Holzfeind Heidrun

Behind the Iron Gate
The film portrays everyday life in the communist era housing estate Za Zelazna Brama (‘Behind the Iron Gate’). The housing estate was built by a team of architects between 1965-1972 in the center of Warsaw on the ruins of the so-called Small Ghetto. The 19 blocks, each 16 floors high, are based on modern rational principles. They were occupied by workers, functionaries, academics and the Warsaw intelligentsia. In the 1970s the housing estate was considered a symbol of Polish socialist prosperity and technological progress. Today the small apartments are regarded by many as substandard and an unpleasant reminder of the communist era. Since 1989 many post-modern apartment buildings, office towers and hotels are being built in between the blocks, destroying green areas and the original lay-out of the housing estate.

Colonnade Park
Colonnade Park, the last part of a documentary trilogy about modernist residential buildings inspecting Rome (Corviale, Il Serpentone, 2001) and Warsaw (Behind the Iron Gate, 2009), allows the director Heidrun Holzfeind turn for the first time to the New World through the high-rise Colonnade and two pavilion buildings by Mies van der Rohe in Newark, New Jersey. Built in the 1950s to appeal to middle-class elite, making the living in the center of Newark attractive again, the building has a moving story behind it, which tells, over and above urban developments, of social shifts.

Born 1972 in Lienz, Austria. EDUCATION 1990-92 Studies in Art History at the University of Vienna 1991-96 Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (MFA) 1995 Studies at Cooper Union, New York SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2010 CCA, Ujazdowski castle, Warsaw 2009 De Vleeshal, Middelburg, NL 2008 Mexico 68, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City 2007 CU / 68, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck 2005 Imprevistos. Obras de Heidrun Holzfeind, Lado B, MUCA, UNAM, Mexico City 2005 Exposed, Artists Space (project room), New York 2004 Alien3, W139 gallery, Amsterdam 2004 Alien5, Flacc, Genk, Belgium 2002 Alien, Austrian Cultural Forum Rome 2002 Alien2, Swiss Institute New York (project space) GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS 2011 Communitas, Camera Austria, Graz, curated by Maren Lübbke-Tidow and Reinhard Braun 2010 Documentary Fortnight exhibition, MOMA, New York Living modern, CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson; curated by Laura Barlow Architecture and its discontents, Kaleidoscope, Milan; curated by Adam Szymczyk Revenge, Tallinn Art Hall gallery, Estonia 2 or 3 things we’ve learned / Intersections of Art, Pedagogy and Protest, IG Bildende Kunst, Vienna; curated by Eva Egermann and Elke Krasny Diagonale / Festival for Austrian Film, Graz European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck 2009 See this Sound, Lentos Museum Linz; curated by Cosima Rainer (cat.) Open: Poland – Architecture, Identity and the Avant-Garde, RIBA, London; curated by Rob Wilson & Grzegorz Piatek Changes in the contemporary city, SIR cinema, Rotterdam; curated by Jos van der Pol Photocairo4, Brandts Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark; After Architecture, Centre d'Art Santa Monica, Barcelona; curated by Martí Peran (cat.) A Starting Point: Intrude 366, Zendai MOMA, Shanghai; curated by Biljana Ciric 2008 Exposed, Documentary Fortnight exhibition, MOMA, New York Manifesta 7, Principle Hope, Rovereto, Italy; curated by Adam Budak (cat.) PhotoCairo 4, Cairo, Egypt; curated by Edit Molnar, Aleya Hamza (cat.) Tiefenrausch, OK Centrum, Linz (cat.) Rom Report, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany UNSTERN. SINISTRE. DISASTRO. ACC Weimar, Germany Cinema on Cinema, De Balie, Amsterdam ORTung, gallery 5020, Salzburg 2007 Exits and Dead Ends, Festival der Regionen 2007, Upper Austria (cat.) After Architects, Architekturmuseum Basel; curated by Maja Naef & Adam Szymczyk Die Blaue Blume, Grazer Kunstverein; curated by Soren Grammel The Building Show, Exit Art New York European Media Arts Festival, Osnabruck Assim Vivemos Festival Brazil, Rio de Janero & Brasília 2006 Der Raum zwischen zwei Bildern, Galerie Fotohof Salzburg Every day, Salzburger Kunstverein What war? White Box, New York Review Video Art, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere; curated by Lorenzo Benedetti Heimat filmfestival, AREAL28, Berlin 3500 cm2, blueroom, Rome 2005 Duisburger Filmwoche, Germany Diagonale, Graz, Austria Panorama 8, Impakt Festival, Utrecht SKIF Festival, St. Petersburg 2004 Common Property, Werkleitz Biennale, Halle, Germany Tracer, TENT/Witte de With, Rotterdam Alien4, Minority Report, Festival of Contemporary Art, Aarhus, Denmark AIM, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York Cultural Autopsy, Impakt festival, Utrecht & META Cultural Foundation Bucarest Built Visions, Media Space Stuttgart Das Reale berühren (archive), Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland; Baltic Arts Centre, Sweden 2003 Play global! Transmediale Media Art Festival 03, Berlin slow (e)motion, Kunstverein Cologne; Tranzit, Prague; curated by Josef Dabernig Interseason, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht; curated by Hilde de Bruijn Das Reale berühren, Videofestival, Kunstverein Munic 4 D, Pavillion de Cuba, Havanna Biennale Video Drive In, Room Service, Agence d'Art Contemporain, Rennes Image Festival, Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Fukuoka Manipulated Identities, Selfware festival, Graz, Austria Diagonale / Festival of Austrian Film, Graz Kartographien, Filmcasino Vienna; curated by Melanie Ohnemus SNIFF Int. Short Filmfestival, Novo Mesto, Slovenia CityScape 03, Rotterdam 2002 Prototypes, Fondazione Olivetti, Rome; curated by Stefano Chiodi Reflex, Art & Idea, Mexico City; curated by Robert Punkenhofer European Video Art, Videoart Center Tokyo Video Drive In, Videochroniques, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseilles Romadocfest, Rome VideoEx, Zurich 2001 Prospect#1, Videochroniques, Friche La Belle de Mai, Marseilles Lite, Roebling Hall, New York; curated by Christoph Draeger and Adriana Arenas Diagonale, Graz Mikrofest, Belgrade 1999 *imo Collecting Television, program on the Viennese TV channel TIV; curated by Ruth Kaaserer and Ricarda Denzer time scan 1, Museumsquartier Vienna; curated by Ursula Graf 1998 Through Video, Brasilika, Vienna 1997 Kiosk, Downtown Arts Festival, New York; curated by Karin Frei never forget you are going to die, videonight, Bwaystudio, New York 1996 Brasilika gallery, Vienna tunnel vision, Depot, Vienna MAGAZINes project, Austrian Artist studio, New York 1995 Lichtensteinstrasse, Vienna Kommunikationsbuero, Vienna the who?, allgirls Gallery, Berlin fast geschenkt, Bricks&Kicks, Vienna 1994 Institute for Contemporary Arts, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna CURATORIAL PROJECTS Alien video library , Austrian Cultural Forum, Rome (2002) Alien2, Swiss Institute New York (2002) Alien3 , W139 Amsterdam (2004) Alien4 as part of Minority Report, Festival of Contemporary Art, Aarhus, Denmark Alien5 , Flacc, Gent, Belgium Tuesdaybar temporary alternative art space (with Christoph Keller), New York (2003) Never forget you are going to die, video night, Broadwaystudio, New York (1997) image a publication about art and advertising RESIDENCIES 2007 air lab, CCA-Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw 2007 Swing Space grant, LMCC, New York 2007 ORTung, Strobl, Salzburg 2006 3-month residency in London (Austrian Arts Council) 2005 6-month residency in Mexico City (Austrian Arts Council) 2001 4 month resideny in Rome, Italy (Austrian Arts Council) 1996/97 6-month residency in New York, USA (Austrian Arts Council)