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Christian Wachter is an Austrian photographer.

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Christian Wachter (born 1949 in Oberwart) is an Austrian photographer.\n

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Education

He studied medicine in Graz. Apprenticeship in photography in 1981, then attended the master class at the Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, which he left after a few months to begin his work as a freelance photographer. An internship with Elfriede Mejchar and trainings in the photo workshops of the Federal Monuments Office and participation in courses at the International Center of Photography in New York, Salzburg College, and Forum Stadtpark Graz followed.\n

Career

From the outset, his approach to the medium was analytical and conceptual. “Based on historical facts as well as fictional, narrative, or personal elements and through their poetic connections, Christian Wachter semantically and visually questions and reflects on the perception and interpretation of history and identities.” Susanne Neuburger (art historian, MUMOK) writes that Christian Wachter “augments the principal photographic dispositif of his work with semantic, conceptual and even performative elements, so that it sometimes seems as if he is about to leave photography behind when he is often actually re-engaging and paraphrasing its very parameters.”\n

Photography theorist Christine Frisinghelli explains his artistic approach in her laudatory speech for the 2014 Austrian State Prize: \"The analytical, theoretical, and historical examination of the medium of photography plays just as important a role in Christian Wachter's approach to the visual as his preference for projects that involve extensive research and are often worked on over a long period of time. [...] Scientific and historical research are an essential part of Christian Wachter's work. His series, tableaux, and montages do not create an illusionistic pictorial space, but rather images, or images and texts, which may be of different origins and genres, are placed in relation to one another. A holistic approach to the individual photographic image is dissolved in favor of a complex concept of reality; interpretation becomes possible through the interaction of individual elements or their opposition.\"\nAn early work by Christian Wachter is “ABPOPA/AURORA” (1988/89), which curator Reinhard Braun (Camera Austria, among others) classifies as a “key work” for tracing his approach: “Christian Wachter does not reconstruct a concrete story from fragments of text, images, and objects; he is not concerned with retelling events, [...] but rather with their reception and utilization, with the circulation and processing of symbols and meanings. By combining documentary photographs, objects, staged model photographs, paintings, and lettering, the work creates an aesthetic-associative space in which history, aesthetics, politics, and art intersect.\"\n

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Sometimes travels inspire series of works: to the former Soviet Union for “ABPOPA/AURORA” or to London's National Maritime Museum for “Im Referenzmeer tauchen...” (1994/96); other works by Christian Wachter have references to Africa: “Surplus | Krebsgang” (1998/99) was created in Yamoussoukro, “Diar El Mahçoul” (2010/11) in a social housing estate in Algiers, and an invitation to travel to Ouagadougou was the starting point for “Impressions D'AFRIQUE” (1998–2006). Ruth Sonderegger writes about the book and exhibition (in Camera Austria, 2010, Graz): \"So while the Impressions D’AFRIQUE are linked to a personal history, and thus do not even attempt to disregard the author’s own context, they reconstruct circumstances and institutions on this basis that transcend all the individuals involved and incidentally observed details. [...]\"\n

Public collections

Works by Christian Wachter can be found in these public collections: Albertina‚ Collection of the Arts Department of Vienna, Folkwang Museum, Photo Collection of the Austrian State, Austrian National Library, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, FOTOHOF>ARCHIV, Arts Collection of the State Niederösterreich, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Fotografis.\n

Selected exhibitions

Solo

2022 WERKSCHAU XXVII: Concept versus Photography, Fotogalerie Wien / Fotohof, Salzburg
2017 Obergrenze (Fuga) als „Die Wandzeitung # 38“, Vienna
2016 EUROPE. rêvée, revue, revisited, FOTOHOF>ARCHIV
2011 ABPOPA/AURORA, Wien Museum MUSA
2011 Bad Ischl, 15. Juli 1912, Palais de la Culture, Tlemcen, Algeria
2010 Impressions D'AFRIQUE, Camera Austria, Graz
1999 surplus, Künstlerhaus, Kinogalerie, Vienna
1997 Im Referenzmeer tauchen..., ACF, London
1995 Netz und Knoten, Camera Austria im Forum Stadtpark, Graz
1994 ABPOPA/AURORA, Ffotogallery, Cardiff
1993 Europe, Vienna Secession
1991 ABPOPA/AURORA, Museum Moderner Kunst Wien & Museum Folkwang, Essen | 1990 Forum Stadtpark, Graz

Group

KUNSTWERK KÖLN, Köln (2019); Lentos Art Museum (2019, 2008); Museum der Moderne Salzburg (2018, 2014, 2009, 2005); Belvedere 21, Vienna (2013); Parlement Européen & Académie Royale des Beaux Arts / Espace Magh, Brussels (2012); Bastion 23, Algier (2011); Fotogalerie Wien (2010); Pushkin Museum, Moscow (2006); Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2004); Camera Austria, Graz (2003); Künstlerhaus Wien (2002); Galerie Gradska, Zagreb (1997); Centre National de la Photographie, Paris (1996); Kunst.Halle.Krems, (1995); Fotohof, Salzburg (1993, 1991); Slowakische Nationalgalerie, Bratislava (1992); Kunstverein in Hamburg, Deichtorhallen (1991); Künstlerwerkstätten Lothringerstraße, Munich (1990); Haus der Architektur, Graz (1990); Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna (1989).
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Monographs

2022 Werkschau XXVII: Concept versus Photography. Vienna: Fotogalerie Wien, ISBN 978-3-902725-50-9.
2016 Obergrenze (Fuga). Salzburg: FOTOHOF>EDITION, ISBN 978-3-902993-34-2.
2011 Diar El Mahçoul. Salzburg: FOTOHOF>EDITION, ISBN 978-3-902675-60-6.
2007 Impressions D'AFRIQUE. Salzburg: FOTOHOF>EDITION, ISBN 978-3-901756-68-9.
1990 ABPOPA/AURORA. Graz: Edition Camera Austria, ISBN 3-900-508-08-9.

Awards

2014 Austrian State Prize for Photographic Art
1990 Promotion Award by the City of Graz
1987 Austrian State Scholarship for Photographic Art

References

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External links

Website
Films and videos by Christian Wachter
Image-collections by Christian Wachter at FOTOHOF>ARCHIV website
Film and interview for the Werkschau exhibition

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Christian Wachter

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