IN MEMORY OF THE HONORARY MEMBER OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS PETER WEIBEL

On March 1, 2023 at the age of 78 passed away the Austrian artist, curator and new media theoretician, Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Peter Weibel.

 

He was born in Odessa on March 5th, 1944, studied literature and cinematography in Paris, studied medicine in Vienna, but changed soon to mathematics and logic that partly led to the emergence of his innovative ideas. In the middle of the 1960s he started to develop the “expanded cinema” similar to a performance, that was beyond the usual understanding of a film. In 1968 he became one of the members of the Vienna Actionism and together with the feminist artist Valle Export held a series of actions “Fr om the Loser’s Personal File” (From the Dog’s Life Dossier) revealing the topic of an average office employee of these days. In the 1980s, working at the installations and video he used the possibilities of the computer processing, and in the 1990s - included an interactive component in his works. In 2015, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art hosted his solo project “peter_weibel: techne _revolution” exhibited on the Museum four floors. Along with his famous media installations, on display were also video- and photo materials of the artist’s early performances.

 

The Russian Academy of Arts is grieving over the untimely death of the master:

“On behalf of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts I would like to express our sincere condolences on the death of the Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Peter Weibel. The artist of post conceptual art, he has devoted many years to the development of new media theory and actively promoted this trend as the Director of the Center for Arts and Media in Karsruhe. In his recent years he has been actively engaged in the curator and museum work, collaborated with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, wh ere there was arranged a major retrospective of his works. The key event in his biography was his involvement in the IV Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art as its concept author and Director. We will remember Peter Weibel as a pioneer of media-art and the rebellious artist, who was in a tireless search for the eternal. We are truly mourning with the family and the near ones of Peter Weibel, with all his friends and colleagues”.        

                                        Zurab K. Tsereteli, President of the Russian Academy of Arts






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