Edgar Honetschläger is a visual artist, screen writer, filmmaker and environmental activist born and raised in Austria. In 1989 he moved from Vienna to NYC and in 1992 on to Tokyo which remained his home base until 2011. In between he spent a year in Brasília and Sao Paolo. Since 2011 he commutes between Vienna and Tarquinia/Rome. Work of his participated at documenta X as well as international film festivals like the Berlinale. 2006 he founded the EDOKO Institute Film Production Ltd. Vienna, 2018 the non-governmental-organisation gobugsgo.org.
For a general statement please scroll down
| 2024 | Napoli / Vienna |
| 2016 – 2023 | Vienna / Rome / Tarquinia |
| 2015 | Los Angeles / Rome / Vienna |
| 2011 – 2014 | Vienna / Umbria |
| 2009 – 2011 | Tokyo / Vienna |
| 2007 – 2008 | Brasilia / Sao Paolo / Tokyo |
| 2003 – 2006 | Tokyo / Vienna |
| 2002 | Palermo / Vienna |
| 2000 – 2001 | Rome / Vienna |
| 1999 – 2000 | Vienna / Tokyo / Los Angeles |
| 1997 – 1999 | Vienna / Tokyo |
| 1991 – 1997 | Tokyo |
| 1989 – 1991 | New York City |
| 1985 – 1989 | studies economics + art history at the Universities of Linz, Graz, Vienna and spends a loose semester at the Art Institute San Francisco |
Lectures and workshops at the Geijutsu Daigaku University Tokyo, Nihon University Tokyo, Yamaguchi University, University Olomouc Czech Republic, University of applied Arts Vienna, Academy of fine Arts Vienna, University of Yazd/Iran.
Guest professor at University of Arts Linz
Filmography IMDB
| 2023 | LE FORMICHE DI MIDA, Tarquinia/Vienna 75′ feature film, premiere at the IFFR Rotterdam |
| 2018 | GOBUGSGO, Tarquinia/Vienna, 90” animated short, animator/editor CIVILIZATION SUCKS, Tarquinia/Vienna, 90” short, actor/director |
| 2017 | FLUCUTHUKH, Tarquinia/Vienna, 15’ experimental short film, director/producer/co-editor |
| 2016 | LOS FELIZ, Rome/Los Angeles/Vienna,105’ feature film, screenplay/director/set-designer/co-editor/co-producer. Best sound design at the DIAGONALE (AustrianFestival). Best foreign feature film at Siena Int. Film Festival Retrospectives at the Metro Kino/Film Archiv Austria Presentation of LOS FELIZ and IL MARE E LA TORTA at Cinetecca Nazionale Rome |
| 2015 | 320 FILOSOFIANA, Sicily/Vienna, 18’ experimental short film, screenplay/director/producer/co-editor, premiere at the Viennale RELIQTE, Minoriten Graz |
| 2014 | OMSCH at Diagonale, Graz |
| 2013 | OMSCH, 83’ feature-docu (AT) premiere at the Visions Du Reel – Prix Buyens-Chagoll AUN at TBA 21 Vienna, with Christian Fennesz |
| 2012 | KAZUE, fiction short 2′ (IT/AT) director/set-designer/co-editor/producer LONGING, fiction short 3’, (AT) director/co-editor/producer |
| 2011 | AUN, Feature Film, Japan/Austria, 100min, 35mm premiere @ the int. film festival Rotterdam, St. Petersburg Film Festival, Era New Horizons IFF TARZAN 2011, Vienna, 3’ short, script/set design/director/producer/co-editor Wann werden wir uns endlich erlauben um die Erde zu weinen? Vienna, 9′, director Raum Körper Einsatz, MUSA Vienna |
| 2008 | SUGAR and ICE, Brasilia, 6min, script/set design/director/producer/co-editor BEIJING HOLIDAY at Rotterdam Film Festival |
| 2007 | BEIJING HOLIDAY, Beijing/Taipei/Vienna/Tokyo, 13 min, actor/director/co-editor/producer ERNI /Chickenssuit on Culture TV www.culturetv.tv ERNI is chosen as the official logo representing Austrian cultural activities abroad |
| 2006 | ERNI at IFF Rotterdam Vancouver Film Festival Calgary Film Festival Toronto WWSF Montreal festival Nouveau Cinema, Freewave FF, Rio de Janeiro Film Festival Hammer Museum LA Locarno Film Festival THE AUDIENCE Brasilia/Buenos Aires/ Montevideo/Los Angeles/Tokyo/Vienna director/producer, for the 7th act of Peter Ablinger’s STADTOPERA 2 films (2x70min), libretto by Yoko Tawada, premiere at Steirischer Herbst |
| 2005 | ERNI, 7 min short film, HD, director/producer, premiere at the World Expo, Aichi/Japan, Locarno Film Festival |
| 2004 | Il mare e la torta/ the sea and the cake @ int. Premiere at the IFF Rotterdam, Diagonale Graz Buenos Aires Film Festival Rome int. Film Festival Tursak int. Film Festival, Istanbul Viennale, Crossing Europe, Sao Paulo IFF Foundation of the EDOKO Institute Film production |
| 2003 | Il mare e la torta/ the sea and the cake, film essay, 60min. script/director/co-editor/co-producer in collaboration with Amour Fou Film Production, premiere at Viennale |
| 2002 | George in Hollywood, Los Angeles S8/35mm, 3 min. camera/director/producer/co-editor, int. Premiere at the IFFRotterdam George in Hollywood @ LA Freewaves enduring freedom, Vienna, 4 min, film for the internet, script/set design/director/co-editor/co-producer |
| 2001 | Los Feliz, screen play for a feature film with Reinhard Jud and Jonny Elkes Isola Farnese, Vienna/Rome, 45”, director/co-editor/producer, teaser for the Austrian Film Festival DIAGONALE COLORS int. premiere at the IFFRotterdam, DIAGONALE , Pesaro Film Festival |
| 2000 | L+R, Vienna/Tokyo/Kagoshima, 79’ essay, concept/director/co-producer/co-editor. premiere at the IFF Rotterdam, DIAGONALE , Seattle International Film, Vancouver International Film Festival, Leipzig Dokumentarfilm COLORS = the history of chocolate, masaccio, in times of emergency film trilogy Rome/Florence, digbeta 33’, director/co-producer, premiere at the Viennale |
| 1999 | MILK @ IFF Rotterdam India Int. Filmfestival Sardines, screen play in collaboration with Susan B. Landau for a feature film Randzonen, 45 sec. teaser for cinema+TV for the Festival of Regions |
| 1998 | MILK @ international premiere at the BERLINALE, DIAGONALE (honorable mention) |
| 1997 | MILK, New York/Tokyo, S16mm/blow up 35mm, 100’ feature, director/co-producer. premiere at the VIENNALE, international Film Festival Vienna |
| 1996 | 97 – (13+1), Vienna/Tokyo, 10’ documentary, concept/director first presentation at the documenta X, Kassel/Germany 1997 MILK, screen play for a feature film with Leza Lowitz |
| 1995 | HCN MIAU, Vienna/New York, 2×30” shorts films, concept/director, experimental TV commercial for the shoe company HUMANIC for season 1996 |
| 1991 | SEQUENCES, S8mm Film/blow up 16mm, 15 min, New York, camera/director editor/ producer, with Serge Pinkus, James Goldwasser, Josef Ramaseder, Paula Hayes, Sjoerd Hofstra, Mia Hansford |
solo exhibitions/group shows/performances/ installations/interventions SELECTION
| 2024 | CASA MADRE GALLERIA NAPOLI Pio Monte, Sette Opere di Misericordia, Napoli |
| 2023 | E LA NAVE VA, Installation with globart.at at the Bergl Pavillon / Melk Abbey TARQUINIA, solo presentation at Charim Galerie Vienna |
| 2022 | Japonismus 2.0, Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen, |
| 2021 | Tree Connections at Kulturstiftung H. Geiger Basel GoBugsGo@Vienna Biennale for Change, Climate Care at MAK Vienna GoBugsGo@Forum Austriaco di Cultura Roma, Touch Nature, cur. Sabine Fellner/Adriana Rispoli GoBugsGo@Kunstforum Montafon |
| 2020 | GoBugsGo@H2 Glaspalast Augsburg as part of the show Blue Planet GoBugsGo@Quartiere Intelligente Napoli GoBugsGo@Kunstverein Eisenstadt |
| 2019 | GoBugsGo@Forum Stadtpark Graz GoBugsGo@Museum der Moderne Salzburg GoBugsGo@Frankfurter Kunstverein GoBugsGo@Oberösterreichische Landesgalerie Japan Unlimited, Vienna, curator Marcello Farabegoli |
| 2018 | GoBugsGo presentations at Kunsthalle Vienna and CHARIM GALERIE |
| 2017 | Die Kraft des Alters / Aging Pride, Belvedere Wien, Kuratorin Sabine Fellner |
| 2016 | LOS FELIZ solo show at BELVEDERE 21 Vienna, curator Mario Codognato LOS FELIZ solo show Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma curator Mario Codognato [book] KAPPA GOES TOKYO [book], publisher: Schlebrügge.Editor |
| 2015 | Sammlung Ploner, Albertina Wien, Belvedere Wien, Neue Galerie Graz Ausstellungsbeteiligung Reliqte, Minoriten |
| 2014 | NO MORE FUKUSHIMAS, Vienna Art Week, curated by Marcello Farabegoli Hier steht ein Sessel, Galerie im Traklhaus Salzburg Vienna Art Week, Parkfair, Vienna |
| 2013 | SUGAR AND ICE, a [book] about Brasília, publisher: Schlebrügge.Editor On emigrating and returning Kunstforum Montafon Wallpaper 15 for Steinbrener/Dempf, Vienna GUINEA PIGS, HANDARBEIT; Museum Kunst der Westküste, Germany 21er Haus (Belvedere 21, Vienna) Galerie Smolka Contemporary, Mosbacher. Honetschläger. |
| 2012 | FRAMBOISE FRIVOLE, solo show at Charim Galerie Vienna Autumn leaves fields, Bambin Art Gallery Tokyo FUKUSHIMA – SOUND OF SIRENS – SOS – Internet platform one year after Fukushima with Sylvia ECKERMANN Steirischer Herbst The Truth is Concrete, Lecture about Internetplattform Sound of Sirens |
| 2011 | NEGATIVE SPACE PERFORMANCE at Charim Galerie Vienna Das Biennale Projekt, PROPOSALS FOR VENICE, Landesgalerie Linz, curator: Thorsten Sadowsky Froschbärfant und andere Tiere in der Kunst, Galerie im Traklhaus |
| 2010 | BRAVE NEW WORLD at MUDAM Luxembourg EDOPOLIS, Solo show Casino Luxembourg d’Art Contemporain |
| 2009 | EDOPOLIS, Solo show Kunsthalle Krems, [book] BEST OF AUSTRIA, Lentos Linz LINZ BLICK, Lentos Linz |
| 2008 | NAGOYA or the rise of Japanese Metropolis, Vienna City Museum Introduction to Art History Fotohof Salzburg TOKYO PLAIN Fotohof Salzburg presentation of the photo [book] at the Nationalbibliothek, Vienna BEIJING HOLIDAY, solo show ar Charim Gallery Vienna |
| 2007 | DISCOVERING THE OTHER National Palace Museum Taipei with Tsai Ming-liang, Merilyn Fairskye, Ella Raidel, Deborah Stratman, Apichatpong Weerasethakul with BEIJING HOLIDAY BEIJNG HOLIDAY at Shanghai Contemporary with Chi-Wen Gallery Taipei Einführung in die Kunstgeschichte/Introduction to Art History, Ursula Blickle Stiftung |
| 2006 | chickenssuit presentation at the Kunstverein AARHUS, Denmark Stadtoper Graz at Listhalle Graz in collaboration with Peter Ablinger and Yoka Tawada at Steirischer Herbst |
| 2005 | chickenssuit with Willi Mahringer – presentation at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan chickenssuit at art cologne invents and develops the Hangar 7, Red Bull Exhibit with six distinguished Austrian painters go between at Magazin4, Bregenzer Kunstverein |
| 2004 | THE SCENT OF SNOW at Gallery charim + at Vienna art fair FEET & TOKYO, prints 2 Heliogravurs with master printer Kurt Zain |
| 2003 | years after with Elisabeth Plank und Christoph Cagnelli at Palais Wittgenstein window to… Gallery 422, |
| 2002 | regie/directing solo presentation at Brandts Kunsthallen Klaedefabrik, Kunsthalle Odense, curator Thorsten Sadowsky |
| 2001 | regie/directing, solo presentation at State Gallery Upper Austria, Linz [book] curator Martin Hochleitner LOS FELIZ, solo presentation Gallery Charim, Vienna in times of emergency Steirischer Herbst, Minoriten curators Johannes Rauchenberger/Alois Kölbl), Represents Austria at the Triennale Milano |
| 2000 | Lives and works in Vienna, Kunsthalle Vienna, with masaccio, curator: Gerald Matt Milk from the blue stream of the Danube with the history of chocolate at Kunsthalle Krems |
| 1999 | all the banalities, Artspace Viktor Bucher, Vienna, Artforum Meran I have time, Portfolio Kunst AG, Vienna, [book and video] Die Farben Schwarz, Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz, curator: Thomas Zaunschirm |
| 1998 | staged photography for the newspaper “Der Standard” |
| 1997 | 97-(13+1) participates in documenta X, curator: CATHERINE DAVID Griffin, Los Angeles, [book and video] |
| 1995 | 97-(13+1), Gallery Freihausgasse, Villach Memoirs of a Good for Nothing , Gallery Gerersdorfer, Vienna sitt’n all over the place, Philips Gallery, Vienna 97-(13+1), Performance Projekt, Tokyo [book and video] |
| 1994 | SCHUHWERK, exhibition at Sagacho Exhibit Space Tokyo / Koike Kazuko Tampopo, Gallery Schillerplatz, Vienna |
| 1993 | Real Thing? Gallery Hosomi, Tokyo, SAI Gallery, Osaka SCHUHWERK, Performance in Tokyo+Yokohama [book and video] curators: Ritsuko Segawa and SCAI the BATHOUSE (Shirashi Masami), Interview with NANJO FUMIO, photos by Shigeo Anzai |
| 1992 | TOOLS at Gallery Cross, Tokyo, Asacloth Gallery, Tokyo TOOLS, Gallery im Stifterhaus, Linz [book] at Kunst Raum Stuttgart, Gallery Pollhammer Steyr HAGAKI at Gallery Gerersdorfer Vienna Down to paper at Austrian Cultural Institute NY with Elisabeth Plank + Josef Ramaseder [book], Vienna |
| 1991 | Memoirs of a Good for Nothing presentation at MJS Books and Graphics, New York Still Life, Performance New York |
| 1990 | trotzdem wurm, Gallery Spitzbart, Vorchdorf Palais Wittgenstein with Elisabeth Plank, Vienna Illustration for Joseph von Eichendorff’s Memoirs of a Good for Nothing – 210 Lithographs, [book] |
| 1989 | sensing soil, performance, New York 60 days Austrian Museum of the 21. st century, Vienna curator Oswald Oberhuber |
| Prizes & Grants | 2024 – Honorable mention for MIDAS’s ANTS at the int. Nature Film Festival Innsbruck – Best feature film at the Nature Film Festival Rome – Sonderpreis des Landes Niederösterreich 2023 Winner Austrian Competition at the THIS HUMAN NATURE film festival Vienna 2021 Heinrich-Gleißner-Preis 2020 2019 Georg HEINDL Kulturpreis 2016 LOS FELIZ best foreign feature film at Siena Int. Film Festival LOS FELIZ best sound design at Diagonale FF Graz 2013 OMSCH Prix Buyens-Chagoll at Visions du Reel 2009 Landeskulturpreis by the Province of Upper Austria 1999 Japan Foundation for realising the film essay L+R 1997 Special mention for MILK at Diagonale FF Graz 1996 Japan Foundation Tokyo & JEC Fund Osaka Grant for the feature Film MILK 1995 Talent Award by the City of Linz 1991 1st prize at the Austrian Graphic Competition, Innsbruck |
In 1991, when the second gulf war started, the mood in Manhattan was scary. With friends I set out for Washington DC in order to join rallies against the war. It was the time of the economic bubble in Japan. Nippon believed that it could outdo the USA economically, Japanese companies bought up important American symbols like the Empire State Building, Columbia Studios which were then renamed as Sony etc. As a consequence there was serious Japan bashing in American politics as well as in the media. But in Manhattan more and more Japanese galleries, art dealers popped up. One of them discovered my work and said: “You deal with space like a Japanese, it’s so close to our aesthetics, you should go to Japan.” Completely turned off by the US because of its political arrogance I borrowed money from a friend to pay for a flight to Japan. When i arrived something strange happened: at NARITA airport i felt like i was at home. A feeling i hadn’t known before, because i’d never felt at home in Austria. I’ve never felt at home anywhere. i don’t trust people who claim to love their homeland. Some cultures one feels closer to. From the very beginning on i’ve felt very close to Japan, and that’s how it has remained to this day. See my movie MILK.”
In my artistic practice I focus on questioning cultural givens, the concept of individualisation and man’s concept of nature. My work has a very anthropological approach. It’s preceded by lots of research. In its appearance, it is like a pond, beautiful and still, but the pond is deep – one can only comprehend its if one is open to dive into it. If the surface draws you in the piece takes you along and literally opens up your eyes and mind, which is particularly true for both my art and film work. Anything I bring about starts with a drawing. My paintings are like drawings too. I could never go to the studio and just paint. For instance the PORTRAITS series is conceptual painting that has been going on for over 30 years. I love projects that occupy me for many years, even for decades.”
It is evident that every culture is shaped by an outside and inside view. Perhaps reflections from outside are not always equally effective, but over the decades and centuries they leave traces. It’s not unusual for an outside view to be deeply internalised by a culture – to a point where it is being taken as an unambiguous inside view, in other words as a trademark of a culture. The outside that brought in the element has forgotten or does not even know that it brought it about itself. In the course of time, the original changed so much in the hosting culture as it has been adapted to the local colour to an extent where the original is no longer recognisable. This gives rise to EXOTICISM, because when visiting a foreign culture one will say: “Look – how bizarre, it’s weird”, yet one does not even know that the gadget or RITE one observes/discovers in the foreign CULTURE has been invented by one’s own ancestors. Globalization has always existed, it is not a 20th-century invention.”
One of my recurring themes is an ongoing battle against central perspective: “In Western painting, space is created by adding, in the East by omitting. We invented central perspective and are mightily proud of this mathematical principle. In Japan, painting has always been ‘flat’. On a two-dimensional background, perceiving the illusion of 3D is not innate, it’s a learning process, as i point out in my 2001 film MASACCIO and further in my movie LOS FELIZ. In Japan, on the other hand, one brushstroke on an empty canvas is sufficient and the viewer already gets to see things that are not visible. Seeing what is not to be seen is learned as well. From my point of view, the space traditional Japanese painting creates is much wider, way more open. In Japanese KABUKI theatre, there are creatures called KUROKO (black child) – servants to the actors, dressed completely in black, who help the actors on stage. The Japanese audience simply doesn’t see him. The art lies in erasing what is to be seen in the brain in the very moment it happens. Or two old men stand leaning on their canes under a blossoming cherry tree, quoting poems referring to the beauty surrounding them. They do not see the ugly concrete wall behind the tree and the adjacent parking lot. They block it out, as if they were short-sighted. One only sees what one wants to see. In this respect, I was Japanese from when I was born on. Suggesting is always more beautiful than openly and directly demonstrating.
I believe that anything mono casts a threat to the beauty of diverging expressions/ believes/ languages/ approaches toward life, as well as to nature: “One can drive individualism (does it really exist or is it just a concept?) only so far as not to hurt others – both human and non-human existences – see SCHUHWERK.” I also feel that linear understanding of HISTORY is a misconception. And Emotions too, are after all only ideas – see the movie L+R. I expresses these believes – most of the time in an ironic way – by means of drawing, painting, film, performance, installation and photography.
Julian Schnabel once said that anyone who becomes an artist in order to be loved has chosen the wrong profession – this probably applies to anyone who works in the field of the arts. Art can’t be critical enough. It can say anything, it can do anything, its task is to doubt, to question, to point out, to cut into the flesh. That was already the case with CARAVAGGIO, why should it be any different today? The maturity of a society manifests itself in what it can tolerate in terms of self-criticism. Any form of patriotism=nationalism ultimately leads to censorship, absolutism, to dictatorship. Only a few countries in the world are democratic and even in those it is not an easy undertaking to swim against the stream.
What drove me to go into movie making? “Foremost a frustration with the art world. As I’d meet people who worked in the film world I believed that i could find more intellectual integrity there. I’m not talking Hollywood but Japan or Europe. Some filmmakers will wait tables in order to be able to pull together a meaningful short film. In the art world it rather feels like: Let’s make it to the top asap so one can live a cozy life off it. It took me years to realise that in the film world the snake pit can be even deeper. But well, Tokyo stripped me off decent workspace. On the long run it was no fun to paint on roof tops, my apartments were 15m2 (50 sf) and as a consequence I started to write papers for art projects in open space and then scripts for films. After all I had grown up next to the projection room of a non-stop-movie theatre. I got to see Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy films over and over again. My aim as a filmmaker has always been to break the canon of the classic film narrative, the way stories have been told in film for a hundred years. Painting has been around for thousands of years and no matter how often it has been declared dead it is still being innovative. But film got stuck. It is repeating the same pattern over and over again. Now if one tries to break those patterns one is bound to failure. Radical changes won’t work, nonetheless it is worth a try. My feature films are to be understood as a honest try.