Július Koller Archive
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For several years now, the Kontakt Collection has been researching the artistic legacy of the Slovak artist Július Koller (1939–2007) in close collaboration with the Július Koller Society. This research on Koller’s works and his archive was preceded by a retrospective exhibition initiated by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw that was presented at the museum in 2015 and traveled in 2016 to the mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna as well as to the Museion in Bolzano. This retrospective of Július Koller was curated by Daniel Grúň, Kathrin Rhomberg, and Georg Schöllhammer, with exhibition design by the artist Josef Dabernig in Warsaw and the architect Hermann Czech in Vienna. The display for the Július Koller Archive was developed in collaboration with the artist Johannes Porsch.
Major parts of this artist archive are kept by the Július Koller Society ( http://www.juliuskollersociety.org ) and the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava ( http://www.sng.sk ), while the so-called White Albums, which embody the artist’s own chronological register of his works, concepts, actions, and exhibitions, are part of the Kontakt Collection. The archive as a whole documents Koller’s lifelong obsession with acquiring and classifying visual and textual evidence from the socialist and post-socialist worlds he inhabited. It is hence not only a source on his artistic oeuvre, but an integral part of it. Within the artist archive, the so-called White Albums constitute a core element and serve to reveal Julius Koller’s method of self-historicization. They exemplify how Koller systematized and positioned his own practice by creating a chronological register of his work. Overall, the White Albums and the digitized survey of Július Koller’s oeuvre include approximately 5,000 items and span a period extending from 1962 to 2007. They can be accessed at the Kontakt Collection upon prior request.
https://www.kontakt-collection.org/people/29/julius-koller
Major parts of this artist archive are kept by the Július Koller Society ( http://www.juliuskollersociety.org ) and the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava ( http://www.sng.sk ), while the so-called White Albums, which embody the artist’s own chronological register of his works, concepts, actions, and exhibitions, are part of the Kontakt Collection. The archive as a whole documents Koller’s lifelong obsession with acquiring and classifying visual and textual evidence from the socialist and post-socialist worlds he inhabited. It is hence not only a source on his artistic oeuvre, but an integral part of it. Within the artist archive, the so-called White Albums constitute a core element and serve to reveal Julius Koller’s method of self-historicization. They exemplify how Koller systematized and positioned his own practice by creating a chronological register of his work. Overall, the White Albums and the digitized survey of Július Koller’s oeuvre include approximately 5,000 items and span a period extending from 1962 to 2007. They can be accessed at the Kontakt Collection upon prior request.
https://www.kontakt-collection.org/people/29/julius-koller