Victoria Coeln (born 20 December 1962,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

) is an Austrian artist who lives and works in Vienna. Her work centers around how light, space and colour are perceived.

Biography

Coeln studied Stage Design at the

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...

as well as Mathematics at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

and the

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

between 1981 and 1985. After graduating, she assisted the set-designer

Günther Schneider-Siemssen Günther Schneider-Siemssen (7 June 1926 – 2 June 2015) was a German-born Austrian scenic designer, working as the chief designer for all Austrian State Theatres and the Salzburg Festival, where he created 28 productions for Herbert von Karajan ...

between 1986–1989 and built sets commissioned by European operas, advertisements and music videos. Within this field of work she began to realize her fascination with light and began to specialize. She is best known for her large-scale, immersive, light installations that have been showcased on some of Vienna's most celebrated buildings. However, she doesn't only work three-dimensionally and has also created a two-dimensional image space series. Her etching into

dichroic glass Dichroic glass is glass which can display multiple different colors depending on lighting conditions. One dichroic material is a modern composite non-translucent glass that is produced by stacking layers of metal oxides which give the glass shift ...

slides is reminiscent of the preparation of printing plates in traditional engraving techniques, however, she uses the glass plates as filters through which to project light. She builds polychrome light spaces that she calls "Chromotopes" that are developed on-site and installed temporarily or permanently in public outdoor and interior spaces. Coeln's natural chromotopes are built on the basis of sunlight illuminating her filters, while the artificial require projectors. All her more recent work focuses around the manifestation of these Chromotopes within differing spaces. They are used as the setting for her portrait series, choreography and performances and are often accompanied by correlative music, creating public spaces that encourage social interaction.

Works

* "Chromotopia Konzerthaus", permanent light installation on the facade of Vienna's Konzerthaus, Vienna, since 2007. * "Chromotopia Stadtpark I – Painting the Night", permanent installation at the entrance of the Stadtpark/Reisnerstrasse, Vienna, since 2008. * "Chromotopia St. Stephan", temporary light installation, Stephansplatz, Vienna, May 2011 to December 2014. * "Chromotopia Kokoschka", temporary light installation on the Leopold Museum, Vienna, 2013.http://www.mqw.at/en/program//programmdetail/chromotopia-kokoschka-victoria-coeln-1/?source=menu&cHash=e33b6fb466c88e4856bf33776d3d0965 Retrieved 31 March 2015
/ref> * "Chromotopia Heldentor", temporary light installation, Vienna, May to September 2014. Wien - Konzerthaus bei Nacht.jpg, "Chromotopia Konzerthaus", Vienna Stadtpark-Wien-Lichtinstallation-DSC 0638w.jpg, "Chromotopia Stadtpark", Vienna Stephansdom 2012 mit Lichtspektakel 2.JPG, "Chromotopia St. Stephan", Vienna

Bibliography

Peter Roehlen: "FARB LICHT SPIEL: Dichroic Glass in Fine Arts and Archictecture“, Prinz Optics, Berlin, 2013, p. 14–19.
Doris Lippitsch: "Lichträume in Wien: Lichter der Grossstadt“, Bohmann, Wien, 2009, , p. 32–47. (in German)

Peter Weibel Peter Weibel (; born 5 March 1944 in Odessa, USSR) is an internationally known Austrian post-conceptual artist, curator and new media theoretician. He started out in 1964 as a visual poet but soon jumped from the page to the screen within the sen ...

& Gregor Jansen: "Lichtkunst aus Kunstlicht – Licht als Medium der Kunst im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert / Light Art from Artificial Light – Light as a Medium in 20th ad 21st Century Art“ (Ausstellungskatalog ZKM), Hatje Cantz Publishers, Ostfildern, 2006, , p. 373. (in German)

References

External links

Official homepage of Victoria Coeln

Victoria Coeln on Facebook
* http://www.shift.jp.org/en/archives/2003/11/victoria_coeln_color_spaces.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Coeln, Victoria Austrian artists 1962 births Living people