Solo show
Solo show
Markus Schinwald expresses himself in various media. His observation as an artist
revolves around the human body. Human beings are invariably embedded in their
cultural environment, where they are frequently enticed into developing compulsions,
due to the restrictions they are subjected to. These are rendered noticeable by
Schinwald in his fashion creations, as well as in his adaptations of ancient
engravings in which the sitters are submitted to subtle manipulation. He also casts
the protagonists of his films into prostheses, has them guided by puppets, or places
their abstruse, trance-like, and repetitive actions in austere settings.
The Belvedere will be presenting the young artist's first one-man show in Austria.
On an international scale, Schinwald, who is one of the most important Austrian
artists of his generation, has already appeared in monographic exhibitions at Argos
in Brussels; at the Frankfurt Kunstverein; at the Moderna Musset in Stockholm; and
at the AAM in Aspen. The venue of the present show is Augarten Contemporary, the
Belvedere's annex for contemporary art.
The starting point of the show are important works from the collection's own
holdings, as well as the artist's presence in crucial exhibitions held at the
Belvedere, such as Ulysses (2004), Das Neue 2 (2005), Kunst fürs 20er Haus (2005),
and Freud in Kunstwerken (2006).
The Concept
For Augarten Contemporary, Schinwald is designing an exhibition in the form of a
narrative. Neither are the individual works arranged next to one another, nor does
he attempt to compile a chronological display or retrospective. Instead, an
experiential continuum of a specific present is being created by incorporating
temporality and spatial interferences. This exhibition is an event that needs to be
experienced, it is coagulated time woven into a visual mise en scène. Schinwald's
aesthetic approach of theatricality encompasses absorption, attention, and
tranquillity. We constantly encounter human beings with their deficiencies on the
threshold of fragility and compulsion, in a state of eventlessness and immersed in
peculiar and meaningless actions. It is the communicative signs intrinsic to the
body that Schinwald explores in human beings, puppets, and mechanical hybrids alike.
What is rendered perceptible here are the presence of pain, the feeling of emptiness
and loss, silence and mute desire, as well as the secret understanding of physical
comprehension.
In Schinwald's aesthetic studies, the repertory of physical expression always
appears in a dual guise. Like crying - which can be both willed and impulsive and
express both compulsion and relief - each and every gesture is ambivalent at its
core. Thus a gesture always means two things; on the one hand, it is a sign and a
legible message, and on the other hand it inevitably is also involuntary expression.
Consequently, each gesture is located in the uncontrollable realm between outward
appeal and self-reflection, between interactive discourse and inward isolation,
between body and language, between communication and emotional existence.
Augarten Contemporary
Scherzergasse 1a - Wien
Opening Hours: Thurs - Sunday (and all public holidays) from 11 am- 7 pm