When: Saturday, November 13th 2010 | 6:00 pm
Where: UNO St. Claude Art Gallery | 2429 St. Claude Avenue | New Orleans
"Leaves from Innsbruck"
As part of the tenth anniversary celebrations of the art exchange program between the City of Innsbruck / Galerie im Andechshof and the University of New Orleans / Fine Arts Department, seventeen Tyrolean artists who over the last ten years have exhibited their works in New Orleans were invited to realize a special project in serigraphy.
These works were then assembled into a folder as a project entitled "Leaves of Innsbruck", a symbolic depiction of the many years of friendship between the two cities. The handcrafted screen printing carried out by Hermann Stöckl and A.K.A. Baldrin and the folder designed by Michael Birkl, an Innsbruck bookbinder, underscore this abiding association as well as the high quality of the works by the participating artists.
Thanks to the generous support of the Hypo Tirol Bank, the Innsbruck Community Utilities and the Schenker Company, we were able to put together a product of extremely high quality which places the focus of the exchange program where it ought to be, namely, onto the art itself.
This folder is being sent to New Orleans as a gift from the Cultural Office of the City of Innsbruck. In November it will be presented at the St. Claude Gallery of the UNO as part of this year’s anniversary exhibition. Subsequently, the works will be on view in Innsbruck at the “Stillen Speicher” of the Hypo Tirol Bank on Bozner Square at the end of the year.
“Leaves from Innsbruck” is a gesture of friendship.
The tree as a symbol of such a valued relationship is obvious to one and all. Yet as is the case with any treasured relationship, it requires care and maintenance. It needs good earth in which it can take root. It has to be watered and pruned. If all that takes place in orderly fashion, it becomes strong and brings forth good fruits. The serigraphic folder “Leaves from Innsbruck” is the latest, freshest harvest in the ongoing cultural relationship between two cities bonded together in friendship. We hope it will continue to thrive, its roots continue to be well anchored in the soil, and that just such wondrous leaves as these will continue to sprout and adorn the tree.
Roland Maurmair and Horst Burmann, October 2010