Anna-Maria Bogner
Anna-Maria Bogner, born in 1984 in Schwaz, Tyrol, Austria, lives and works in Düsseldorf and Vienna. For more information, visit the artist's website.
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In one sentence: What is Concrete Art for me?
Language.
Do I see myself as a representative of Concrete Art?
I see myself as connected to Concrete Art. Nevertheless, my theoretical approach does not follow the guidelines of the early Concretists, who consciously excluded "formal realities" of the senses and emotions, as I am interested precisely in observing and analysing the construction, especially the social construction, of space.
Who is my favorite artist in the field of Concrete Art? Which position in Concrete Art was particularly formative or impressive for me? Which pioneers of Concrete Art do I see as role models?
There is no such thing as a favorite artist for me. Nor is there one particular role model or pioneer. It's the different confrontations that perhaps explore similar assumptions, but lead to new questions independently and from the respective perspective. Every era has its own present, its own immediate future and its own past. A question can be asked an infinite number of times, but in each time it encounters a different present and in each present a different author and many different readers and thus becomes a unique debate again and again. Questions are changed by the people asking them and therefore never remain one and the same.
I have thought a lot about who to name here: Artists who mark the beginnings of Concrete Art and / or artists who were and still are groundbreaking for me in their work, artists with whom I feel connected through dialogue and / or friendship. I have decided to name a small mixture – a small journey through time –, if you will:
Eileen Gray (1878–1976, IRL), Agnes Martin (1912–2004, USA), Lina Bo Bardi (1914–1992, IT/ BRA), Lygia Clark (1920–1988, BRA), Vera Molnar (1924, HU), Heinz Gappmayr (1925–2010, AT), Stanislav Kolíbal (1925, CZ), Lygia Pape (1927–2004, BRA), Channa Horwitz, 1932–2013, USA), Irma Blank (1934–2023, DE/IT), Dora Maurer (1936, HU), Hellmut Bruch (1936, AT), Janos Megyik (1938, HU), Hartmut Böhm (1938–2021, DE), Inge Dick (1941, AT), Gerhard Frömel (1941, AT), Linda Karshan (1947, USA/UK), Lydia-Okumura (1948, BRA), Alke Reeh (1960, DE), Friederike Feldmann (1962, DE), Haleh Redjaian (1971, DE), Simon Ingram (1971, NZ), Anita Leisz (1973, AT), Esther Stocker (1974, IT/AT), Lars Breuer (1974, DE), Julia Bünnagel (1977, DE), Frauke Dannert (1979, DE), Anna Szprynger (1982, PL), Carla Chaim (1983, BRA), Denise Winter (1983, DE), Marie Ogoshi (1984, JP/DE), Zora Kreuzer (1986, DE), Paulina Hoffmann (1994, DE) und viele weitere.
What was my first contact with Concrete Art?
The experience of being able to consciously perceive an artificially created situation directly through one‘s own movement in space – the presence of the body in space. (Childhood memory: visiting the Frauenkirche in Munich when I was about 12 years old.)
Have the early days of Concrete Art had a direct influence on my own work as an artist?
No. And yet I assume that everything that was before us, that is today and that will be in the future has an influence on each of us. Consciously as well as unconsciously.
Which principles of Concrete Art have shaped my artistic approach most?
Concrete Art has also developed many approaches. I don't want to categorise myself as belonging to any school or direction, but I do have sympathies for the holistic approach of the Neo-Concretists.
Color, form, or line? Which fundamental form of artistic expression from Concrete Art is most important to me?
The Line.
The manifestos of the pioneers of Concrete Art are for me
- Long-since outdated
- As valid as ever today
- Much too dogmatic
- Of no relevance at all
- Pioneering for their time x
- Still a source of inspiration
- Not radical enough
- Other assessments: x
Developable.
On the hundredth anniversary: Where do I see Concrete Art in another hundred years?
- The movement within fine art that sets the tone
- No longer recognizable as a clearly distinguishable art movement of its own
- Still of great importance
- In forms and media that cannot be predicted yet x
- Other assessments:
And? Is the term Concrete Art still necessary (at all)?
An artistic classification can be helpful for our activity but also obstructive, especially when it becomes a vow.
Translated from German.