Gerlind Zeilner. Two Bars

06.09.2017 - 2017

Kunstverein fAN, Wien / Österreich

Think of your favourite drinking establishment. Does it have a smooth mahogany bar and the best dirty martini this side of the Atlantic? Or are the drinks cheap, the lights low and the staff non-judgemental?

Since the popularisation of bohemian lifestyles in the mid 19th Century, bars have offered refuge to artists who wanted to live outside of societal conventions. After all, what better way to show that you aren’t a member of the much-ridiculed petit bourgeois than getting wasted and starting a bar-brawl? But more than just an arena to act out in, bars have historically been places for artists to meet and spend time with each other, seemingly as important to the creation of a ‘scene’ as a city’s galleries and museums.... Chloe Stead, Aug 2017