Schönheit vor Weisheit. Das Wissen der Kunst und die Kunst der Wissenschaft

Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck
27th September 2019 – 1st March 2020

BEAUTY BEFORE WISDOM

THE SCIENCE OF ART AND THE ART OF SCIENCE

Art and science are two areas that both complement and compete with each other. This ambivalence is questioned in the special exhibition “Beauty before wisdom”. Science for example uses highly aesthetic procedures in the search for order systems so as to classify the diversity of the world as it appears to us. The development of morphological studies would be unthinkable without drawings and photographs. Art, in turn, is often simplistically assessed according to its relationship with nature. The border area where art and science encounter and influence one another opens up exciting new prospects. The special exhibition, held on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the University of Innsbruck in conjunction with the Tyrolean State Museums, sees scientists and artists meet in dialogue and put to the test conventional patterns of thought and interpretation. The works of more than thirty artists will link contemporary artistic practice with the scientific work of recent centuries, encompassing such areas as art history, psychology, biology and quantum physics. The exhibition is to be held in the “Aula Ferdinandeum”, a blend of conventional event space, open knowledge area, library and place of communication.

Curators and scientific team:
Christoph Bertsch, Rosanna Dematté, Claudia Mark, Helena Pereña

Participating artists:
Johannes Atzinger, Carmen Brucic, Franz Brunner, Ernst Caramelle, Thomas Feuerstein, Romana Fiechtner, FLATZ, Robert Fleischanderl, Dieter Fuchs, Dmitry Gelfand / Evelina Domnitch, Barbara Huber, Heinz Gappmayr, Martin Gostner, Hermann Graber, Christopher Grüner, Werner Kaligofsky, Judith Klemenc, Peter Kogler, Roland Maurmair, Irmgard Mellinghaus, Gregor Neuerer, Oswald Oberhuber, Bernd Oppl, Christine S. Prantauer, Norbert Pümpel, Heidrun Sandbichler, Arthur Salner, Renée Stieger, Marco Szedenik, Ernst Trawöger, Elmar Trenkwalder, Rens Veltman, Lois Weinberger, Franz West

In collaboration with the following departments, collections and research units of Innsbruck University (lenders):
Unit of Architectural Theory
Archaeological University Museum
Federal Artotheque, Collection of the Department of Art History Research Institute Brenner-Archiv
Department of Botany
Department of Experimental Physics
Department of Experimental Architecture Department of Geology
Department of Art History
Department of Pharmacy
Tyrolean University and Regional Library, Special Collections Innsbruck University Archive

Photo credits:

Lois Weinberger, “Debris Field – Erkundungen im Abgelebten”, 2010/2016
© Günter Richard Wett

Erwin Schrödinger, NOTEBOOK WITH DRAFT POEMS, 1949
incl. “God is the Mirror Image of the Ego in Nature”, manuscript Research Institute Brenner-Archiv, Innsbruck University