20th September 2023, Shame – Annie Ernaux, Volkstheater Wien
2nd November 2023, Generation Beta “The Great Opera”
Austrian Cultural Forum Rome
25th November 2023, Generation Beta “16 days against violence against women”
Austrian Cultural Forum Bern / Dreiviertel Gallery
Photographs taken during performances of „Annie Ernaux – Shame“ at Vienna’s Volkstheater at Lukas Feichtner Gallery.
A fascinatingly quiet prose narrative staged with big impact.
– Falter
Live on stage, in the “darkroom” of the Vienna Volkstheater.
Music Video for Julia Lacherstorfer’s new project “scars”
Young artist, Franzi Kreis, encountered wonderful stories within St. Pölten’s Viehofen district. Actually, the stories found her. The result is a remarkable exhibition titled “No Commotion at All”. The photo, film and sound recordings by Franzi Kreis — contrasted with archive material — takes place at the city museum of St. Pölten and as a projection on the facade of the former Glanzstoff factory.
The relation to one’s own mother
One day my children’s fur coat had vanished. On that day my mother wanted to pick me up from Kindergarten and opened the closets there. With trembling hands she dressed me in all kinds of jackets, like an onion! She was so worried. I remember the snowy smell of her fur coat and her bonnet and how her thin nose was very cold. In Izhevsk we have minus 30 degrees in winter.
What do sons have to tell about the life stories of their fathers? This is the question explored in the multimedia photo exhibition “Father Earth,” which will be on display as a window show at Henriettenplatz in Vienna’s 15th district starting tomorrow. After her successful project “Finding Motherland“ last year, in which she asked daughters about their mothers, artist and photographer, Franzi Kreis, has now turned her attention to sons and fathers.
The first question always remained the same: “What,” Franzi Kreis asked, “do you know about your father’s childhood?”
The question, she knows, opens up wide space — space for conversations about family relationships, life concepts and contemporary history.
Served apple strudel, champagne, coffee, goulash soup or “Buchteln”, she listened to the life stories of their fathers, told by — among others — an electrician, a lawyer, a carpenter and a public medical officer.
Everything About my Father
Franzi Kreis is looking for men willing to talk about their fathers
(…)
It is impossible not to feel addressed by his look, just as it is in general difficult to ignore this project.
Heiress of Harlequin
SURE SHOOTING”. When photographer Franzi Kreis shoots, her favorite ingredient can’t be missing: giving up control!
A Mother’s Day exhibition in times of closed museums and galleries? That is also possible.
Because it clearly shows what is missing: the creative power of performing art as a catalyst in society.
From the very first minute: when I turn on Ö1, everything’s alright. Listening to Ö1 gives me a feeling like back then in my parents’ caravan. Such a feeling of home, yet at the same time the whole world seems tangible.
45 daughters and their mothers in “Finding Motherland”
“The idea came out of a very personal undertaking: I asked my mother about my grandmother and my grandmother about my great-grandmother. That led to conversations with other women,” the artist shared.
Well-received photo art debut.
Observations with Vision
The photo book “Limelight” takes us far beyond the borders of our home country and brings together intimate, whimsical, as well as touching, portraits and stories about Isabelle Huppert, Bob Wilson, Amanda Palmer or Thomas Gansch, for example.
Franzi Kreis is a busy theater photographer, but her first photo book shows her love for the circus. The photographer brings stage and street performers close to the audience with her images, which is exciting and at times irritating, almost frightening.
Where is Motherland?
“I think I very often do something as my mama did.” What do daughters know about their mothers’ lives? What is remembered and what shapes the relationship? Photographer Franzi Kreis tries to investigate the “motherland” of an array of diverse women.
Her exhibition was originally conceived for vacant restaurants, bars and cafes. Because of the Corona measures, Vienna-based artist, Franzi Kreis, has rearranged. Now her works hang in various displays. Starting with culture cafes, they were then hung in stores and even market stalls in Floridsdorf.
Moscow’s periphery
Culture beyond the city center – this is the focus of a series of exhibitions by the Austrian Cultural Forum in Moscow. There are hardly any traces left of the Soviet car factory, ZIL. All that remains is the former workers’ cultural center. Artist, Franzi Kreis, also shows her personal view of Moscow.
Starting tomorrow, generational questions will fill a former laundromat in Vienna’s 20th district with new life: Photographer Franzi Kreis has interviewed women about their mothers. Following these conversations, portrait photos of the daughters were taken, in which the photographer paid special attention to their body language. The photos and interview excerpts will be presented in vacant storefronts, in a traveling exhibition titled “Finding Motherland”.
Black Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge: Red Vienna 1919 – 2019 – 2119 / Video installation at Vienna City Hall, Mobile Academy Berlin.
