In fact, his work is insistently open-ended. Like Goya's Disasters of War, his art queries time and again, "How can this have happened?" Sometimes viewers reply, assaulting pictures of innocent children, worshipping those of a murderous dictator. Yet such reactions can only bring us to inquire again, louder and with greater urgency, "How can this have happened?" At last we recognize that Helnwein asks questions not in order to solicit answers - hate has no reason - but rather in order that we might begin to pose our own. ...

Completacion del rodaje y edicion de NOCHE DEL NUEVE DE NOVIEMBRE.
- Un documental referente a los ninos y el holocausto en el arte de Gottfried Helnwein. Director: Henning Lohner
Co-Director & Editor: Max Carlson
Comentaristas: Sean Penn, Maximilian Schell, Jason Lee
Texto introductorio de Simon Wiesenthal
Director de Fotografia: Darren Rydstrom
Camara Adicional: Jason Lee, Bernd Reinhardt
Helmut Lohner conversa con Gottfried Helnwein ...

* Gottfried Helnwein, artista, nacido en Vienna, 1948
* Theodor Herzl "fundador" de Israel, vivio la amyor parte de su vida en Austria
* Adolf Hitler, dictator de Alemania de 1933-1945, nacido el 20 de abril de 1889 en Braunau am Inn ...

exhibition-catalogue ...

Helnwein’s 20-by-60 foot outdoor installation “Modern Sleep 2003”, as well as photographs from his collaboration with Marilyn Manson, are included in the show, which opens with this evening’s gala and is open to the general public Friday through Sunday at Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hangar.
“Modern Sleep 2003” (digital print) is the latest in a series dating back to the 1980s and reflects Helnwein’s use of children in questioning the human condition. It includes two images of a girl. In one, her skin is pale white, and she is dressed in black. In the other, she is black, dressed in white. In both images, her expression is death-like.
“They have open eyes, so modern sleep doesn’t mean they are just sleeping,” says Helnwein. “It might mean something else.” ...

Instalacion "Modern Sleep", 2003, impresion digital sobre vinilo, 20 por 60 pies, frente al Barker Hangar en la Exposicion de Los Angeles, 2003,
3021 Airport Avenue at Santa Monica Airport. ...

Arnold war schon sehr früh mit Andy Warhol befreundet, zu einem Zeitpunkt wo beide noch unbekannt waren. Aber er hatte sofort Gefallen an dem blassen, schmächtigen, weissblonden Sonderling gefunden, der oft stundenlang in Trainingshallen und Umkleidräumen verbrachte und fasziniert die verschwitzten Kolosse bei ihren diversen Tätigkeiten betrachtete.
Die Inspiration war offensichtlich gegenseitig, denn Arnold beschloss eines Tages, sein Bodybuilding zur Kunst zu erklären. Er wandte sich also an den Chief-Curator des angesehenen Whitney-Museums in New York und überzeugte ihn davon, dass Bodybuilding eigentlich Bildhauerei im klassischen Sinn sei, nur mit dem eigenen Körper als dem zu bearbeitenden Material. Er hat dann mit zwei anderen Kollegen tatsächlich vor staunenden Kunstfreunden, Kuratoren und Trustees des Museums eine Performance inszeniert, die die illustre Runde lange nicht vergessen sollte. ...

Exposicion Individual ...

Helnwein:
"I think art always reflects the society and the time the artist lives in; it always tells you something about the condition of the culture.
This is the age of materialism and profit, accompanied by its favorite all-eating pet – the entertainment industry. Therefore in order not to sink into oblivion, in a desperate struggle to be heard and seen, many artists and curators try to compete with this multi-media-entertainment-Godzilla, trying to be just as loud and cheap and stupid. That’s why 70% to 80% of all the contemporary art in our museums is crap.
It’s true though that each time has its own aesthetic values and if you want to reach the people of today you have to develop an artistic language that they can understand. And that’s what I try to do – my audience is the great love-affair of my life. I am obsessed with my public, and all I want to do with my art is touch them and move them and to hold them tight – and sometimes I want to kick their ass. That is all I care about.
But I also listen to them and take them and their responses serious, because they and other artists are the only ones that ever taught me anything." ...

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