Opening: Robert Vanis – back of a book
Opening of the exhibition back of a book by Robert Vanis, reflecting on representation and (in)accessibility, as well as the materiality and transience of knowledge. A project realised as part of Foto Wien 2025 at the Academy Library.
The historical holdings, which are accessible to the public in the reading room of the University Library of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, comprise around 6,000 titles, which visitors perceive more as part of the historical interior than as a resource of knowledge.
German artist and photographer Robert Vanis—who will be teaching in the academy's photo laboratory starting in fall 2025—combines analog and digital techniques and follows in the tradition of experimental photography. He addresses the materiality of photography as well as its perception and use. In his photography installation back of a book, Vanis explores representation and accessibility as well as materiality and transience of knowledge. Across several metres of shelving, he replaces and supplements the spines of selected volumes with mirrors, photographs, facsimiles, photographic paper, and glass, along with large-format cyanotypes installed in front of the bookshelves. By subtly linking photography to its surroundings, he challenges photography’s possibilities of representation.
The artitst will be present.