Julien Bismuth’s solo exhibition The Ventriloquism Aftereffect, staged at the GAK in early 2011, explored the various aspects of language: its indispensable nature, its inherent limits, the conundrums with which it presents us, and its formal application by means of quotation, cut-up and reformulation. The exhibition referenced the work of Austrian author Karl Kraus, his struggle to find a literary voice in the face of the horrors of the First World War, and his use of texts and images cut from newspapers, which he infused with new meaning by gluing, folding, and complementing them.
Bismuth has generously provided the GAK with four collages from a series of works titled Schnitte (Cuts). Inspired by Kraus’ treatment of text, these collages are also based on newspaper clippings. Through a series of slight interventions – such as scrunching up the clippings before flattening, cutting, and gluing them – Bismuth undermines conventional perceptions of current events and the familiar world.