Marianne Vlaschits is an Austrian artist, who studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and London. Her work deals with the never fully satiable longing for consummate beauty and felicity. Using the human body as a starting point, her interest leads her towards the creation of artificial paradises, often through the idealization of exotica. Borrowing from cultural history’s entire repertoire, she works with diverse motifs, processing them into an eclectic mixture of tropes and styles. Foundation of all of Vlaschits’ work is her bold and simple style of painting, which she extends into three-dimensional installations. Through the use of performative interventions these paintings finally turn into “Tableaux Vivants”, carrying the spirit of Humanism and its never-ending utopian dream—while atrabiliously reflecting art’s role in the history of ideas.
Fanni Futterknecht creates performances for a stage context and works with video. Born in Vienna she has been studying visual art in Amsterdam and a Vienna, Rotterdam and Vienna. Her work began with video installations and evolved from performative interventions in public space to performances that are constructed for a theater context. She is curious in exploring the borders between the context of performing arts and the context of fine art.
Andy Butler is a musician, producer, DJ, and songwriter living in Vienna, Austria. Originally, hailing from Denver, Colorado he has written songs and produced for his own band called Hercules and Love Affair, with a couple of singles—most notably “Blind” with vocals by Antony Hegarty—garnering much attention and favor amongst fans and journalists alike. Butler has written songs since childhood, and in university began writing music for dance and theater, studying under Martin Goldray, focusing on music and art history.
During their residency, Fanni Futterknecht and Marianne Vlaschits hope to expand upon their previous project, “Garden of Lust,” which is in part inspired by ideas of nature, artificiality, and George Rochegrosse’s painting “Le Chevalier aux Fleurs.” Specifically, they hope to incorporate aspects of painting—with light, with actual painted surfaces—and expand the installation to the size of a stage or film setting. They will also incorporate The Watermill Center’s gardens and music by Andy Butler.