Audio-visual Landscapes

After Splendid Voids-The Immersive Works of Kurt Hentschläger, the three-volume survey of the fascinating art of Kurt Hentschläger (b. Linz, 1960; lives and works in New York) continues with Rendered Real-The Mediated Landscapes of Kurt Hentschläger. Where the first volume introduced readers to the artist's immersive installations, this new book is devoted to his video pieces. The central ingredient of these works is footage of landscapes, which appear in combination with human-made forms and computer-generated structures. Steering clear of any romantic notion of a retreat into nature, the audiovisual works scrutinize apparent antitheses such as those between creative and created nature or between real physical experience and its representation in media imagery. Hentschläger's most recent work ORT, which he is in the process of completing in Le Havre, France-Rendered Real will be released on occasion of its completion-is a 360-degree projection around Oscar Niemeyer's building Le Volcan. Beautiful and almost idyllic landscape shots are displayed only to be deconstructed. The superimposition of images of mechanically moving heads, explosions, and urban sceneries yields a surreal and constantly shifting nonlinear narrative. Details that draw attention to the medium itself and moments of irritation prompt critical reflection on constructed media images and on how we envision nature in the twenty-first century. With an essay by Daniel Rourke.