"Listen:" Oracle from the graves of W.A Mozart and Antonio Salieri, Vienna, 2010, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece

We’d love to invite you to our ‘Oracle Nite’ on Tuesday 25th of October, that we have especially created as a one-off event for MAK Wien.

The line-up:

the Oracles of dead stars (featuring Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Leni Riefenstahl, Vincent van Gogh and Egon Schiele), curiosities from the MAK collection, a magic stamp, strange drinks, paranormal recordings, a witch house disco and artificial fog.

Highlight of the evening will be a Berlin medium Susanne Semrow, trancing people out. During a 15-minute session, visitors have the opportunity to get in contact with the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.

Thursday October 25th
20:00 – 23:00
MAK – Östereichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst / Gegenwartskunst
Stubenring 5
1010 Wien / Österreich

MAK Wien - Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst / Gegenwartskunst

"Words Lie": Oracle from the grave of Oscar Wilde, Paris, 2010, frottage on handmade paper, 51 x 76 cm, unique piece

“Ache Into”: Oracle from the grave of Vincent van Gogh, Auvers-sur-Oise, 2010, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece

Featured in the ‘What Happened to God?’ exhibition at ACC Galerie Weimar. Channelled on a rainy afternoon in Röcken, Saxonia / Germany. Friedrich Nietzsche was stubborn but told us to “Redefi-ne”. We left him a rose.

Visit the brand new ‘ORACLE’ at ACC Weimar. July 17th – Aug 28th 2011.

The  show ‘What Happened to God?’ also features blasphemous works by Christian Jankowski, Marc Bijl, Peter Beste, Rory Macbeth and Cristina Lucas.

BORIS+NATASCHA will present ORACLE alongside works of  Mehdi Abbioui, Adel Abdessemed, Lida Abdul, Nobuyoshi Araki, Rémy Artiges, Valérie Belin, Pascal Bernier, Carole Chebron, Jan Fabre, Laurent Fiévet, Aurélia Frey, Robin Friend, Benjamin Girard, Teun Hocks, Doris Kloster, Ange Leccia, Tina Merandon, Liza Nguyen, Laurent Pernot, Dominique Petitgand, Jan Saudek, Olivier Sidet, Nicolas Simarik, Natascha Stellmach and Ingrid Wildi.

For the exhibition they premiere the new ORACLE of notorious WWI fighter-pilot Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, called ‘The Red Baron’.

MAy 13 – AUG 21

HISTORIAL DE LA GRANDE GUERRE, BP 20063 – 80201 Péronne Cedex

ESPACE CULTUREL, Rue de Buzanval, 6000 BEAUVAIS

What advice would the dead offer us today? And how would they speak to us?

This new works-on-paper series explores a contemporary form of the ancient Oracle through messages from the famous dead, via their tombstones. BORIS+NATASCHA facilitate this ‘message from the beyond’ by using only letters of the name on the tombstone of the famous dead. Mixing up the letters of the name to create new words, this message comes close to an anagram or Scrabble line.

Altering the old graphic technique of frottage (“rubbing”) they work directly with the tombstone to create an imprint with a gold pencil on a handcrafted piece of gold paper, akin to an embossing. As the process involves a mixture of research, stealth, synchronicity, mysticism and guerilla action, they have satirically re-named their technique Grave Rubbery, and have discovered that the official language of the dead is English…

MEDIUM MAGAZINE UK

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Watchlist: BORIS+NATASCHA

Rebelart Article

Rebelart Article

Das deutsch-australische Künstlerduo BORIS + NATASCHA hat Grabsteine bekannter Künstler für ihre Frottage-Textcollagen benutzt: “Here’s our new works-on-paper series: ORACLE explores a contemporary form of the ancient Oracle through a message from the famous Dead. We use the letters of the name on the tombstones to create a one-off frottage. As the process involves a mixture of research, stealth, synchronicity, mysticism and guerilla action, we’ve satirically re-named our technique, Grave Rubbery. We also discovered that the official language of the Dead is English.”

REBELART Germany

Rebelart Article

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Boris & Natascha produce bizarre and quirky artwork that often deals in the sombre issue of death, although they always manage to turn it into something exciting and humorous.

Their cheeky Grave Rubbery (frottage onto gold paper) is their unique way of receiving messages in the form of anagrams from the dead famous. They manage to pull these pranks by keeping their identity hidden. These secret troublemakers teamed up back in 2003 and have quietly exhibited all over the world. This June, they are exhibiting new works-on-paper at Basel focused around the so-called technique of Grave Rubbery, after which the exhibition is named. The 45 one-off pieces consist of gold-scribed letters etched from the tombstones of famous dead people.ART FROM BERLIN took place at Yasha Young Gallery – StrychninSCOPE Basel from June 15th to 19th 2010.THE NUMBER 4, Kuwait

BORIS + NATASCHA

The German duo showcase messages from the dead at Art Basel under the guise of the cartoon villains from 1960s cartoon Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Boris & Natascha produce bizarre and quirky artwork that often deals in the sombre issue of death, although they always manage to turn it into something exciting and humorous. Their cheeky Grave Rubbery (frottage onto gold paper) is their unique way of receiving messages in the form of anagrams from the dead famous. They manage to pull these pranks by keeping their identity hidden. These secret troublemakers teamed up back in 2003 and have quietly exhibited all over the world. This June, they are exhibiting new works-on-paper at Basel focused around the so-called technique of Grave Rubbery, after which the exhibition is named. The 45 one-off pieces consist of gold-scribed letters etched from the tombstones of famous dead people. Dazed Digital sat them down for a chat…

DD: What sparked the fascination with death you both have?

B+N: Death is not really as scary as the media makes it out to be. We’ve been dead many times.

DD: Do you consider yourselves to be the oracle/mediums? If so what other information have you received from beyond the graves of famous people?

B+N: Yes we do. All additional information can be found in a black envelope that is with our lawyer in Siberia, to be opened in the year 2525. If man is still alive.

DD: If somebody used Grave Rubbery on your grave, what do you think they would spell out?

B+N: We’d preferably disappear via a Tibetean Sky Burial, so there will be no tombstone to talk to. But feel free to talk to the vultures.

DD: Words Lie is what you scribed from Oscar Wilde’s grave, is their a hidden message there? What are your views on Oscar Wilde’s roller-coaster life story?

B+N: Oscar says to refer to his story ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’. Regarding his life: we are not here to judge the Dead. All the famous Dead that we have worked with have had a roller-coaster life.

DD: If you could scribe any famous dead persons grave who would it be? What do you think you would receive back?

B+N: Jesus, Hitler, Queen Mum. We never know beforehand what we will receive. It all happens there at the grave, feeling the magic resonance of the bones.

DD: Why have you chosen to fashion the artwork onto gold paper?

B+N: It was actually the advice of Vincent van Gogh. He said if he had used real gold in his paintings, things could have turned out differently for him: he may have sold a work in his lifetime and may then have felt better about himself and not gone out into the field and shot himself in the stomach. But these things are always easier in hindsight and we like to learn from the Dead.

DD: A few of your ‘missions’ have been interrupted, who caught you? and what were there reactions to your work?

B+N: The Wicked Witch of the East, a grumpy stout french lady and an Austrian guy with a bad haircut, screaming ‘Don’t touch the stones!!!’ Then we get thrown out of the graveyard, sometimes elegantly, sometimes brutally.

DD: 61,000 people visited Art Basel 40, its a great chance for huge exposure. What are you most excited about seeing and encountering during the 4 days?

B+N: The graveyards of course.

Sonita Dowd for DAZED DIGITAL London

Art world zombies hit Basel this year with messages from beyond the grave provided by famous artists via a series of 45 cryptic “frottages” (14,175 Swiss francs each) ghoulishly made up from letters found on their tombstones. The technique, pioneered by the duo BORIS+NATASCHA, is dubbed “Grave Rubbery” because of the guerilla techniques involved in surreptitiously creating an imprint from the graves. The artists have then cheekily rearranged the tombstone letters to spell out enigmatic new messages. Vincent van Gogh, buried in Cimetière d’Auvers-sur-Oise, has become “Ache Into”, while German-born artist Hans Bellmer, at rest in Père-Lachaise, Paris, has morphed into “Be Her Man”. The series of grisly works on gold paper, called “oracle”, are to go on show at Scope Basel (15-19 June) this week with the Strychnin Gallery.

THE ART NEWSPAPER, Art Basel Daily Edition, 15 June 2010

Detail of press article, 2010

Download the Catalogue

Monitoring is a cooperation of Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest, Kasseler Kunstverein, Kulturdezernat / documenta Archiv and Stellwerk. Curated by HOLGER BIRKHOLZ.

Installation view: Meditations #1-5, Fridericianum Kassel, 2008

Installation view: Meditations #1-5, Fridericianum Kassel, 2008

Installation view: Meditations #1-5, Fridericianum Kassel, 2008

From the MONITORING catalogue text (German & English):

BORIS+NATASCHA have collaborated since 2003. Their name is an ironic take on the evil Russian spies and comic figures, Boris Badenov and his attractive Natasha Fatale, from the comic and television series Rocky & Bullwinkle. With a penchant towards black humour, this artist duo investigates the human condition in western society. They describe their work as contemporary Memento mori.

MEDITATIONS #1-5 invites the viewer on a journey into fears of contemporary western society, in the form of guided visualisations. Modelled on classical relaxation techniques, the characters in the five scenarios are led on their existential journey to their innermost anxieties, panic attacks and self-doubts.

By wearing headphones, the lone viewer is lulled through various visualisations by a contemplative score and a hypnotic voiceover and led into fears in which the onscreen character is being drawn into. “The most confronting thing is to be confronted with oneself.” (B+N) It remains ambiguous whether the narrations stem from the character’s internal voice or speak to them.

The promised outcome of healing and meditative relaxation as a result of self-help programmes, is not the case here. No comforting solution is offered, no reconciliation with negative feelings, no reversal to a positive awareness of life: if anything a deepened emotional state erring towards drama. “Our mantra for this work is ‘Relax into fear.’” (B+N) In a sinister, ironic way the work plays on societal and individual fears of self-doubt, uncertainty, status anxiety and paranoia. It is a critical examination of how fear is used as a manipulative tool.

Suzanne Jakubczyk, Curator, Kasseler Kunstverein, 2008

Aftershow Party with COBRA KILLER

Amongst them BORIS+NATASCHA with DEATH ON TOUR.

BORIS + NATASCHA in their Death on Tour Installation, Fusion 5 Festival, Cannes, Photograph by Gilles Petipas, 2008

REVIEWS

This weekend saw a hotel in Cannes taken over by a hard-partying cabal of artists from all over the world. Organised by the Strychnin Gallery and displaying work that was largely figurative and surreal, all of the hotel’s rooms were transformed into either galleries or bizarre installations. Highlights included BORIS+NATASCHA’s Death on Tour … Dazed went along to soak up some of the extreme weirdness (not to mention a lot of the alcohol) and interview some of those involved.

DAZED & CONFUSED London

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Thinking back, when initially invited to this Fusion 5 Festival, I really had no idea what to expect. What I got were two jet-fuelled nights of parties in the French Mediterranean, in the most progressive hotel in Cannes, surrounded by avantgarde revelers culled from thoughout the globe. Painters, photographers, digital artists, journalists, writers, editors, producers, DJs, graff artists and general libertine patrons of the arts. It was a blur, highlighted by a blistering Friday night set from A.R.E. Weapons, copious liquor, a Spanish DJ who looked like Picasso’s octogenarian horse trainer, and a closing night show by the Cobrakillers, punctuated by them pouring bottles of cabernet over their heads. All the while surrounded by works from a handpicked group of emerging artists, resulting in pure artistic revelry of the highest order.

BPM Magazine, Los Angeles

Download BPM article.

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(…) Among all of this pulp, our favourite exhibitions were created by Till Krautkrämer and BORIS+NATASCHA, who satirized our obsessions with eternal youth through consumerism. BORIS+NATASCHA, a Berlin/Australian duo, created an installation about achieving immortality through shopping, and during their exhibition, viewers could purchase T-shirts to make themselves death-proof. Krautkrämer spoofed Vitamin Water with his own brand, Meatwater, available in enticing flavours like “wiener schnitzel” and “dirty hot dog”.

Tamsen Greene, ZINK MAGAZINE New York

Download ZINK article.

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BORIS+NATASCHA are an amazing duo who use photography, video, text: On the screen you can see Death at work. Unfortunately you have probably been photographed by Her and it’s not good for you because you may only have hours left to live. Lucky for you BORIS+NATASCHA negociated special deals with Death. On the wall, you can see some polaroids which constitute the “Superior Package” ( including a DVD of the Death at work and the story of the photographed person ). They are also made by Death and by buying one of them you can be saved ! Because the polaroid of you is destroyed and you will live as long as you were supposed to. But if you want to live longer you must play the DVD nonstop. And as a feel-good bonus, by owning the story of the dead guy who was on the polaroid, it will allow him or her to be reincarnated within a month. You can also considerate the “Russian Roulette package”, the “Hallelujah package” ( a Letter of Indulgence ), etc… BORIS+NATASCHA have well planned this Death Tour.

Jean-Marc Aznar

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Chris Osburn from WHITEHOT MAGAZINE London interviewing BORIS+NATASCHA:

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The Fusion 5 Festival, presented by Strychnin Gallery, was an art and music collaboration between 20 artists and 15 musicians from five continents that invaded the 3.14 Hotel in Cannes, France March 7th – 9th, 2008. Founded in Brooklyn in 1998, Strychnin Gallery has since spawned two sister galleries. Owner Yasha Young opened a second Strychnin in Berlin in 2002, and in October 2007, Strychnin joined Brick Lane’s vibrant art scene in London. The Fusion 5 Festival is the brainchild of Yasha Young and 3.14 Hotel owner Dani Morla. It effectively blurred the lines of genre, style and the pre-conceived notions of “scene,” creating an environment where multi-faceted underground art, no matter the sub-genre, materials or influence, existed as one. This is a notion that thrived on the contradictions. Instead of the aspiring to the “fine art” canon, conceptually, the event furthered the subversive art movement’s evolution in a direction parallel to it.