ObituaryOn July 21, 2005 Austrian artist and writer Prof. Georg Paul Thomann died in a tragic accident at the tender age of 60.Born 1945 in the Vorarlberg region of Austria. Thomann started to study arts in Vienna in 1963 where he carried out his first artistic projects. Between 1964-1980 he lived and worked in Berlin, Paris, Munich, Palo Alto/California, New York, London. In 1980 he returned to his beloved Vienna.Upon his return he carried out various projects as a conceptual artist. He time was spent divided between being a painter, performer, photographer, video artist, musician, etc. A true renascence man with an undying love for Austria.He frequently received prizes and grants in recognition of his various amazing talents. In 1988 he was awarded the Professor h. c. title by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He was an honored lecturer on contemporary art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.In 2002 he was Austria's national representative at the Sao Paulo Biennial where he was received with great fanfare. He also wrote various books on artistic and sociopolitical topics (last publication: “Die Konflikt-Masche”, edition selene, Vienna 1999). The funeral will take place on Friday, July 29 in Hall in Tirol/Austria.Georg Paul Thomann / WikipediaThomann's biographyWho is G. P. Thomann?
monochrom is a worldwide operating collective dealing with technology, art, context hacking and philosophy and was founded in 1993. So to sum up, monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science and political activism. Their mission is conducted everywhere, but first and foremost in culture-archeological digs into the seats (and pockets) of ideology and entertainment. monochrom released a leftist retro-gaming project, established a 1 baud semaphore line through the streets of San Francisco, started an illegal space race through Los Angeles, buried people alive in Vancouver, and cracked the hierarchies of the art system with The Thomann Project. In Austria they ate blood sausages made from their own blood in order to criticize the grotesque neoliberal formation of the world economy. Sometimes they compose melancholic pop songs about dying media and host the first annual and inevitably leading festival concerned with cocktail robotics. At the moment they're planning a conference about pornography as one of the the driving forces of technological innovation. Also they do international soul trade, propaganda camps, epic puppet theatre, aesthetic pregnancy counselling, food catering and -- sorry to mention -- modern dance.
