Heinz Cibulka

In his “picture poems,” Heinz Cibulka searches for the power of the “unremarkable,” for the poetic potential of the ‘normal’ and “random,” and repeatedly finds it in his immediate surroundings, the rural culture of Lower Austria—his adopted home for around five decades. From the mid-1970s onwards, he created numerous picture poems before concentrating on digital image collages from the mid-1990s onwards. The artist traces people and their lives, culture and tradition, rural occupations and religious rites. This personal search for traces is always also a reflection on life itself, on becoming and passing away, on love and sexuality, birth and death. Central to the exhibition is Geschichtes Gedicht (History's Poem).

The digital image collage from 2000, accompanied by texts by Hanno Millesi, provides a visual insight into Austrian cultural and intellectual history in the first half of the 20th century. It is presented in a new form and with augmented reality enhancements, implemented by media artist Bobby Rajesh Malhotra, who thus becomes the co-author of the work.