Christian Wachter. ABPOPA/AURORA

Publikation anlässlich der Ausstellung im MUSA Wien, 21.12.2011 - 26.01.2012

Aurora is the name of the armored cruiser that, late in the evening on November 6, 1917, signaled the beginning of the Bolsheviks’ storming of the Winter Palace, the seat of the provisional government in Saint Petersburg. The Soviet Union preserved the ship as a symbol of the Russian Revolution; it has been open to the public as a museum since the 1950s. Aurora is also the Roman goddess of the dawn. Blue is the color of the sea, the sky, and the navy. The rising and setting sun is a luminous red, the color of the revolution and of blood. In his project “Aurora,” Christian Wachter blends mythology and history, the moment and permanence, the past and the present, using a variety of objects as well as writings in Cyrillic and Latin letters and a wide range of imagery produced at different times and for diverse purposes. Their names, concepts, shapes, and colors communicate: a model of the “Aurora” and the plan describing how it must be as sembled; oval frames that look like portholes; photographs of historic depictions of the ship’s crew; a shot of a bar of chocolate in its packag ing; sights of the museum ship and scenes in Saint Petersburg; a view from the photo artist’s Vienna apartment. With a large-scale installation, Christian Wachter demonstrates how history comes into being and what it means: a construct in which myth is interwoven with fact, past views blend into current ones, and objects and explanations are invoked while others are omit ted. The beholders may pursue the references provided, developing their own ideas about history. They will find questions by contemplat ing “Aurora,” and a distinctive standpoint when dawn rises, emerging from the dark to shed the light of truth on the world.
- Timm Starl language: english/ german