FOUR Statement
FOUR presents and investigates four forms of creativity: visual arts, music, literature and performance. The aim of FOUR is to exhibit artists either individually or in groups and then discuss the works with the artists in an open forum.
It is the intention of FOUR to bring the audience closer to the creative process, and to raise thoughts and questions pertinent to our daily life. Although FOUR does not wish to use art as a functional tool, it does seek to examine some of the principles involved in the works so that the viewer or listener is brought to a deeper level of thought than the more common experience of aesthetic and often merely instinctive reaction.
The philosophical and theological dimensions innate in the works will be of course the subject of discussion, although given the current ‘art theory fatigue’, the intentional absence of any analytical frameworks will also be a legitimate part of the creative process and finished works. By the same token, it is our intention that the tension between the intellectual and the visceral will prove fruitful for reflection.
FOUR vis-a- vis Art Gallery
Works exhibited at FOUR are available for purchase. Yet whereas most people who come to galleries are art aficionados and experts with a common baggage of aesthetic criticism and ways of looking at things, FOUR tries to bring works closer to audiences who may not have had much previous experience with contemporary art. FOUR hopes to find new audiences for new works: people who are not necessarily aware of the epistemology involved but who have a fresh approach to unknown works and who are prepared to be challenged.
THE ARTISTS
FOUR aims to introduce its public to mainly young creative individuals outside the context of traditional galleries, which are mostly dominated and cornered by established and well-known artists.
VENUE
Nestled between the Vienna Opera House and the Albertina, in a building which is rapidly becoming a spiritual centre for many young Catholics, FOUR is the brainchild of one of the founders of the Loretto movement, who has always seen art as a pointer to the realm beyond that of the purely rational. By opening up the rooms to FOUR the Loretto movement is taking a step aside, choosing to focus on our common humanity, rather than on a specific creed.
Although FOUR refers to the exhibition’s address, Operngasse 4 in Vienna’s first district, the project is flexible and open to collaboration with other programmes in different locations.
– Ken Mapayo
– project head