22 Mar An evening with Eva Zar and Maximilian Mauracher
Eva Zar, photographer, and Maximilian Mauracher, graphic designer, will do an artistic project at Take Festival Parcours. They took their time to answer some questions about their installation, people’s perception on social media and music. Also, they were chill as eff.
I want the readers to get to know you guys so I’m asking you to describe each other in three words.
Eva: Each other?
Maximilian: That’s really difficult. Ermm…
Eva: Best graphic artist e-v-e-r. Does that count?
Maximilian: Extravagant trash girl (laughs).
Let’s talk about your project: what is it all about and what is it going to look like?
Maximilian: The project is an installation and it’s called hashtag babes from the future. The festival is about art, fashion and culture of every day life and we tried to combine these elements. Especially the cultural aspect of every day life is something that is represented by Instagram because it’s very visual. People are addicted to putting themselves out there and we want to take a look at girls who do that professionally and see what they will look like in 50 years.
Eva: Here’s what we are going to do: we are going to build an installation that has a width of 2 m and there are going to be three levels. The first level is made of the frame of an iPhone. The second level is going to be 1 m after the first one and it will be an invisible fabric that is supposed to represent the screen of an iPhone. And the third level is going to be directly on the wall, which is where the photographs of those 50-year-old women will be seen. So if you are looking at it frontally, you will see an Instagram account with photos on an iPhone.
Maximilian: Exactly. We are going to play with stereotypes and replicate them with all those things that are considered ‘in’ at the moment. It could be anything from trashy to minimal.
Eva: Right! If you take a look at famous oil paintings, for example Marie Antoinette, you know that she definitely didn’t look the way she was portrayed. Nowadays, people use Photoshop but back in the day it was the artists who manipulated the self-portrait. Things haven’t changed.
How did you come up with the name?
Both laugh.
Maximilian: We came up with the concept first and then we sort of figured out what we wanted call it.
Eva: It was actually pretty last minute.
I expected it to be a bit more meaningful to be honest.
Both laugh.
What colors are going to dominate 50 years from now?
Eva: I wouldn’t define our installation by colors.
Maximilian: Yeah, we’re not going to turn this into something futuristic or science fiction related. Our aim is take a look at how 18-year-old girls portray themselves online and then show people what that would look like with women who are in their fifties. We want to show how absurd it would be if this trend would go on for years.
Eva: It’s not about showing what the future will look like! It’s about showing what the Instagram babes will look like if they keep doing this.
Were you ever clueless during this whole process? What did you do to take your minds off things?
Maximilian: No, we’re great team players. We both came up with our own ideas and then simply put them together.
Eva: Yeah. We’re both open-minded artists, which is why we got along.
Do you have some advice for people who are at the beginning of their career, wanting to breakthrough?
Eva: Pay attention! Pay attention to everything. That’s what defines today’s artists. You need to pay attention, no matter where you are, what time it is or if you’re drunk – it doesn’t matter.
Maximilian: If you want to do something then go ahead and just do it.
Eva: Walk the walk, don’t talk the talk.
(A couple of minutes later.)
Eva: The only way out is in. Just do it, even if you’re scared… especially when you’re scared!
Maximilian: Yeah. Whenever you think you can’t do something, that’s exactly when you build up enough energy to succeed.
Eva: Amy Poehler said it perfectly. She said great people do things before they’re ready.
What are your plans for 2016?
Eva: I’ll have an exhibition before TAKE but that’s all I’m going to say. I’m very secretive.
Maximilian: I just had a poster exhibition and I’ll have an installation at the Home Gallery at the end of March.
At the beginning we were talking about social media. Which app is the one you cannot live without?
Both: Instagram.
Eva: And Facebook.
Before this interview started we were listening to Oh Wonder. If you put your iPod on shuffle, what’s the first song that comes on?
Maximilian: PANTEROS666 feat. WOODKID – CLEAR
Eva: Alicia Keys – A Woman’s Worth
Photo credit: © Johannes Raimann
