“Independent Space Index 2024 kicked off in Vienna on a Thursday evening at the end of May, with 52 of the network’s 90 listed spaces opening their doors to the public over one weekend, rather than the appointment-only or irregular opening hours by which many normally operate. Anticipation ensued.

Plotting an itinerary was made significantly easier by the free printed brochures distributed throughout the city, recognizable by the blurred red and white oval halo repeat pattern across their covers. This was in addition to a clever website to help those uninitiated in the ways of Vienna (myself) navigate neighborhood clusters and state which spaces had events on which days. 

Based on these guides, Thursday night offered a smooth 6th District run, with the exhibition Autorn opening at  WAF, a film screening and book launch at  Salon für Kunstbuch, and the exhibition Mermaid & Seafruit at  Ve.Sch. Respective friends, fans, and social circles can arrive, linger, depart, refuel at Mcdonald’s, then re-arrive at leisure, text friends along the way, or look at Instagram to see what’s up and make a plan to unite at the next space. Most locals know that Ve.Sch is where finales typically occur on Thursday nights in Vienna, and where the cocktail mixing of the owners’ (probably extensive) repertoire of hobbies turned skills, can be experienced. 

Earlier in the day, I visited one space that I had been looking forward to visiting for the first time,  Prosopopoeia. The name refers to a rhetorical device in which a speaker or writer communicates by speaking as another person or object. This project space was initiated by Inga Charlotte Thiele, who came across the American-based artist JJJJJerome Ellis while working at PW Magazine and later invited him for this exhibition. The multiple J’s in Ellis’ first name refers to the stutter he lives with and which his works often are informed by, incorporating it into his written and visual poetry as well as his performances. Working not despite but rather becauseof his stuttered speech, Ellis contests the “social regime of fluency”, finding another rhythm through spoken word within which time is created by the moments in between. I thought of Fred Moten saying: “Anyone who can’t help but deviate can pretty much tell me anything.” A sequence of photos of the artist in the woods references the idea of a “clearing” in the forest where one happens upon a meadow, analogous to clearings as “ever-present clarity” as the exhibition text notes or moments of silence during a speech when one is trying to figure out the next word. On a perpendicular wall to the photos, poems formed in scores rather than stanzas are hung without frames. The soundtrack to the exhibition of Ellis’ meandering images is a spoken word performance emanating from speakers near a corner with a short shelf holding an intuitive selection of books. It was refreshing not to gauge any formal or obvious concept behind the book selection, instead, I felt a sense of reflected pride in recognizing some friends’ publications, as well as relief in finding authors and titles that I had searched for in Vienna but could not locate. With JJJJJerome’s language punctuating the background, the opportunity to sit and peruse the shelf to the beat and unexpected breaks reflects an intimacy only an independent art space can evoke.

Full article featuring  Salon für Kunstbuch,  WAF,  Ve.Sch,  Prosopopoeia,  VAN,  school,  Loggia: https://www.artsoftheworkingclass.org/text/field-report