2025/12
EIKON #130-131 | PICTURE POLITICS
EIKON #130-131 is published as a double issue with the special theme “Picture Politics”. It focuses on moments where images are involved in societal negotiation processes. The selected contributions highlight various artistic strategies through which photographic practices make political realities visible, question them, or reformulate them. At the same time, the limits of artistic-activist image production are also revealed. We wish you an engaging read. – Gudrun Zacharias / EIKON
Artists: Katharina Gruzei | Maria Hahnenkamp | Nikita Kadan | Ayoung Kim | Franzi Kreis | Claudia Larcher | Ernst Logar | Michael Najjar | Arnulf Rainer | Felipe Romero Beltran | Laura Roth | August Sander | Deborah Sengl | Fritz Simak | Annegret Soltau | Marcel Urlaub
Authors: Carl Aigner | Wolfgang Brückle | Patrizia Feichter | Wolfgang Giegler | Ralph Gleis | Roman Grabner | Herbert Kopp-Oberstebrink | Hartwig Knack | Freddy Langer | Lena Paffrath | Danièle Perrier | Bibiane Resetarits | Christoph Thun-Hohenstein | Matthias Seier | Gudrun Zacharias
Languages | German / English
Format | 280 x 210 mm
ISBN | 978-3-904083-24-9
144 pages
Price: €18.00 (incl. 10% VAT)
Order at: . . . . .
“In an era of digital image floods and algorithmically controlled visibility, the political power of photography is being renegotiated. Who creates images, who disseminates them – and who benefits from them?”
Ralph Gleis | Albertina Vienna
CONTENTS
FOCUS | PICTURE POLITICS
AYOUNG KIM| Herbert Kopp-Oberstebrink
NIKITA KADAN | Danièle Perrier
MIR METRO | KATHARINA GRUZEI | Gudrun Zacharias
MAGIC MOMENT | Matthias Seier
THE POLITICAL DIMENSION | Ralph Gleis
PICTURE POLITICS | Carl Aigner
PORTFOLIO
LAURA ROTH | Gudrun Zacharias
DEBORAH SENGL | Roman Grabner
ANNEGRET SOLTAU | Freddy Langer
EXHIBITIONS
The Uncanny Beauty of Environmental Activist Art | Bibiane Resetarits
Regenerative Art for Future Courage! | Christoph Thun-Hohenstein
Maria Hahnenkamp
COOPERATIONS
MICHAEL NAJJAR | “eruption” and “liquid landscape” | Sammlung SpallArt
ARNULF RAINER From Painting to Photography | Arnulf Rainer Museum
PUBLICATIONS / REVIEWS
FRITZ SIMAK. Photographs in the Key of Life | Hartwig Knack
ERNST LOGAR (Ed.) Reflecting Oil | Lena Paffrath
Annette Deeken. AUGUST SANDER. A Biography | Wolfgang Brückle
NEW RELEASES | COLLECTOR’S EDITION | EIKON EDITION | DATES
“On the small screen, the quality of an image hardly matters anymore; the repetition of the theme, i.e., quantity, counts; to keep interest alive and, above all, the real-time transmission that conveys the feeling of being there […].”
Danièle Perrier | AICA
EDITORIAL
Dear Readers!
EIKON Magazine is undergoing a phase of reorientation, a process of reflection and new beginnings. During this transitional period, a team is forming that will shape EIKON in the future with a precise eye, great intellectual curiosity, and fresh perspectives. This new beginning in personnel allows us to rethink established structures and test new ones: Expect more accentuated photo series, even more space for art in its diversity, and a magazine layout that we are carefully but consistently making clearer and more reader-friendly. At the same time, a central self-conception is once again coming into focus: our mission of mediation – the task of making photographic practices and discourses accessible, readable, and experienceable. We intend to pursue this with even greater attention, sensitivity, and depth to further sharpen the dialogue between art, theory, and the public.
More and more, EIKON Magazine’s offerings and online services are converging. Soon, new offerings will await you on EIKON Web and via the EIKON Newsletter – be sure to subscribe, it’s free!
Your feedback, opinions, suggestions, and criticism are important to us. Let us know how you like the current issue, what you would like to see in the future, and how we can inspire you even more as a reader.
The current issue is published as a double issue with the special theme “Picture Politics”. It focuses on moments where images are involved in societal negotiation processes. The selected contributions highlight various artistic strategies through which photographic practices make political realities visible, question them, or reformulate them. At the same time, the limits of artistic-activist image production are also revealed. We wish you an engaging read.
Our heartfelt thanks go to our long-standing subscribers, readers, funding institutions, as well as friends and companions of EIKON, who continue to support us during this transitional period. Your trust underpins our renewal process.
Gudrun Zacharias | December 2025
THANKS TO
Nikolaus Kratzer / Department of Art and Culture of the Lower Austrian Provincial Government
Michaela Pfundner, Hans Petschar / Austrian National Library
Patrizia Büchele / Volkstheater Vienna
Bert de Leenheer / Galerie Transit, Mechelen
Nina Mößle / Galerie Anita Beckers / Frankfurt
Claudia Larcher / Vienna
Studio Arnulf Rainer / Vienna
ART DIRECTION & DESIGN
Martin Hassler
TRANSLATION
Vera Coccyx, Don Ferguson, Urška Longer