Luc Mattenberger
dal 13/11/2011 al 30/1/2012
Segnalato da
Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Vienna
13/11/2011
Luc Mattenberger
Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Vienna, Wien
Black Rivers. The artist looks at machines as objects of desire that men want to possess. Simultaneously, in a masochist act, they surrender to their power and force. So his work reflects only small evidences of men, traces that remind us of potential inventors of machines.
Luc Mattenberger (1980), a Swiss artist, focuses in his art on technical processes and reciprocity of today's society. They are inspiration and material at the same time. However, he is not glorifying technical advance, like art in the beginning of the 20th century used to do, but questions the relation of men and machines in a double meaning: Machines are displayed as crucial appliances for our society, whilst putting emphasis on their inevitable existence.
At the same time, he points out the difficult relation between men and machines. Associated with noise, dirt and rapid exploitation of natural resources, machines mark threat. With this Mattenberger illustrates how something that has been built by men can now itself become commanding over manhood.
The artist looks at machines as objects of desire that men want to possess. Simultaneously, in a masochist act, they surrender to their power and force. So his work reflects only small evidences of men, traces that remind us of potential inventors of machines.
Mattenberger, who received the Swiss Art Award in June this year, can be seen as an inventor, a creator of machines that as such do not exist yet. He also works as an engineer and an expert for manufacturing highly technological processes. Hereby he makes use of available instruments, machines and tools, which he fragments and afterwards connects them with diametrically opposed, contextually different material. Mattenberger's work can not be seen as readymade art, as it does not obtain its meaning through changing environment, but through its combination with new material.
Mattenberger's art stands out for its spectacular, fascinating, precise and functional presentation. In his universe, quaint and curious objects gather together, but their usage however remains unclear. They symbolize ambivalence and threat, that are originating from technical products and processes of our progress oriented society. This threat that provokes the spectator, also opens up a track into the transcendence, which is both sexually and spiritually tainted.
Image: Luc Mattenberger: Cross, 2011
steel, stainless steel, 150 x 70 x 11 cm
Opening: 14 November 2011 - 19:00
Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Vienna
Weihburggasse 26 - Wien
Hours: tues-Fri 11 am - 7 pm, Sat 11 am - 4 pm