For Graz, 2003 Cultural Capital of Europe, Irene Andessner brings the first wife of Sacher-Masoch to centre stage: Wanda von Sacher-Masoch, born Angelica Aurora Römelin (1845 – prob. 1908), embodied for her husband the cruel Wanda from his novel “Venus im Pelz” [Venus in furs]. In the dramatic shaping of the figure Andessner follows Wanda from Sacher-Masoch’s “Lebensbeichte” [confessions] (1906), the reply of Sacher-Masoch’s secretary Carl Felix von Schlichtegroll (“Wanda ohne Maske und Pelz” [Wanda without make-up and furs], 1906), as well as the diaries and letters of Sacher-Masoch.

Irene Andessner prepared her video installation in the Dom im Berg (a 560 m2 domed hall) with various performances. Locations included below stage at the Wiener Raimundtheater, the display window of a wedding attire shop, the Tizian-Saal of the Kunsthistorischen Museum Wien and an ice hockey arena. It comprises the scenes “Der Vertrag”, “Das Idealbild”, “Die Rolle”, “Die Macht”, [the contract, the ideal image, the role, the power] which are simultaneously projected, changing in rhythm, via four video projectors onto four walls. On the fifth wall, consisting of 64 monitors, the Polish painter Piotr Dluzniewski can be seen via webcam in the role of Gregor, while he creates fetish drawings in the former dungeon of the Schlossberg bell tower at the instigation of his “mistress” Andessner.

Exhibitions:
Wanda SM, video installation with interaction: Dom im Berg, Graz 2003
Wanda Sacher-Masoch-Zimmer, room staging with “Wanda SM” motifs in the Hotel Archduke Johann, Graz 2003 ff

Editions:
Meine Lebensbeichte, Wanda Sacher-Masoch, artist book edition with pictorial material from Irene Andessner’s “Wanda SM” production and a dossier, Belleville Verlag, Munich, 2003
Wanda Sacher-Masoch-Torte, cake, decorated with a Wanda/Andessner portrait image, Cafè Hotel Erzherzog Johann, Graz 2003 ff

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