Andrea van der Straeten
"Was ich gehört habe"
Fotos: Otto Saxinger

Drawings and Text Material

Andrea van der Straeten has worked for years on the question of the position that ephemeral forms of communication, like conversations, gossip, rumors, can assume as material in art.
Her work "Was ich gehört habe..." ("What I heard ...") is the result of a Linz-specific inquiry:
Due to the reform of the administration in large service companies, building plans and relocations, the city is entering into a phase of partial urban re-formatting, which will have repercussions for the understanding of an urban public sphere. Just the relocation of over 2000 employees from communal offices in the city center to a large center at the train station means that these kinds of workspaces will be returned to different uses. The sale of state-owned businesses such as the Austria Tabak or the Voest to private enterprises has compelled institutions like the Art University to seek other locations.