar works later, when society is ready. Concepts, ideas galore.
“Flash-sculptures” in the early 80-s are such an example, volatile extented characters-people, at least documented in photographs. And photography was the foundation of her artistic analizations, which often translated inner psychological states into physical actions. The white cell closes and encloses Margot Pilz, the art world which opens up for her.
-Doris Krumpl
Margot Pilz is the winner of the Austrian art price for media art 2022 awarded by the federal ministry of culture
