museum in progress has organised the series "Portraits of Artists" (1992–2001) – conversations with international artists who were exhibiting and/or taking part in a symposium in Vienna. The interviews of different lengths were recorded in the blue box with the artists as talking heads face on to the camera and the interviewer's voice off-screen. The artists usually chose their interview partners themselves, creating a basis of trust between the interlocutors. The artists were also able to choose the background colour, which was added afterwards, and decide which parts of the interview should remain in the final version and which should be edited out. Thanks to this artistic concept, which was conceived by Peter Kogler and museum in progress, the interviews offer authentic portraits of the artists.
In 2017 four DVDs containing a total of 18 conversations were published under the title "Artists Talking" by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König. Kindly supported by Bildrecht. For futher information see purchase details!
"Portraits of Artists" was produced in co-operation with various institutions and participants who could change during the course of this project without a time limit. The Studio for New Media at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts has been a partner since the beginning of the project, which was also supported over a long period as part of the curatorship programme of the Austrian Minister of Education and Art and then the Minister of Science, Research and Art (curator 1992–1994: Robert Fleck; curator 1994–1996: Stella Rollig).
As part of the first thematic exhibition on the programme of the new "Kunsthaus Bregenz", the gallery became a partner of museum in progress: 38 interviews were selected from the 70 then existing and twelve were re-shot to explore more closely the exhibition theme of "Artists". The exhibition, "Artists. 50 positions of contemporary international art. Video portraits and works" took place between 28 September and 30 November 1997 at the Kunsthaus Bregenz. A publication of the same name appeared to accompany the exhibition with printed versions of the 50 interviews in their original languages.
From 1992 until 1994 the photographer Christian Schoppe was part of the video project "Portraits of Artists" and he made a total of 26 photo portraits of the artists involved.
And from October 1994 to July 1996 the project was run in co-operation with the daily newspaper DER STANDARD which printed half-page extracts from the conversations approximately once a month. The text versions were prepared by Robert Fleck and Christian Muhr. "Portraits of Artists" in the print media was made possible as part of the curatorship programme of Stella Rollig – curator commissioned by the Austrian Minister of Commerce, Research and Art.
