Vasco Costa and Wolfgang Obermair have been working together on projects since 2011, exploring the imprints and impacts on particular spaces in culture, economy and politics. By combining artistic and ethnographic methods they aim to create a sphere of intersubjectivity and cross-cultural synthesis through a constant exchange of social roles.
During their three-week residency at the Blue Factory in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, Vasco Costa and Wolfgang Obermair have been working on a visual structure as a physical and social platform to interact with the surrounding area and public space, for the people and visitors of the Blue Factory. The development and the building process involve the owners of the place, Sigurbergur Sigurðsson, Þorgeir Sigurðsson, and the artist Monika Fryčová. Vasco and Wolfgang will present their work in progress in Skaftfell’s Bookshop projectspace, through video screenings and objects, and invite the visitors to discuss their specific approach and the prolific sides of collaboration.
Revolving blue from both sides from Vasco Costa & Wolfgang Obermair on Vimeo.
Wolfgang Obermair is an Austrian/German artist and curator in the field of art and architecture based in Vienna, Austria. He studied geography, painting and media art in Dresden, Nuremberg and Karlsruhe. His work was shown in various locations including Moscow, Beijing, Porto, Zagreb, Vienna. Since 2001 he has been curating exhibitions for the Nuremberg art association kunstbunker – forum für zeitgenössische kunst (http://www.kunstbunker-nuernberg.org). Since 2012 he is member and coordinator of the Viennese non-profit art space Schneiderei (http://seeyounextthursday.com). Obermair is co-editor of “Das Große Moskau, das es niemals gab” (The Big Moscow that has never existed. 2008, Vienna: Schlebrügge), which examines the position of constructivist architecture in today´s Moscow.
Vasco Costa is a Portuguese visual artist who lives and works in Oporto; he did a M.A in Drawing and printing techniques, at (FBAUP) Oporto, and a B.A. in Sculpture at (ESAD) Caldas da Rainha. His territory is the language of the fine arts and as a trend; he tends to communicate through sculpture and installation practices. Some recent participations include XVIII Cerveira Biennale, Dromosphere installation in CollicaLigreggi gallery in Catania 2015, site specific works at OFFLINE, an artist residency, organized by XEREM, Lisbon in 2013 and Schneiderei, Vienna in 2012, a year in which he was also invited to develop works at the 5th Mozambique Biennale, where he as created Maputo-Totem, a collective community project with young art students. Together with Hugo Canoilas he commissioned some collective projects, such as Morro-Project, 2007 developed in the C. Caparica farm fields, or Dieci giorni per una arte collettiva, Turin 2011. He was selected to the EDP new artists prize awards, 2005, in the Portugal Pavilion of Coimbra. Some of other aspects of his work include scenography sets for theatre plays. He as published for the URBS review of Urban studies and Social Sciences of the Almeria University and “Olho de Peixe” an artist publication with Wolfgang Obermair, released in Austria in 2014. His work is represented on the EDP Contemporary art collection.
