
Symposium CRASH! on Youtube
The symposium about ME/CFS took place on August 18th as part of our exhibition at Künstlerhaus Factory. You can now find it online on the new Black Ferk Studio Youtube channel.
The event with expert talks, a reading and a performance ist available as full video (divided into chapters), or as single slideshows (for people who can’t watch moving images so well or prefer to read or less visual input).
Subtitles are available in German and English. Please select your language and turn them on or off as needed.
Full Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist…
Preview
Archive

Symposium CRASH!
August 18th, 2023, 7:00 pm
Künstlerhaus Vienna, Factory
Bösendorferstraße 10,
1010 Wien
Conceptualized by BLACK FERK STUDIO
Schedule
Moderators:
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Joachim Hermisson and Matthias Mollner
6:30 pm
Admission to the Factory
7:00 – 7:15 pm
Welcoming
Presentation of the project partners:
Austrian Society for ME/CFS,
WE&ME Foundation (previously TEMPI-Foundation)
7:15 – 7:30 pm
Reading Barbara Kaufmann:
Die Verdächtigen (The Suspects)
7:30 – 7:50 pm
Talk Dr. Martin Komenda-Lett:
Beyond Known Structures: ME/CFS as a challenge for medical practice
afterwards Q&A and discussion
8:00 – 8:20 pm
Talk Dr. Jennifer Blauensteiner:
MicroRNAs of Blood Vessels in ME/CFS
afterwards Q&A and discussion
8:30 – 8:45 pm
Break
8:45 – 9:05 pm
Talk Andrea Strohriegl:
Community and Activism: What difference can one make together?
afterwards Q&A and discussion
9:15 – 9:35 pm
Talk DDr. Markus Gole:
Fatigue and Mental Illness: Differential diagnostic ways to ME/CFS
afterwards Q&A and discussion
9:45 – 10:00 pm
Performance Matthias Mollner:
Stop and Go
Further information:
- Fee admission to the symposium
- No registration required
- Barrier-free access
- Entrance via the Bösendorferstraße 10 (the backside of the Künstlerhaus/House of Artists)
- Face masks: As many of our participants and visitors have a severe neuroimmunological illness or belong to vulnerable groups, masks will be available for free in the exhibition place.

CRASH!
Exhibition
Künstlerhaus Vienna, Factory
August 11th to 27th, 2023
Opening: August 10th, 7pm
Curated by BLACK FERK STUDIO
Work by
Christina Baltais, Broken Battery, Ruth Braham, Martine Brandt, Whitney Dafoe, Sibylle Dahrendorf, Faraz Fallahi, Franziska Hannig, Mila und Sabine Hermisson, Hazel Hughes, Sunniva Innstrand, Noli Kat, Matthias Mollner, Renate Mowlam, Martin Keogh aka The Missing Neighbor, Kristine Cornelia Paulsen, Anna Parker, Judith Schoßböck, Ilse Sjouke, James Strazza, Olivia, Anil van der Zee
ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) is a monster: one that many affected people and their loved ones in Austria and around the world are fighting. A severe and not uncommon multi-system illness, there is no treatment for the root causes nor generally accessible therapy to date. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the millions of individuals affected by Post or Long COVID, this often unrecognised and trivialised illness has shifted more into the public awareness.
“Even trying to put on an exhibition with this terror is complete madness,” was one of the thoughts that went through the minds of Judith Schoßböck and Matthias Mollner in autumn 2021, when they came to the decision to translate their experience into art. Expressing their personal stroke of fate as art is a way of processing their experiences and intimate insights into a silent and invisible world lived each day by millions of people who are missing from society (#MillionsMissing), who mobilise their meagre energy reserves for daily survival and recognition. This is an illness that stands in diametric opposition to the commonly accepted ideals of motivation and performance, as simple activities and exertion are punished with a worsening of symptoms.
In this exhibition Mollner, Schoßböck (a.k.a. Black Ferk Studio), and other artists and creatives reflect on the reality of living with ME/CFS. To create art in this context becomes a special activity that is tied to risk, as sufferers of the disease experience physical consequences. The hypersensitivities the illness often causes are further challenges to artistic endeavour and community participation.
The exhibition shows various artistic perspectives together with information on the illness in different contexts: From the personal views of those affected to the standpoint of society, from helplessness to activism, from the isolation of the individual to the collective view, from the emotional experience of perpetual crisis to scientific fact. The exhibition tells stories from the “nightside of life” (as Susan Sontag called illness), provides insight into coping strategies, and seeks to utilise openness and dark-yet-colourful humour to counteract suffering and neglect.
Symposium: August 18th, 7pm
Speakers:
Dr. Jennifer Blauensteiner. ME/CFS Research, FH Joanneum, Graz. DDr. Markus Gole. Psychologist and philosopher, Linz. Barbara Kaufmann. Filmmaker and author, Vienna. Dr. Martin Komenda-Lett. Neurologist and ME/CFS expert, Vienna. Andrea Strohriegl. Community and activism, Vienna
Live performance by Matthias Mollner
Project partner and support:
Austrian ME/CFS society
TEMPI-Stiftung

“Can anybody hear me?”
Group Show in the ip. forum
U4 Center, Stiege B, 2. Upper floor
Schönbrunner Straße 218–220
1120 Wien
Austria
Opening: Thursday, Oktober 13th, 2022
Exhibition duration: Until mid-December 2022
Curators: PJ Maguire und Gabriele Baumgartner
In recent years, we’ve all had to abandon or adapt our social habits and interactions, creating a domino effect in our present and future interaction habits.
Artists have also had to adapt in order to be heard or seen and to be able to communicate to the viewers. Art is usually a mouthpiece to communicate issues that move a person in some way. In this exhibition, we ask about the ways artists have created to be „heard“ and how others have taken the path of communication in their artistic work to date.

“Congress of the Knowing”
September 9th and 10th, 2022
Public space under the Lentos Art Museum
Doktor-Ernst-Koref-Promenade 1
4020 Linz
Austria
„A burning stone. Why you need to know about ME/CFS“
The Black Ferk Studio is pleased to be present with two installations and a lecture performance at the “Congress of the Knowing” in Linz. All interested people can take part in the congress. Admission is free, registration is requested: https://kdw.institute
On September 9th and 10th, the “Congress of the Knowing” will take place in Linz under the Lentos Art Museum. Knowledgeable people from all over Europe will come together at this magical place to exchange and share secret, special and unique knowledge. Events, debates and performances are open to the public and will take place on both days. The open space under the Lentos hence becomes a form of “democratic knowledge zone” in a public space. People will meet there to exchange knowledge with expertise and experience valuable to others: scientists, artists, performers, researchers and experts in other, special areas: such as people affected by poverty, people with experience of discrimination, socially disadvantaged people, or people whose special knowledge has little public reach. The lectures and audience discussions address current discourses. There is also the opportunity to gain access to complex content in a playful way through workshops and interactive formats.