One Day You Will Miss Me, 2017-ongoing

„One Day You Will Miss Me“ is an ongoing project that since 2017 visually documents and analyses the construction of the luxury district „Belgrade on Water“ in Belgrade by the Sava river –one of the biggest real estate projects in Europe today.

This district development project has been transforming the Savamala district with the waterfront area and its old harbor, main train-station and residential areas as well as the entire urban landscape of the capital city since 2015. The project comprises 1.8 km2 of hundreds of apartments in iconic towers, the largest shopping mall in southeastern Europe and the new landmark of Belgrade - a 168-meter-high glass tower on the banks of the Sava river. The project is being managed by the Serbian government and implemented with the help of Abu Dhabi-based private investor Eagle Hills. The controversy about it is, among other things, that it was approved by the Serbian government without a public call for an architecture competition or a citizen referendum.

In two project phases, I captured in my half-yearly visits since 2017, these changes through the medium of video and photography. Besides this documentation, my visits included meetings and talks with local residents, artists, curators and activists.

The first project phase depicts the urban and social conditions of the city of Belgrade in a b/w photo series at a time when the first residential towers of “Belgrade on Water” were built and later on completed. With the perception of a foreigner, I used the first towers as reference points to navigate myself through the city. In the images I picture the everyday life, the fast architectural changes, protests against the government and Eagle Hills, events organized by “Belgrade on Water” and in general the transformation of the district Savamala. At the same time, I also show a state of the new luxury district which is not representative and therefore not supposed to be on display yet.

In the second phase of the project I took a step closer to the construction site and its impact on the daily life of Belgrade’s people. From this perspective, I focus on the discrepancies and tensions between the realities of everyday life and the glossy desirable scenarios and subjects depicted in the images produced by the marketing of the planned apartments. Gaps and damages in the building site fences provide views and confront commercial ideal and reality. As part of the series, I reenacted details of the rendered interior design (in form of still-lifes) from these billboards to point to the constructed desires of the new privatized space and in which way we are dictated that a good, and at the end, homogenized happy life has to look like.

Julia Gaisbacher, born in 1983 in Grambach near Graz, lives and works as an artist and photographer in Vienna. In her work she deals with the complex interrelationships between social conventions in public space, architecture and representation in various media.

Education

• 2011-2013 Master student, Prof. Martin Honert, University of Fine Arts, Dresden
• 2009-2010 Erasmus scholarship, Sint Lukas College, Brussels with Aglaia Konrad and Sofie Nys
• 2006-2011 Studied sculpture/three-dimensional design, Dresden University of Fine Arts, Prof. Carl Emanuel Wolff and Prof. Martin Honert, Dresden
• 2005 Student of the master class for sculpture, HTBLVA Ortweinschule, Graz
• 2001-2006 Studies of Art History (Mag.), Karl-Franzens-University, Graz

Awards | Scholarships | Grants

• 2020 State Scholarship for Photography, Federal Chancellery Austria
• 2019
  Purchase Prize of the Province of Styria within the framework of the "Förderungspreis für zeitgenössische Kunst" (Promotion Prize for Contemporary Art)
  Research funding for "One Day You Will Miss Me", Robert Bosch Stiftung, Berlin
  Working stay in Zagreb/Split/Trogir, funded by the Province of Styria
  Selection for the exhibition project "PingPong" Jury: Natasha Egan, Kateryna Rodchenko and Karen Fromm, FemalePhotographers Vienna, Vienna, 2019
• 2018
  Erste Bank MehrWert Recognition Award for "One Day You Will Miss Me"
  Winner Photo Award, Architekturzentrum Wien, in the context of the exhibition "SOS Brutalism" for "Studie Terrassenhaussiedlung".
• 2017
  Cardinal König Art Fund Prize, Salzburg (shortlist)
  Plat(t)form, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (nominated)
  Studio Abroad Scholarship Belgrade, Province of Styria
• 2016 Fotoförderungspreis of the City of Graz for "ZI 121-136
• 2014 Fohn Scholarship, Emanuel and Sofie Fohn Foundation, Vienna
• 2012 Boesner Art Award (Shortlist) for "Annenstraße
• 2010 Leinemann Foundation for Education and Art, Art Award 2010 (shortlist) for "Acaciapark".
• 2007 Winner, Braunschweig Environmental Prize of the TU Braunschweig for "o. T. (manhole cover)"
• 2004 Winner Art Prize, Carnerie Gallery, Graz

Collections

• Collection, Artothek des Bundes, Federal Chancellery Austria
• Collection of the City of Graz
• Collection Universalmuseum Joanneum, Neue Galerie, Graz
• Collection City of Vienna

Exhibitions (selection)

2020
photograz III, Austrian Cultural Forum, Istanbul
photograz III, Lecture and Conference Centre of the Poznan University of Technology, Poznan/Poland

2019
Promotion Awards of the Province of Styria for Contemporary Art 2019, Neue Galerie Graz
Concrete Acts on Belgrade (solo), Start-Galerie, MUSA, Vienna
Mein Traumhaus sind Luftschlösser (solo), Forum Stadtpark, Graz
I Do Not Feel Free to Do What I Want, Municipal Gallery, Charkow, Ukraine
PingPong - photographic dialogue between Virginia de Diego and Julia Gaisbacher, in the framework of FemalePhotographers Vienna, Vienna
Sternbildgrenzen - Artists' Books by Scholarship Holders of the Province of Styria, Landesbibliothe photo graz_selection, Funkhausgalerie, ORF Zentrum, Graz
photo graz_selection, as part of European Capital of Culture Plovdiv, Bulgaria

2018
One Day You Will Miss Me (solo), das weisse haus, as part of the Erste Bank MehrWert Recognition Award
Austria Contemporary - Selected works from the Artothek des Bundes, EESC, Brussels, Belgium
One Day You Will Miss Me (solo), Goethe Institut Belgrad
Wettbewerbsausstellung SOS Brutalism, Architekturzentrum Wien
Es ist die Kunst zu leben, Kunstuniversität Graz
One Day You Will Miss Me (solo), in Kooperation mit Barbi Marković, Akademie Graz
Blick auf Deutschlandsberg - Bauten und ihre Geschichten, Laßnitzhaus, Deutschlandsberg

2017
Ausstellung der für den Kardinal-König-Preis nominierten KünstlerInnen, Salzburg
Kunstraum Steiermark, Neue Galerie Graz
Graz Architektur, Kunsthaus, Graz
Wer bist du? Portraits aus 200 Jahren, Neue Galerie, Graz

2016
Open Studio Day, studio visit, Vienna Art Week, Wien
Eine Minute der Möglichkeiten, im Rahmen von Eyes on - Monat der Fotografie, VBKÖ, Wien
Vis á vis, Bautzner 69, Dresden
DozentInnenausstellung der Sommerakademie Dresden, Motorenhalle, Dresden
In Parallel 2016 / Initiative Sarajevo – Graz, ALU Gallery, Sarajevo/Bosnien und Herzegovina und Galerie Centrum Graz
Weisse ab-Haus-Verkaufs-Kunstschau #5, weisses haus, Wien
Tauschausstellung, im Rahmen der Ausstellung “Die Kunst der Frau. Freundinnen und
Komplizinnen”, Vereinigung Bildender Künstlerinnen Österreichs, Wien

2015
Have you seen our house?, Mo.e, Wien
ART mART, Künstlerhaus, Wien
Open Studio Day, studio visit, Vienna Art Week, Wien
Werkpräsentation, Schauraum HERR LEUTNER, Wien
Handapparat der Neugierde, Galerie IG Bildende Kunst, Wien

2014
Zi 121−136 (solo), Fotogalerie Rathaus, Graz
Wo ist eigentlich diese Maysedergasse?, Ausstellung und Studio Visit, Vienna Art Week, Wien

Hast du von Bergen geträumt?, Tschechisches Zentrum, Prag & Berlin
geradezu momentan, Ausstellung 250-jähriges Hochschuljubiläum, Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Dresden
Das Fest, smallest gallery, Graz

2013
Hast du von Bergen geträumt?, Kulturrathaus, Dresden
Alena Drahokoupilová, Julia Gaisbacher, Robert Vanis, Galerie Mastul, Berlin
Schools of Art, Holden Gallery, Manchester

For more information, see: www.juliagaisbacher.com