2024 at Fortezza

curated by Ulrike Buck and Margareth Kaserer

with Altınstark, Özlem Altın, Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard & Zayne Armstrong, Gianfranco Baruchello, Alighiero Boetti, melanie bonajo, Alexandra Cárdenas, Max Castlunger, Carlfriedrich Claus, Roberta Dapunt, Tracey Emin, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Sylvie Fleury, Julia Frank, Chiara Fumai, Siggi Hofer, Hannes Hoelzl, Roni Horn, Brigitte Kowanz, Sophia Mairer, Beatrice Marchi, Nadja Verena Marcin, Maurizio Nannucci, Bruce Nauman, Masatoshi Noguchi, Sunny Pfalzer, Caroline Profanter, Egon Rusina, Toni Schmale, Berty Skuber, Lawrence Weiner, Karin Welponer, Jörg Zemmler

publication with bruno books >

Close (Roots and Branches) and Close (Step) were made for the forest in Buchen, North Tyrol. The steel structures represent gateways into a painterly world with references to the wilderness in both content and form. The decorations of Tyrolean Stuben inspired the ornaments on top of the frames which were made from objects found in the area. They give the paintings a to-tem-like quality with additional references to animals and the seasonss. The shape of the canvas is reminicent of a smartphone; scratches on the display merge into roots. In its ambiguity, the title Close refers to the ambivalent relationship of modern man to (their) nature. The effects of the weather, which can already be seen on the painted surface, become part of a process of apropriation of nature tht will continue at the Fortress.

The Bowels of the Earth is part of a series of large-scale paintings depicting subterranean landscapes between abstraction and figuration. An organic pictorial space permeated by roots invites us to adopt the perspective of the ecosystem beneath the earth. The sewer pipe refers to the pragmatically radical interventions of humans and undermines the psychology of our dualistic view of nature. On a pole next to it hangs the sculpture whisper sweet nothings like an anthropomorphic leaf telling tales from the forest.