Art|41|Basel
16.-20.6.2010
Sies + Höke
Booth M16, Hall 2.1
New works by:
Gianni Caravaggio
Marcel Dzama
Federico Herrero
Thomas Kiesewetter
Kris Martin
Florian Slotawa
Michael van Ofen
Markus Vater
Claudia Wieser
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ART UNLIMITED
Florian Slotawa: Studio Box (2010)
Sies + Höke Galerie and Galerie Nordenhake are pleased to present Studio Box, a project by Florian Slotawa for Art Unlimited.
Studio Box is a simple wooden construction in the shape of a cube, large enough to house a video projection. Earlier last month, the same structure was placed inside the artist’s studio in Berlin and positioned there at various angles in order to confront the architecture. The resulting sculptural interventions were documented by the artist and are now shown as a projection inside the very same cube.
Instead of bringing new objects into the world, Florian Slotawa frequently re-contextualises and rearranges what already exists, developing his works through an intensive dialogue with the places they are presented at. His fascination for shifts in meaning and the temporary reassignment of function is an important point of departure for the artist, who is known for using his own possessions - from his own car to a pair of skis - as sculptural material. His personal objects can, for a limited period of time, transform into a work of art only to be placed back in his apartment later as banal, functional objects. With these so-called "Besitzarbeiten" ("property works"), Slotawa has since 1996 been developing an array of temporary sculptural installations with high complexity and an emphasis on formal precision. They pose questions about the role of personal possession in our culture, about the differentiations between the public and the private, and the fine line between the artist’s every day life and his studio practice.
Slotawa uses photography in the sense of an extended concept of sculpture, in order to visualize the interim and final results of a comprehensive working process. Often his photographs are, as in the “Hotel Series” from 1998-99, the only visual manifestation of the sculptural intervention. Here, the artist checked in to hotel rooms, reconfigured their entire furnishings during the course of the night, photographed the situation, and left the next morning with all things back in place as he had found them. With his most recent photographic series “Studio Photographs” from 2009, Slotawa has turned to his own studio space, which he shows in a deadpan and straightforward fashion, temporarily emptied of any personal belongings, drawing the viewer’s attention to the object-hood of the building’s structure itself.
Slotawa’s Studio Box stands in close connection to his photographic investigation of the studio . His workspace is again the point of departure, this time, however, it faces the alien structure of a cubic wooden box. In the solitude of his studio, the artist probes the proportions of the constructed cube in relation to the architecture, challenging both to correspond in new and unforeseen ways. At Art Unlimited, short video sequences and sound recordings document these temporary interventions, transferring the preceding studio situation into the exhibition space, while the cube itself serves both as sculpture and as the screen for projection. “Sculpture is never sculpture for itself, but always stands in relation to the surrounding space”, says Slotawa.
Florian Slotawa was born in 1972 in Rosenheim, and currently lives and works in Berlin. His solo exhibitions include P.S.1, MoMA, New York (2009); "Solothurn aussen", Kunstverein Solothurn, (2008); "One After the Other", Arthouse, Austin (2007); "Land gewinnen", Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (2005); "Bonn ordnen", Bonner Kunstverein (2004); and "Gesamtbesitz", Kunsthalle Mannheim (2002). He has taken part in numerous group exhibitions, most recently “Everyday Ideologies”, Kunstmuseum Magdeburg (2010); "Photodimensional", Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (2009) and "Interieur/Exterieur. Wohnen in der Kunst", Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2008), as well as "Zwischen zwei Toden", ZKM Karlsruhe and "Made in Germany", Sprengel Museum, Hannover (both in 2007). His installation "Ersatzturm" was presented in the 4th Berlin Biennale (2006), "Of Mice and Men".
For further details, please contact the galleries:
Sies + Höke Galerie, Düsseldorf
Hanne Tonger-Erk, +49 179 5087 143
Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin / Stockholm
Claudia Sorhage, +49 176 1886 6681