Church of Ruined Modernity
Minoritenkloster and Minoritenzentrum Graz
Mariahilferplatz 3
8020 Graz
Down by the Mur River, at the beginning of what was the Murvorstadt, the ensemble of Minoriten Monastery and Mariahilfer Church embody the power and splendor of the Church and the support it finds in the architectural styles of the late Renaissance and the Baroque. They were built as donations to house Conventual Franciscans, who still occupy the building. Beginning in the 1960s, the friary also became a venue for exhibitions and a place of encounters between religion and modern art.
One of the artists featured early in the monastery’s history as an exhibition venue was Mira Schendel (1919–1988), an abstract painter and graphic artist living in Brazil. It was one of her first European exhibitions. Born in Switzerland into a Catholic family of Jewish origins, she spent World War II in occupied Europe, first in Italy and then in Yugoslavia, where she managed to evade persecution under the Nazi racial laws.
Interestingly, Schendel had visited Graz before. In 1944, she took a risky train journey from Sarajevo (then Croatia) to Graz, where she received her Croatian immigration passport. In 1949, Schendel left Europe for Brazil, where she would become famous for her Neo-Concrete graphics and sculpture. Inspired by her phantom presence, the monastery now becomes a Church of Ruined Modernity—representing the continent Schendel left behind.
Filed under “Church of Ruined Modernity”
Maria Loboda
What’s Best Is Hidden, Obvious, and Correct (2023)
steirischer herbst ’23
Meg Stuart
Shelf Life (2023)
Circuit Bending (2023)
steirischer herbst ’23
Andrea Büttner
Karmel Dachau (2019–23)
steirischer herbst ’23
Eteri Nozadze
Flussschifffahrt (River Cruise, 2023)
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Pavel Brăila
Event Horizon (2023)
steirischer herbst ’23
Andreas Fogarasi
Nine Buildings, Stripped (Vorklinik) (2023)
Roof Spares (2023)
steirischer herbst ’23
Cyprien Gaillard
The Lake Arches (2007–22)
steirischer herbst ’23
Dana Kavelina
The Lemberg Machine (2023)
steirischer herbst ’23
Retrospective
Retrospective