Local Artists Special 2025: Edgar Honetschläger
04.02.2025 // In its Local Artists program section focusing on filmmaking with a connection to Upper Austria, Crossing Europe 2025 dedicates a Special to the visual artist, filmmaker and environmental activist Edgar Honetschläger.
As regards the context of their localization, though, Honetschläger and his oeuvre could quite as well turn up in a program carrying the attribute “local” that is shown in Tokyo or Rome: Born in Linz, he has mostly lived abroad for more than three decades, including five years in the U.S., thirteen years in the capital of Japan and, since 2011, on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Rome and Naples. He has been awarded numerous prizes in Europe and Japan and his works have been shown, among others, in solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, at the Belvedere 21 in Vienna or premiered at Berlinale or the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Also, his works CHICKENSSUIT / ERNI (AT 2005; CE 2006) and IL MARE E LA TORTA (AT 2003; CE 2004) have previously been shown at Crossing Europe.
Using the mediums of drawing, painting, photography, installation, intervention and, not least, film, Honetschläger has engaged in the challenging of supposed cultural realities or that of our notion of individualism since the 1980s. One of his core subjects since the start has been the way humans treat nature, to which he is also committed in an activist manner: In 2018, he founded the NGO GOBUGSGO which by collectively purchasing land reclaims habitats for insects and birds and then declares them “Non-Human Zones”.
The relationship between human civilization and the environment also constitutes the mainstay of the Local Artists Special dedicated to him, which is presented in cooperation with Nordico Stadtmuseum Linz. From 11 April to 24 August, the latter allows to experience the comprehensive solo exhibition “Edgar Honetschläger - Give Nature a Break”, featuring around 100 pieces, part of which have never been shown before.
Even as a child whose mother worked at a cinema, Edgar Honetschläger used to be bored by the repetitive narratives of commercial cinema. Breaking them would become a constant aspiration in his own works. His essayist films wander freely between documentary, fictional and experimental forms. Highly political and subtly critical at their core, they are nevertheless always humorous and poetical.
The Special comprises a selection of four cinematic positions:
The artist will personally attend the screenings at Crossing Europe and will provide insight into his cinematic approaches during the subsequent film talks. More detailed information on the program will be announced on 17 April, in the context of the program press conference.
As regards the context of their localization, though, Honetschläger and his oeuvre could quite as well turn up in a program carrying the attribute “local” that is shown in Tokyo or Rome: Born in Linz, he has mostly lived abroad for more than three decades, including five years in the U.S., thirteen years in the capital of Japan and, since 2011, on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Rome and Naples. He has been awarded numerous prizes in Europe and Japan and his works have been shown, among others, in solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, at the Belvedere 21 in Vienna or premiered at Berlinale or the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Also, his works CHICKENSSUIT / ERNI (AT 2005; CE 2006) and IL MARE E LA TORTA (AT 2003; CE 2004) have previously been shown at Crossing Europe.
Using the mediums of drawing, painting, photography, installation, intervention and, not least, film, Honetschläger has engaged in the challenging of supposed cultural realities or that of our notion of individualism since the 1980s. One of his core subjects since the start has been the way humans treat nature, to which he is also committed in an activist manner: In 2018, he founded the NGO GOBUGSGO which by collectively purchasing land reclaims habitats for insects and birds and then declares them “Non-Human Zones”.
The relationship between human civilization and the environment also constitutes the mainstay of the Local Artists Special dedicated to him, which is presented in cooperation with Nordico Stadtmuseum Linz. From 11 April to 24 August, the latter allows to experience the comprehensive solo exhibition “Edgar Honetschläger - Give Nature a Break”, featuring around 100 pieces, part of which have never been shown before.
Even as a child whose mother worked at a cinema, Edgar Honetschläger used to be bored by the repetitive narratives of commercial cinema. Breaking them would become a constant aspiration in his own works. His essayist films wander freely between documentary, fictional and experimental forms. Highly political and subtly critical at their core, they are nevertheless always humorous and poetical.
The Special comprises a selection of four cinematic positions:
- CIVILIZATION SUCKS
IT 2018, 1 min
- AUN – THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF ALL THINGS
AT/JP 2011, 102 min
- GIVE NATURE A BREAK
AT 2022, 2 min
- LE FORMICHE DI MIDA – MIDAS’ ANTS
AT/IT 2023, 75 Min
The artist will personally attend the screenings at Crossing Europe and will provide insight into his cinematic approaches during the subsequent film talks. More detailed information on the program will be announced on 17 April, in the context of the program press conference.
