Eva Grubinger
dal 27/11/2007 al 16/2/2008
Segnalato da
27/11/2007
Eva Grubinger
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
Spartacus. Her often expansive installations treat power and impotence and the role of the observer. Her most recent installations are formal abstractions of complex forms of social communication. One example of this is Dark Matter, an enormous headset lying on the floor, out of whose earpieces a diffuse electronic sound forces its way; next to it, shrunk to human scale, are a nuclear reactor, a cooling tower, a office high-rise, and a control tower. Cureted by Matthias Ulrich.
cureted by Matthias Ulrich
With its exhibition “Eva Grubinger: Spartacus,” the Schirn continues its programmatic focus on
current contemporary positions. Jan De Cock’s spectacular new installation “Denkmal 7” inside
and outside the Schirn was the last work presented in this series. For “Spartacus,” Eva Grubinger
also makes use of the Schirn’s specific spatial context, positioning her works in three places: in
the rotunda and on the “table” (a concrete structure) outside and in the cabinet within. A wirenetting
fence surrounds the lower floor area of the rotunda and the observation tower in its
center. On the table, which is also fenced in, two stands face each other threateningly, while
another piece of fence and a harsh spotlight bar the visitor’s way in the cabinet. In “Spartacus,”
the artist, who was born in Salzburg in 1970 and has been living in Berlin since 1989, again
dedicates herself to manifestations of power and impotence, of observing and being observed.
Her installations are formal abstractions of complex modes of social communication. By means of
allegorical compression, they visualize spatial, psychological and medial representations of
power.
The exhibition “Eva Grubinger: Spartacus” is supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for
Education, the Arts and Culture.
“Spartacus,” the title of the exhibition, recalls one of the earliest revolts in history, the uprising of
the Roman slave and gladiator of Thracian provenance and his army against the ruling social
class which still operated in full possession of its representative and symbolic power. 2000 years
later, the technologies of power have become more sophisticated in multiple ways, emerging, as
Foucault put it, “from the king’s sun and entering modern society’s various institutions of
discipline.” In the 1970s, Foucault based his concept of modern disciplinary society on the
English philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s (1748–1832) Panopticon design, which represents the
core pattern of an observer who is in control without exercising power by subjecting the “inmates”
to their own control.
All buildings based on the Panopticon principle are structured around a center from which all
factory workers or prisoners, for example, can be supervised. With the cell tracts extending from
the observation tower in the middle, the layout allows the guard to observe what happens in the
cells without being seen. The inmates do not know whether they are being watched or not. As a
result, large numbers of men can be permanently observed at little cost. Bentham hoped that this
principle of construction would make all inmates conform to rules because they had to assume to
be under supervision at all times.
In his book “Discipline and Punish,” Foucault interpreted this structure as a symbol of modern
societies’ principle of order. The Panopticon tower has left Bentham’s architecture and spread
extensively in multiple new technologies: video surveillance, mobile telephony, Internet, satellite
systems, etc. Being observed and disciplining oneself has become a single operational context
that does not require a superior authority to guarantee compliance to society.
Eva Grubinger’s works are also to be seen against this background of the apparently clarified
relationship between the observer and the observed. For the exhibition in the Schirn, the artist
has created three space-related installations for inside and outside the building which explore the
regulating and disciplinary functions of public institutions and structures such as prisons, sports
arenas, or museums. Every such place represents a defined territory with rules of its own which
are nevertheless directly related to the public sphere. Enforcing these rules produces
architectures and objects exercising their influence on the individuals and their behavior.
The cage-like walk-in installations on the table, in the rotunda and the cabinet of the Schirn
oscillate between urban terrain and some kind of prison yard. A recurring black wire-netting fence
dominates the presented triad and transforms the places into a Suprematist deployment of line,
circle, and square. Fence and cage constitute a border that allows gazing through. The square
fenced-in installation on the table is comprised of two stands facing each other. The observer
watches the observer. Wire-netting fence surrounds the rotunda with the observation or lookout
tower in its center. In the cabinet, visitors are separated from the spotlight blinding them by
another piece of fence. The urban architecture of the installations illustrates the context of
constraint and control.
The three black coated steel objects or object groups establish different gaze relations in regard
to the viewer. The stands on the table between Römer and Cathedral attract looks from outside.
By contrast, the tower in the rotunda is oriented inside-out. The fence surrounding the tower at
some distance resembles a cage from which the gaze breaks free from its elevated position and
takes in the surroundings. The third situation levels the relation. The glaring light behind the piece
of fence does away with both border and observer. Thus, the only conventional exhibition space
of “Spartacus” destroys all conventional relations possible between viewer, work, and environs.
Since 1994, Eva Grubinger has presented her works in numerous group exhibitions such as in the
MUMOK in Vienna, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Charlottenborg Konsthall in Copenhagen, the
Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, and the Berlinische Galerie. She has shown solo exhibitions in various
international galleries, the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, or the KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art in
Helsinki. Eva Grubinger has attracted international attention with her solo presentation “Dark
Matter” in the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead (GB) in 2003, in which she
translated her long-term exploration of social systems of control into an impressive precise
architectural form. Recently, she exhibited a both fascinating and alarming work on the
omnipresence of communication in today’s world in the Kunstfenster des Kulturkreises der
deutschen Wirtschaft in the B.D.I. in Berlin – a work whose aesthetics, like that of “Spartacus,”
reveals the influence of Minimalism and monochrome painting.
Catalog: “Eva Grubinger: Spartacus.” Edited by Matthias Ulrich and Max Hollein. With a text by
Matthias Ulrich. German/English edition, ca. 50 pages, photographic documentation of the installation
at the Schirn with numerous color illustrations, soft-cover, to be published after the opening of the
exhibition.
Press preview: Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Schirn Kunsthalle
Romerberg - Frankfurt
Tue, Fri – Sun 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Wed and Thur 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Admission: 3 euro, reduced 1,50 euro; free for children under 8 years