Engels Raum, 2011
Engels Raum, 2011
Installation with used furniture, three films by Josef Dabernig (excursus on fitness, 2010 ; Aquarena, 2007 (with Isabella Hollauf) and Parking, 2003) and a remake of the work Taglicher Zigarettenkonsum 23 09 1979-22 09 1980.
The installation consist of a disciplinary environment, where three films are shown in a daylight situation, on monitors and screens, as part of a bigger constellation comprised of used furniture. The carefully chosen furniture is a bit outdated, coming from course rooms and spaces for congress. The artist, who is also a sculptor, has dispersed this banal furniture and the screening devices throughout the gallery space, including even office furniture to be used by the gallerist. The whole installation functions as a sculptural construction treating real objects as sculptural elements, creating a stage set for conditioned movements of the human body and – through the filmic work – foremost an evocation of disciplinary exercises and experiences.
Dabernig’s most recent film excursus on fitness (2010) as well as two other recent works, Aquarena (2007, with Isabella Hollauf) and Parking (2003) are shown. All these films center around the idea of discipline. In the first two films this is worked out through empty artificial environments intended for exercise and sports. Excursus on Fitness seems less about physical achievements but rather more about isolated subjects mirrored in a certain existential frost while in Aquarena, the public baths, both in open air and used solely by one person is captioned by a text speaking about the extreme regulated measures for water treatment and hygiene in a town under the DDR-regime. The last film Parking forms a counter point in the show by enfolding an (un-)comfortable story where the subject of discipline permits an opening to being loaded with sexual connotations.
Of his graphic work an older piece Täglicher Zigarettenkonsum 23 09 1979 – 22 09 1980 – a fastidious control of the artist’s cigarette consumption over an entire year – will also be reinstalled.
Accompanying the installation is the sixth issue in the new series of publications published by the gallery.
The publication, #6 On Discipline, consists of a poster, signed by the artist, in an edition of 250 along with a small booklet with at text by the philosopher Sjoerd van Tuinen. The text focuses on the subject of discipline with an historical overview of notions by philosophers such as Nietzsche, Foucault and Sloterdijk.