The Museum Angerlehner in Thalheim near Wels is one of the largest private museums in Austria and
houses the collection of more than 3,000 works of the museum founder and director Heinz Josef
Angerlehner.www.museum-angerlehner.at
Exhibition: DEMON THEATRE. MICHAEL VONBANK makes the puppets dance in the collection Space: Large hall on the ground floor of the Museum Angerlehner (1,200 sqm) Duration: 3 April to 25 September 2022 Dramaturgy: Vitus Weh, Curator for Contemporary Art of the Esterhazy Private Foundation
In his work, Michael Vonbank opens up insights into the spectacular spectacle of inner transformation.
His chimaeras or grotesques explore the backgrounds of our existence in permanent transformation between
being human, being animal and being a daemon.
In ancient Greece, "daimon" stood for an inner force, for something we are "obsessed" with because this
something constitutes ourselves. "Daimonion" stood for an inner voice that serves as a decision-making aid.
Michael Vonbank takes up these fields of meaning and traces both individual and collective "demons" of
society in his visual works and sculptures.
Picture dialogue: Michael Vonbank - Arnulf Rainer (Photo: Pia Odorizzi)
The colourful and expressive work of Michael Vonbank was combined in Vitus Weh's innovative exhibition
concept with selected works from the Angerlehner Collection (such as Josef Bauer, Guenter Brus, Arnulf
Rainer, Bianca Regl, Deborah Sengl, Otto Zitko and others). The dialogical exhibition concept continues
the central theatrical-dialogical aspect of Michael Vonbank's work, which is also visible in his numerous
collaborations with other artists (i.e. with Christian Ludwig Attersee). Museum Angerlehner/Press Release
Video by Pia Sternbauer, Remo Rausch, David Farago, Music by Ruth Umhaller-Sprenger
Michael Vonbank: Goblins and lucky charms
Picture dialogue: Michael Vonbank - Otto Zitko
Interviews with Beate Sprenger (Estate) and Vitus Weh (Curator/video 3:43min) by Pia Sternbauer
Media reports
ARTMAGAZINE, Interview with Vitus Weh and exhibition review by Werner Remm ARTMAGAZINE
DER STANDARD, exhibition review by Laura Kisser DER STANDARD
KURIER, exhibition review by Michael Huber KURIER
NEUES VOLKSBLATT, exhibition review by Christian Pichler NEUES VOLKSBLATT
PARNASS, exhibition review by Clarissa Mayer-Heinisch Kunstmagazin PARNASS
KULTUR ONLINE, exhibition review by Karlheinz Pichler, Kunstmagazin KULTUR ONLINE
LES NOUVEAUX RICHES Kunstmagazin LES NOUVEAUX RICHES
DIE OBEROESTERREICHERIN OBEROESTERREICHERIN
Catalogue
The exhibition was accompanied by the catalogue "Michael Vonbank. Demon Theatre. Works 1986 to 2015.
An Overview" with texts by Christian Ludwig Attersee, Lucas Gehrmann, Daniela Gregori, Anton
Herzl, Margareta Sandhofer, Beate Sprenger, Florian Steininger, Michael Vonbank and Vitus Weh. The
catalogue was published by Verlag fuer moderne Kunst. Verlag fuer moderne Kunst
Exhibition Events TALK "ABOUT DEMONS IN CONTEMPORARY ART"
Sunday, 15 May 2022, 2 pm
f.l.t.r.Elisabeth von Samsonow, artist and philosopher, professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna Werner Remm, moderator, publisher and editor-in-chief of the online art magazine artmagazine.cc Vitus Weh, curator for contemporary art at the Esterhazy Private Foundation, Eisenstadt Thomas Trummer, Director, Kunsthaus Bregenz
Photo: Chiara Matschnig, Museum Angerlehner
TEXT AND SOUND! Reading from texts by and about Michael Vonbank
Sunday, 26 June 2022, 2 p.m.
Anton Herzl read texts by and about Michael Vonbank
Christoph Buchegger played the trumpet
f.l.t.r.: Christoph Buchegger, Anton Herzl, Photo: Pia Sternbauer, Museum Angerlehner
The homage to Michael Vonbank's spontaneous poetry was a reminder of the artist's comprehensive
expressive power: text and sound! Anton Herzl and Christoph Buchegger took up Michael Vonbank's
poems and texts with fanfare in order to draw the audience's attention to this aspect of his work
as well to draw the audience's attention to this aspect of the work.
