Mark Pezinger Books
Katrin Hornek & Karin Pauer: Janus Black Forest Library No. 11 traces the techno-military complex of the Atomic Age, and to all those affected by it—past, present, and future.
Softcover, perfect binding, 10.5 × 14.6 cm, 112 pages
design: Astrid Seme, 2026
ISBN: 978-3-903353-27-5
€16
Janus is a double-headed publication that can be read from both sides.
It is based on a site-specific performance developed by Katrin Hornek and Karin Pauer in and for the main exhibition hall of Belvedere 21, which was
the Austrian Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Expo that promoted the “peaceful use of nuclear power.”
[read more] Approaching from one side, the reader encounters Helen, a fact-based fictional character who travels from the Brussels World’s Fair to the present, shaped by the voices, perspectives,
and lived experiences that have defined the Atomic Age. The other side introduces Jane, a speculative archetype of a body adapted to survive in toxic, post-industrial landscapes.
Navigating, absorbing, and resisting contamination across past, present, and future, Jane draws on Shannon Cram’s research on the nuclear body.
Both meet in the middle, like the two faces of Janus, exposing the contradictions of the Atomic Age caught between promises of progress and the threat of annihilation.
Karin Pauer is a Vienna-based performer and choreographer who collaborates with visual artists to explore empathy, community, and relational practices.
Katrin Hornek is a Vienna-based artist working at the intersection of art, science, and ecological research to explore living in the Capitalocene.
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