Library Ideal Ideal Library by Robin Waart
20.03.2024 – 05.05.2024

Talk; 05.05.2024, 6pm

Samuel Bich x Robin Waart / Bibliothek Cathrin Pichler
The Cathrin Pichler Library contains all the exhibition catalogues and publications the curator and researcher Cathrin Pichler (1946 – 2012) was responsible for. Its aim is to compile a complete set of the books Pichler was involved in, either as their editor or author but also when she was invited for a commentary or contribution. A synopsis of a lifetime spent writing and curating, Bich’s Cathrin Pichler Bibliothek negotiates categories, between what is personal, work, and both. Extending his work on the Cathrin Pichler Archive, the library is the starting point of Bich’s concurrent exhibition at Scriptings, Berlin, running from 23 March to June 2024.

Curator: Gregor Peschko
Photos: Adrian Lück

Lakeside Library / Ideal Library (A postcard book)

with Patrícia Almeida, Maria Anwander, Josef Dabernig, Claire Fontaine, Hermann Gabler, Hermann Gabler, Dora García, Irena Haiduk, Iman Issa, Ana Jotta, Marijn van Kreij, John Morgan, Kay Rosen, Hans Schabus, Lena Sieder-Semlitsch, John Stezaker, Mitchell Thar, Samuel Bich and Claudia de la Torre

Editor: Robin Waart
Photos: Ayako Nishibori
 

Looking Forward
20.03.2023 – 25.03.2023

Looking Forward with contributions by:
Eilert Asmervik, Martin Beck, Elizabeth Beugg, Samuel Bich, Fiona Connor, Philipp Farra, Rachel Fäth & Liza Lacroix, Werner Feiersinger, Cristóbal Gracia, Florian Hofer, Anaïs Horn, Felix Kindermann, Sophie Kovel, Achim Lengerer, Rebecca Lindsmyr, Angelika Loderer, Florian Mayr, Evelyn Plaschg, Ursula Pokorny, LiesI Raff, Eva Robarts, Emil Sandström, Andreia Santana, Jake Shore, Myles Starr, Johanna Thorell, Edin Zenun.

The Grand Chelsea
270 West 17th Street
Apt. 20 C
New York, NY 10012

Organized by Samuel Bich and Florian Mayr
Photos by Marc Tatti

With kind support of: austrian cultural forum and Federal Ministry Republic of Austria Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport

ZENTRUM
01.12.22 – 08.02.23

Samuel Bich, Moving Target Collective (Alexa Steinbrück, Natalie Sontopski, Amelie Goldfuß), Fabian Hampel, Vanessa Opoku, Nadine Rangosch, Lion Sauterleute, Merlin Stadler, Paul Valentin.

Curator: Gregor Peschko
Photos: Anna Sophia Knobloch

Transposition of online categorization systems from private foundation websites into the physical exhibition space. Originally produced as polished stainless-steel lettering mounted directly on the wall for an exhibition space named Foundation Vienna, the wall text was here transferred into the space through photographic documentation and adapted to the local spatial context.

Printed Matter: Politics of Printing
A Retrospective #2 & It’s No Longer the Same Book…
17.01.2019 – 25.01.2019

Samuel Bich, Gregor Peschko, Alain Resnais, Michael Riedel, and Willem Oorebeek. 

HGB gallery
Wächterstraße 11
04107 Leipzig

Curators: Ilse Lafer, Sophia Eisenhut and Julia Brodauf

Detail from the poster A Retrospective #2 showing the complete exhibition archives of the art spaces involved in the A Retrospective series up to that point. A Retrospective #2 & It’s No Longer the Same Book…, Galerie der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, 17.01.–25.01.2019. 

It’s No Longer the Same Book… was a collaborative work with Gregor Peschko, presented as part of Printed Matter, the Politics of Printing and A Retrospective #2 at the Galerie der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, including works by Alain Resnais, Michael Riedel, and Willem Oorebeek. 

The exhibition continued Samuel Bich’s A Retrospective series, representing the second part and, in the form of an additional poster edition, for the first time visualizing the complete exhibition archives of the participating art spaces, thus applying the retrospective format to the exhibition series itself.

A Retrospective (#1)
06.12.2018 – 06.01.2019

Bistro21
Hermann-Liebmann-Straße 88
04315 Leipzig

IDEAL Art Space
Schulze-Delitzsch-Straße 27
04315 Leipzig

Collectors home

What would usually constitute a retrospective of past artistic production is inverted by Samuel Bich in his exhibition A Retrospective. In this reversal, the retrospective, historical contextualization, discursive framing, distribution, and interconnection themselves become the central material of his current production. Spread across multiple exhibition venues, the exhibition creates a network of reference and circulation moments. 

While the IDEAL Art Space venue shows images referring to contemporaneous retrospectives, Bistro 21 presents an assemblage of fictional catalogue texts related to Bich’s exhibition. The project also includes an arrangement of artworks in a private collector’s house.

Exhibition Copy (Louvre after Sam)
05.11.2018 – 11.11.2018

Aquarium
Bildhauereiateliers
Kurzbauergasse 9
1020 Wien
EG 20

Reconstruction of Rudolf Stingel’s exhibition Self-Portrait (After Sam), originally presented at Inverleith House, Edinburgh, in 2006. The show comprised five identical paintings depicting the artist’s portrait. In the restaging, five seemingly identical copies of Stingel’s works were produced, yet each canvas appears to slip progressively out of its frame.

exhibition copy (Here Comes The Sons)
03.08.2018

Kerstin Engholm Gallery 
Schleifmühlgasse 3
1040 Vienna

Reconstruction of an entire Michael Krebber exhibition, originally presented at Real Fine Arts, New York, restaged at Galerie Kerstin Engholm, Vienna. The installation mirrored the original presentation, which itself replicated paintings by Kate Middleton and Prince William from a charity workshop for Inner City Arts, Los Angeles. Conceived as a fictive exhibition, its documentation was made possible with the kind support of Galerie Kerstin Engholm.

Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox: 1989–2017
Kunsthalle Wien 1992 – 2017
08.11.2017 – 28.1.2018

Kunsthalle Wien 
Museumsquartier   
Museumsplatz 1 
1070 Vienna

Kunsthalle Wien 1992 – 2017
artists’ book, softcover, 140×190mm, 560 pages, full-color digital print, 2017.
Complete exhibition archive of Kunsthalle Wien presented in book form. 

Each page of the book represents one exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien, adopting both the color code and typography from the institution’s online presence. The last exhibition listed in the book is the book itself, as a solo exhibition by Samuel Bich.

Curator: Luca Lo Pinto

Set+Setting / THE SHOP
24.03.2017 – 07.04.2017

Samuel Bich, Julia Fischer, Olga Monina, Gregor Peschko

Ulične Galerije
Čavketov pasaž
Belgrade 

Curator: Clara Hofmann

For two weeks, The Shop operated as a functional museum shop, offering publications from the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade and the Museum of Applied Arts Belgrade, alongside postcards, posters, scarves, watches, and works by participating artists. Drawing on the museum’s online corporate identity, the project inscribed itself into both the institutional framework and the urban fabric. Located in an underground passage near the Ulična Galerija and framed by surrounding commercial outlets, the shop was further communicated through city-wide posters adopting the museum’s visual language. In the gallery itself, nine large-format photographs, benches, and a floral arrangement evoked museological display conventions. The photographs presented views into the park from the closed Museum of Contemporary Art, which at the time had remained inaccessible for over a decade due to urban policy decisions.