Benedikt Mitmannsgruber - 1996

Karl-Farkass-Gasse 19

1030 Wien

 

In 1996, seemingly out of nowhere, Benedikt Mitmannsgruber turned 30 overnight.

Surrounded by forests, cows, and farms, he reflected on the past few years.

In the attic of his parents' house, he discovered a yellowed album containing his family's family tree.

For Benedikt Mitmannsgruber, this marked the beginning of a furious journey through his family's past and his own absurd everyday life.

The journey begins at the start of the 20th century in a small village on the Czech border. There, Benedikt Mitmannsgruber's great-grandparents decided to have 15 children. In the 1960s, Benedikt Mitmannsgruber's parents were born. They spent their childhood next to the Iron Curtain in the heart of rural Austria. No one was quite sure whether the small strip of land belonged to the Czech Republic or Austria. In the 1990s, the curtain fell, and Benedikt Mitmannsgruber's parents decided to have a son. He was born into a world he never quite fit into, but which he nevertheless loved with all its quirky inhabitants and idiosyncrasies.

An homage to growing up in the middle of nowhere. A love letter to forgotten backwaters. A journey into his own past. A bizarre look at our society and a world gone off the rails.

Benedikt Mitmannsgruber's third show, "1996," is dedicated to his two parents and four grandparents, who, despite a difficult upbringing at the ends of the earth with few prospects, shaped him into the Benedikt Mitmannsgruber he is today!

(Source: globe.wien)