The Trafo-Clique | Material narratives

The Trafo-Clique at Kunstverein Eisenstadt with Material narratives

‍Artists: Martin Bischof, Ines Doujak, Beate Gatschelhofer, Julia Gryboś & Barbora Zentková, Lukas Hochrieder, Denisa Lehocká, Thea Moeller, Nilbar Güres

Spatial intervention: Club Fortuna

Curated by Barbara Horvath

Photo-Documentation and Credits by Credit: Alfredo Barsuglia / Kunstverein Eisenstadt

13. September – 28. November 2021

Kunstverein Eisenstadt

Joseph-Haydn-Gasse1

A-7000 Eisenstadt

‍

Kunstverein Eisenstadt | Material narratives | The Trafo-Clique

In 1896 Louis H. Sullivan thus described the modernist dogma of the connection between the purpose of an object and its form. Things are completely shaped, not to say enslaved, by the functions attributed to them. They are externally determined, thoroughly organized. They serve people, and they usually take them for granted. In the exhibition, they now unfold a life of their own, transforming tensions into sensations, freed from their tiresome function. And often they just hang around, ready for metamorphosis.

A conspiratorial informal group, a prima clique of organic and inorganic exhibits, which - be it through spatial arrangements, material relationships or aspects of content - are related to each other aspects - are related to each other, express their discomfort against any form born of function.

"Whether we think of the eagle gliding in flight, the apple blossom open, the draft horse laboring hard, the majestic swan, [...] the drifting clouds, or the sun shining over all: form always follows function."

Martin Bischof has bungled while working: built objects and frames turn their construction inside out, use themselves; painted canvases make themselves up with paint.

Inside Ines Doujak's misshapen body is another: an attempt to define what constitutes the ape and why things are the way they are.

Despite their strange futuristic forms, there is also something familiar about Beate Gatschelhofer's ceramic 3-D-printed objects, almost like growing new organisms. ‍

Julia Gryboś & Barbora Zentková dye textiles, weave rugs, and let their fingers dance over the incidental, the mundane in the domestic environment to capture it in small-format photographs.

In Lukas Hochrieder's works, moments of decay, but also of transformation, can be captured: Blue straw ribbons melt into wax, filigree ceramics appear elastic and capture all kinds of relics in their indentations. Denisa Lehocká creates cross-linked, cocoon-like bodies out of old fabrics and scraps, dipping them in liquid plaster, quilting, sewing or coating them. Her (intimate) connections evoke both the fragile balance of volumes and a well-organized toolkit.

The malleability of material is harnessed by Thea Moeller in her metals bent into loops and pieces of rubber hanging limply from the wall to balance specific qualities of industrial products. ‍

Nilbar Güreş's crocheted serpentine belts flicker covetously to trace their own identity codes in craft practice: the eye is drawn to delicately rippling threads in enigmatic thing-worlds and humorous messages embroidered into fabrics.

Club Fortuna interweaves and knots the works shown into a spatial staging - a clique with resistant potential, reflecting the essence of material as well as human society.

Text: Barbara Horvath

Photo documentation (web and high-res, credits): Alfredo Barsuglia / Kunstverein Eisenstadt

Related links and Instagram Accounts:

Artists:

Martin Bischof @martinbischof_I_III_II_I_I_I #MartinBischof

Ines Doujak #inesdoujak

Beate Gatschelhofer @beategatschelhofer #bestegatschelhofer

Julia Grybos & Barbora Zentkova @juliagrybos.barborazentkova #juliagrybosbarborazentkova

Lukas Hochrieder @lukashochrieder #lukashochrieder

Denisa Lehocka @dlehocka #DenisaLehocka

Thea Moeller @thea.mllr #theamoeller

Nilbar Güres @nilbarguresworks #nilbargüres

Spatial Intervention: Club Fortuna @club4tuna #clubfortuna

Curator: Barbara Horvath @babshorvath #barbarahorvath

Kunstverein Eisenstadt @kunstverein_eisenstadt #kunstvereineisenstadt

More information please see: Kunstverein Eisenstadt

Thanks to Barbara Horwath to share with us the exhibition, the artists and Alfredo Barsuglia