Katarina Burin

Statement for transeuropa 2003

I was born in Bratislava Slovakia and my family defected to Canada in 1981.  I grew up mostly in Toronto until we moved again, this time to the United States where I spent 8 years.  For the last year, I have been based in Berlin. 

I consider myself to be very North American at this point, since most of my life was spent there, but my memories and early experiences have greatly shaped and influenced my interests. I have experienced many (sometimes very subtle) cultural changes from one place to the next.

Some of the differences and similarities between Europe and North America and how they are depicted throughout history within imagery and architecture are running themes throughout my work. During the past two years my drawings consisted of some straightforward renderings of certain types of architecture or places within my surroundings but also from images of places in Eastern Europe. More recently the work is focusing on more specific research based projects related to certain historical moments and architecture. The drawings are informed both by the research and by my personal relationship with history and my past.

My interest in Vienna began in graduate school, where I was researching the culture and climate of Vienna at the turn of the century, a particularly strange and important time for the city. This time period
also sparked my interest in Adolf Loos, whose influence in 20th century architecture is undeniably important but also somewhat peculiar. The image I found of the bedroom Loos designed for his wife was the basis and inspiration for two pieces I made last spring, but I have not had the opportunity to fully realize or develop my interests.

Until recently, I have only studied the architecture of Loos and Vienna through textbooks and by reading novels and important works of that time period, particularly Robert Musil’s Man Without Qualities.

The relationship between the social climate of the early 1900’s and the architecture of Vienna is outlined within this book and I would like to further my investigation of this by visiting as much of the related architecture in Vienna as possible.

I hope to visit the hotel Loos designed in Payerbach, as well as his surviving projects in Vienna, but also I would like to look more closely at other important architectural movements from this period, like the extensive municipal housing developments of the 20’s and 30’s.

It is no doubt that the history of Vienna is a rich mixture of architectural movements that have reflected the social dynamics of its society.  This broad research will form the basis for further development of my ideas within my drawings, while having the physical space to work on a larger scale will further the installation potential of my work.

Katarina Burin
A9 forum transeuropa

Work made while at residency for September 2003:

While staying in Vienna my project focused on looking at the work of architect Adolf Loos and compiling information and research for further investigation.
Upon visiting the Looshaus I recorded the experience of my time spent there in the form of a short looped video slide show that played in the corner of the studio on a table that was similar to the one I had in the hotel in room #5. 

I used historical found images of the interior of the Looshaus as it was in the 1950’s and created a collage out of them on a corner of the existing architecture in the studio space.
The collage is of the master bedroom, how it was formally, and it is photocopied and re-pasted into itself to form a tunnel like kaleidoscopic image. There are four collages also functioning the same way only on a small scale and may be used in the future for larger projects.


Kaleidoscopic Interiors

Finally he dreamed up only impracticable rooms, revolving rooms, kaleidoscopic interiors, adjustable scenery for the soul, and his ideals grew steadily more devoid of content. He had now finally reached the point to which he had been drawn all along. His father would have put it something like this: “Give a fellow a totally free hand and he will soon run his head into a wall out of sheer confusion.” Or this: “A man who can have anything he wants will soon be at a loss as to what to wish for.” Ulrich repeated these words to himself with great enjoyment. Their hoary wisdom appeared to him as an extraordinary new thought. For a room’s possibilities, plans and feelings must first be hedged in by prejudices, traditions, obstacles and barriers of all sorts, like a lunatic in his straight jacket, and only then can whatever he is capable of doing have perhaps some value, substance, and staying power. Here in fact was an idea with incalculable implications. Now the man without qualities, who had come back to his own country, took the sound step toward letting himself be shaped by the outward circumstances of life.