Admont Guests 2023

WORKS BY NIKOLA IRMER IN THE
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

open from 01 April to 01 Nov. 2023

In the Natural History Museum of the monastery in the 2023 season, works of contemporary art by Nikola Irmer will be in dialogue with the historical specimens there. The invitation to the German-born, internationally active artist, who recently moved to Graz, was issued in the context of the Exhibition "Styrian roots" and the "ADMONT GUESTS" programme founded in 2011.

A representative selection of drawings and paintings offers insights into the background of Nikola Irmer's series of works, which deal with the theme of nature and natural history collections in a variety of ways. The exhibited works are on loan from the artist and show excerpts from zoological collections and their depots. They were not created in Admont, but originate from blocks of works that have emerged from collaborations with other museums.

In the course of her project research on natural history museums and their relationship to art, Nikola Irmer also came across the Museum Admont and the collections of Father Gabriel Strobl. "The background to one of my projects is current problems such as the extinction of species and the generally jeopardised balance between contemporary culture and nature," says Nikola Irmer. She is particularly interested in the cultural history of collecting and the museum space as a memory and poetic place.

The ongoing project presented in Admont this season according to the "Pars pro Toto" principle was exhibited in various formats and institutions. It was part of the "Wordly House" presented by Tue Greenfort at documenta13. An exhibition relating to the collections at Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha was realised in 2015. In addition to numerous participations in exhibitions, solo exhibitions have taken place at the Kunsthalle Memmingen (2015) and in cooperation with the Kunstverein Kreuzlingen and the University of Constance (2017), among others.

A future MADE-FOR-ADMONT project relating to the museum's own collections is already in the works. We are planning to present the first results to you as part of the upcoming special exhibitions in the anniversary year 2024.