In the Light

Lambda C-print (from a slide), 80x80 cm, 2026

In recent years, almost all lighting fixtures in public spaces have been equipped with LED technology. The main advantages of LEDs are their high light efficiency and greater sustainability. This technology has primarily replaced sodium vapour lamps, which are known for their distinctive yellowish light. This type of lighting has now almost completely disappeared from public spaces. The photographic work ‘In the Light’ shows a plant in an urban space illuminated by a street lamp  by a sodium vapour street lamp. The image captures a lighting atmosphere that is still familiar to us, but which is already inherently anachronistic.

Between Suicide and Travel

Photo series, 2026, each 60cmx45cm

The photo series ‘Between Suicide and Travel’ borrows its title from a statement by the well-known Italian artist Lucio Fontana, who is best known for his iconic slashed paintings. Fontana said that at one point in his life he had to choose between suicide and travel. He chose the latter. The photo series consists of four medium-format photographs of travel motifs, each of which – in reference to Fontana – is traversed by a red cut. The photo series is available in two versions: one edition in which the lines are digitally superimposed on the images, and another edition with analogue baryta prints in which the lines are drawn by hand with red ink.

Notes on Perception and Fluidity

The group of works Notes on Perception and Fluidity (2025) consists of four works, all of which were created during a residency in Cairo. On the one hand, the photographic and object works revolve around the question of what we perceive as ‘foreign’ and how we position ourselves in relation to it. On the other hand, they deal with the state of fluidity that is always inherent in individual and collective perception. A quote from the early scholastic Hugo of Saint Victor, found in Edward Said's book Orientalism, complements the photographic works created in Cairo. One of the two object works is an artistic examination and postcolonial interrogation of the works of Austrian postcard manufacturer Joseph Max Lichtenstern, who worked in Cairo from 1893 onwards. Here, too, the focus is on a critical reflection of our view of the ‘other’. Another work uses an analogue film reel to explore the fluidity of technical recording devices and can be read in direct relation to the current state of filmmaking in Egypt – in archival, political and economic terms. All of the works critically question our perception, which requires constant reinterpretation and re-evaluation and can never be regarded as a fixed state. This is particularly true with regard to our perception of the ‘other,’ which continuously reflects power relations.

mediterranean sea

SERIES AND STRUCTURES

Selection of photographic works in the solo exhibition ‘Series and Structures’ at Bayt Yakan in Cairo/November 2024 (all joint works by Karl Wratschko and Aleksandra Kolodziejczyk) 

THE SHADOWS OF BRÂNCUȘI

Aleksandra Kolodziejczyk and Karl Wratschko, 2024
Series of 9 silver gelatine prints

How does the shadow relate to the sculpture? It is outside the artwork and yet connected to it. Depending on the composition of the sculptures, the lighting conditions and the background, the shadows change shape, become more or less visible, overlap and create different shades of grey. In this way, the sculptures are abstracted to their basic form and given a form of expression that is changeable and therefore ephemeral in comparison to the materiality of the objects that cast the shadows. Can we look at the shadows separately from the artworks? Do they open up a new aesthetic of reception? Does the artistic character of the objects remain recognisable in them, and do authors' rights also apply to the shadows of artistic works?

The analogue photographs were taken in 2024 during an exhibition on the work of the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957) at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Photographic series of 11 slides (b/w), 2024

THE FUTURE IS PRESENT (Vienna)

THE FUTURE IS PRESENT (TIRANA)

Exhibition photos: Tulla Cultural Center, Tirana

ARCHITECTURE & IMAGINATION

All images shown here were taken in Jerusalem in summer 2022.

AT THE SHORE

Series of 21 slides presented on a viewing table plus three C-prints. Realised in 2022 together with Aleksandra Kolodziejczyk.

SYNTHESIS |

Series of three photos, 108cm x 45cm, gelatin silver print on paper, 2022

The work deals with the fascination of the fusion of, at first glace, opposite things. Is it really that difficult to reconcile opposites, or does the separation mainly happen in our heads?

MISSING

Photo-performance together with God’s Entertainment

In the framework of the opening of GGGNGM - Guggenheim in Floridsdorf? on September 17, 2020 at Am Spitz in Vienna

SYNOPSIS:

Remembering is inconceivable without the act of fixation. Much is spontaneously inscribed into the individual or collective memory, but some things require the conscious act of fixation. In photography, fixation is a deliberate step taken to record an event that has just been exposed for the future. Without it, we can literally watch forgetting take place.

Countless people and their (hi)stories disappeared in Vienna in the 20th century. The photographic installation MISSING enabled the audience to bear witness to disappearance on the one hand, and remembering on the other.

16 portraits of people from the Floridsdorf district of Vienna who were killed by National Socialists during the Second World War were exposed in advance on large-format photo paper. The images were then developed in front of the audience in a bath and hung in a red-lit room. After a while, the lights in the room were turned on and the audience could watch as the images slowly blackened and eventually (almost) disappeared altogether. To complement the performative photographic work, a book containing the biographies of the 16 portrayed people was exhibited.

Inspired by Ulay's Fototot.

Photos: Andreas .muk. Haider

Film: mare liberum | mare clausum
16mm/digital, 2 minutes 40 seconds + Portable record player + 7” with locked groove
2019 

Photo: mare liberum | mare clausum
C-Print, colour/b&w
2019

III. Memory

Film: untitled
1x loop on a TV-screen with sound 16mm/digital, 2 minutes 40 seconds
2019

Photo: ∞ 
2x Silver gelatine prints
2018