Lisl Ponger

Tausendundein Prozent

Opening: 14 January 2026, 6 pm

Exhibition: 15 January - 20 February

"Lisl Ponger's works dismantle cultural stereotypes and challenge the power of images about others. In the decades of her work with photography, film and installation, the artist has Lisl Ponger’s upcoming exhibition at Charim “Tausendundein Prozent” (One Thousand And One Percent) continues her decades-long research into the characters and motifs received from stories and hi/stories. The exhibition title being a portmanteau of sorts, combines the “Thousand and One Nights” from the famous collection of Central Asian and Near Eastern stories with a register of financialisation, a numerically absurd amount. In such she evokes the intertwining of capital and conquest, the imperialist process and its financial structures. The exhibition includes newly produced photographs and videos installed within an mise en scène of elements from these new pieces.

The exhibition runs concurrently with Ponger’s work on view in “The World of Tomorrow Will Have Been Another Present” at MUMOK, Vienna until 17 May 2026. A major new publication “Semiotic Ghosts” has been recently published by Mandelbaum Verlag Edition Zyphius in collaboration with the Austrian Film Museum surveying Ponger’s practice, including twenty-five texts on her work. 

Save the date:

28 January 2026, 6 pm

Book presentation at Charim Galerie

Lisl Ponger "Semiotic Ghosts" (Mandelbaum Verlag Edition Zyphius, November 2025)

Eds: Elisabeth Streit & Dietmar Schwärzler

Lisl Ponger and Elisabeth Streit, one of the publication’s editors from the Austrian Film Museum, will introduce Ponger's latest publication, talking us through the book and the exhibition at Charim Galerie. 

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Image: Lisl Ponger, El Tío or Where the Money Goes, 2025, analogue C-print, 151.2 x 127.2 cm