contesting grounds
The exhibition contesting grounds brings together three artistic practices that explore technologically mediated perspectives on the world, territory and memory. The title refers to a dual understanding of the term 'contested'. On the one hand, it focuses on geographical areas that have been threatened by colonial interventions, ecological crises, or military violence. On the other hand, it addresses the question of narrative power over these territories: who produces images; what technologies are used in the process; and how this alters perception and knowledge?
Johanna Binder, Sophie Dvořák, and Elena Kristofor examine these questions through distinct artistic and media-specific practices, illustrating how landscapes are shaped by technical images and political power relations. Whether through colonial landscape-making, satellite-based perception, or AI-mediated war poetry, each work explores the conditions under which reality is constructed. Rather than understanding these forms of visualization as neutral representations, contesting grounds conceives of them as contested sites where the boundaries of interpretation are constantly negotiated.
From the text by Kathrin Heinrich
Translation: Katja Stecher
studied Painting at the University of Art and Design Linz, Austria (2006 – 2007), and Painting and Animated Film at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (2007 – 2013). Since 2023, she has been a PhD candidate in Artistic Research at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. From 2016 to 2017, she was a resident fellow at the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, the Netherlands, and from 2018 to 2019 participated in the Leuphana Arts Program at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany. In 2022, she was awarded the Austrian State Scholarship for Fine Arts and the Theodor Körner Prize. Binder's work has been presented in numerous exhibitions in Austria and internationally, including Galerie FÜNFZIGZWANZIG, Salzburg (2025); Klima Biennale Wien (2024); Galerie Sophia Vonier, Salzburg (2023); Casa de Mono, California (2021); and the Xiao Ying Art Museum, Beijing (2017).
studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland (2004 – 2008), and at the Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography in Vienna (2004 – 2005). She has received numerous awards, including the Theodor Körner Prize (2012), the City of Vienna Advancement Award (2016), and the Austrian State Scholarship for Fine Arts (2020). Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally and is represented in public collections, including the Artothek des Bundes at Belvedere 21.
Born and raised in Ukraine, Elena Kristofor is a visual artist living and working in Vienna. Through photography, installation, and site-specific interventions, she explores human inscriptions in the landscape, engaging with themes of otherness, vulnerability, displacement, and identity. She studied Fine Arts and Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Architecture at the Vienna University of Technology. Selected exhibitions include Vertical Horizon, Kyiv Biennial, Lentos Museum, Linz (2025); Touch Nature, Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje (2025); In Translation – The Contexts of Nature, Sea World Culture & Arts Center, Shenzhen (2022); With View to the Sea, Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Odesa (2019); The Censored Exhibition, Photo City, Copenhagen (2018); and Only Human, Austrian Cultural Forum London (2017). In 2025, Kristofor received the Austrian Art Alumni Award.