Charly Walter & Danijela Oberhofer Tonkovic
Full name: Charly Walter & Danijela Oberhofer Tonkovic
Currently lives and works in Innsbruck, Austria
Organization: Openspace-Innsbruck
Areas of interest: Charly: Art, design, architecture, cultural politics. Danijela: Public art, sound & music, new media, solid constructions, society, people – love.
Favorite books: Charly: My notebook. Danijela: It is hard for me to answer which one is my favourite, but there are few that touched me at certain life stages: Sam Shepard – Motel Chronicles, Armistead Maupin – Tales of the City, Alessandro Barrico – Ocean Sea, Danilo Kiš – The Encyclopedia of the Dead, Jose Saramago – Blindness, Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go.
Favorite films: Charly: My dreams. Danijela: Same as above. I do not have a favourite movie, but some of these have kept my mind busy: Paris Texas – Wim Wanders, Into the Wild by Sean Penn, Manchester by the Sea – Kenneth Lonergan. Another nice movie I saw recently was Peterson by Jim Jarmusch. Love the aesthetics of Tom Ford movies – for example The Single Man. l immensely enjoy Woodie Allen New York relationship / humour movies like Annie Hall. I also keep very special place in my heart for European cinematography, e.g. the special warmth of Czech and Georgian movies, and the brittle humour of the ex Yugoslavia and Spanish movies. I also enjoy good animation films – one that stuck to my memory – Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud. Almost forgot The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. By the way, I love the soundtracks of all the “favourite” movies. Thus, I have answered the non-existent question about my favourite music.
Danijela: Although I studied in the field of economics, I have been undoubtedly attracted by art from an early age.
However, as is the case with pulsating energies, my artistic nature prevailed and in combination with communication and marketing skills brought me to the field of cultural production and management. My professional path was a combination of lucky coincidences, intuitive life decisions and passion for art rather than careful educational planning… It all started in 2003. By establishing a website related to Croatian culture and music scene, continued by big international concert productions, followed by interdisciplinary projects of smaller scale after co-founding the LAB852 company for Cultural management (with my colleague Karmen Krasic Kozul) in Zagreb, which to me seemed as a logical and complementary continuum of the above. Thus, I left the mainstream, and the big cultural centres where I started off, aiming for smaller scale productions of more interesting interdisciplinary content, leaving the established genre boundaries behind and swimming along the strong independent currents.
After relocating to Austria, where I currently live, and a short professional pause, I am back to my original carrier path, having enrolled in the Austrian Institute for Cultural Concepts – Vienna (cultural management and mediation). In February 2018, I started exceeding collaboration with new Austrian partner Openspace – Charly Walter as part of the MagiC Carpets platform, developing my curating skills. Recharged and full of fresh impulses, I am looking forward to new collaborations, projects and challenges.
Personally, I place a lot of importance on the quality of program content and production itself, but my Mediterranean-Balkan roots have taught me a certain dose of flexibility and improvisation – which provides a good balance.
Original love for the sound-art does not pose any obstacle in creating a variety of interdisciplinary and multimedia programs. Indeed – I enjoy such challenges!
You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. – James Allen.
Why are you a part of MagiC Carpets?
Charly: Great opportunity to network all over Europe.
Danijela: It’s a matter of fate! (non)accidental acquaintance in Paris, hard work, strong partnership and common vision.
Why have you chosen to be a curator or why has curatorship chosen you?
Charly: Since childhood, I am interested in arts and architecture, friendship with artists, my own professional career
Danijela: Our paths have been divinely interwovenJ Most probably a combination of talent, challenges, love for the process itself and its output.
What do you think is the purpose of art?
Charly: Social encounters for better life.
Danijela: There are different purposes of art, for me the most important ones are – thinking, reflection, emotion, stimulation and development.
Past projects you are proud of (before MC)?
Charly: Openspace-Innsbruck since 2012; the exhibition at Venice Design Week 2016+2017, the exhibition at Florence Design Week 2015, the organisation of gallery weekend premierentage/innsbruck 2014,15+16. Charly is a director and curator of Openspace-Innsbruck.
Danijela: Breakhtrough! @MSU – Audiovisual Festival at the Museum of Contemporary art Zagreb, Croatia (Director-curator, project management), The focus of the festival was the sound and the re-examination of the relationship between sound and other forms of art. The program included professional lectures, panels, performances, audiovisual installations, video, and light animations. The protagonists of the project were interdisciplinary artists who are constantly breaking the boundaries of creativity. Apart from the curatorial role which I really enjoyed very much, the special challenge in this project was project management and production.
CULTURAL SUMMER VIS/ IMPROVIS (2012 – 2013) (Curator, Project management). During more than 60 days on 10 different locations on the island of VIS, we produced more than 50 different international educational & cultural events in order to promote the Island of Vis as the ultimate destination for cultural tourism. My role was project management and curating of programs. A chance to discover this beautiful interesting island, the inclusion of local population, public art and audience development through an innovative approach – was a very special challenge to me at that point of time.
Networked Encounters – Kaunas Biennale (Lithuania – Croatia) EU PROJECT 2015–2016 (Curator, project management). This European cultural cooperation project was led by Kaunas Biennial (LT), involving partners: Crafts Council (GB), Arte & Arte (IT) and Lab 852 (CRO). The aim of the project was to create situations, platforms and spaces for human encounters through active participation in exhibitions, performances, sound installations, workshops and residency programs, memory site-specific project activities and community art events. I enjoyed the curatorial process itself and the project development as well very much.
Festival Željezara 2nd edition – Zajednički (g)rad, 2015 Project management and curating assistant (in the Lab 852 part of the program) Specifically for this production, it was a cooperation of numerous organizations and individuals working in the field of culture with the common goal of encouraging the cultural revitalization of post-industrial city called Sisak. The programme has offered a variety of workshops, lectures, discussions, creative incubators, student exchange, exhibitions, concerts and presentations. During the festival, Lab 852, in collaboration with French organization Trempolino, organized the first part of our pilot project European Music Incubator (EU Project). My special attention was directed to a part of the festival where our artist intervened with sound installation into existing art-sculptures in the public space. I have participated in project development and curatorial work.
RESIDENCIES
2020, Year III
2019, Year II
2018, Year I
Daniela Palimariu (Romania) & Ninutsa Shatberashvili (Georgia)
Contact details:
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
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