eSeL REZEPTION is both workspace and showroom for the popular info hub and art calendar www.esel.at.

The team of eSeL keep up with all the openings and events of the Vienna art scene. In addition to providing catalogues and information on all important exhibitions, eSeL offers photographic insight and inside tips on museums, cultural institutions artist-run spaces and art communities in Vienna.

With its editions and affordable unique copies, the showroom explores how art can have an impact on society. Based on the eSeL photographs, the ‘eSeL gallery of usage rights’ discusses the ownership of images in the digital age.

Interview with Lorenz „eSeL“ Seidler

Who/what are you?

An ‘aesthetic lifeform‘. If you say ‘artist‘ too fast, chances are there won’t be any money. ‘Communicator’ seems appropriate as well. And I am also considered a photographer by now.

What are your fields of activity?

As an art appreciator who likes to meddle, a roving (photo) reporter, an art communicator on the internet, and with my own art projects and exhibitions, I pretty much cover the entire spectrum of a ‘vita activa’ in the Vienna art scene. >;e)

How do you reach your goals?

With a sense of humour - and the internet. Furthermore: good planning that still allows space for experimenting and curiosity.

What challenges do you face?

Right now? I am developing coping strategies for #kunsttrotzcorona (‘art despite corona’) and trying to support Vienna’s art scene with the ESel Calendar. As an inveterate optimist, I see this state of emergency as a chance to rediscover the virtues and skills of artists - even though things are not easy for anyone right now. An exhibition of my photographs at a super-museum is scheduled for the end of the year. At the moment, I don’t see the project threatened by the coronavirus.

What is important to you?

To fight for and maintain personal freedom. Observing artists helps. I want to actualise my own passion and curiosity in specific projects and structures – while keeping in mind that there is a society outside the art sector. After all, without an audience or an interface to the outside world, it would all be a waste of time.

How big is your team?

Mr GaMs for the calendar, Ms Grizzly for projects, Mr Biber for the website, and Ms Ozelot for a complementary photographic perspective. Depending on each project, there can be additional collaborators.

Since when have you been at Q21?

It’s been almost ten years! Thanks to the redesign and expansion of the eSeL REZEPTION, we want our ‘Q21 show room’ to shine in new splendour come April. But even before that, we have been able to utilise interactions of our eSeL networks with an open hub in a ‘real space’. Now we need to press ahead online and wait until we can finally receive visitors again and celebrate in this ‘real space’.

A perfect work day starts with…

…looking forward to everything on the to-do list. But in light of current events, a great day also starts with getting people interested in contemporary art despite ‘social distancing’.