Orient

source: e-flux

The Kunstverein Hannover presents, “Orient,” a solo exhibition by the acclaimed artist Markus Schinwald (born 1973 in Salzburg). The works of the artist who is representing Austria at this year’s 54th Biennale in Venice have focused since the late 1990s on the human body as the projection surface of individual being and as a culturally shaped construction.
His art, which is influenced by the cultural history of the body, the philosophy of technology, psychoanalysis as well as dance and performance, makes assured use of diverse media and artistic formats. Schinwald playfully combines sculptural objects, paintings, videos, stage-like installations and architectonic interventions to form multifaceted interacting structures. Markus Schinwald’s exhibitions are highly complex assemblages whose tension derives from a curious ambivalence of seductive aesthetics and a fractious rejection of a one-dimensional reading.

Beginning with his most recent film “Orient” (2011), subtle connections come about in the exhibition at the Kunstverein Hannover to anthropomorphous sculptures made of Chippendale table legs, to an anthropoid marionette and reworked historical portraits as well as an installation comprising aquariums populated with live fish and architectonic exhibition models. In formal aesthetic terms, Schinwald structures the exhibition spaces by meanings of a colorfully reduced, minimalist opening and closing section with a middle section in between whose walls and floors are dark red.

The piece’s title “Orient,” which simultaneously provided the name of the exhibition as a whole, awakens associations to countries in the Near East and Central Asia. But there is an etymological relationship to the word orientation, the physical as well as mental attributes of which are employed by Schinwald as a dramaturgical means in order to develop physically tangible exhibition spaces.

A highpoint of the exhibition is a new, twenty-one meter long installation conceived especially for the Kunstverein Hannover encompassing seven aquariums embedded into the wall. The continuously reorganizing pictorial worlds populated by living fish and architectonic models of previous exhibitions recall showcases and dioramas that continue the dreamlike weightlessness and surreal atmosphere from the film “Orient” (2011)..
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source: yvon-lambert

In his interdisciplinary work, encompassing video, performance, dance, theatre, painting, photography, installation, and even puppetry, Markus Schinwald creates mysterious and unsettling atmospheres that hint at their Viennese production context, through references to austere Biedermeier style or to psychoanalysis. His seminal studies in fashion left him with a wide interest in clothing and, furthermore, in the human body’s potential and limitations in both physical and psychological senses. Therefore, his works concentrate on processes of manipulation and alteration of bodies and their surroundings, echoing the transformative potential of cultural construct. He declares himself a “builder of prostheses for undefined cases,” and alters 19th-Century portraits, for instance, by painting improbable apparatus on the characters’ faces and bodies, such as little bandages, splinters or wires that seem to tie the limbs of their owners together. Markus Schinwald has also developed a series of manipulated pieces of furniture, often using Biedermeier table or chair legs, characteristic of a 19th-Century style valued by the growing middle-class. He saws them off and rearranges them in uncanny ways that often bring out their anthropomorphic qualities. The Sacks series features such legs tied up in canvas bags, attached to the wall. The half-hidden wooden parts stretch the fabric, thus creating weird and allusive forms. Although the enveloping fabric is reminiscent of the white cloth that is used to cover and protect furniture in inhabited houses, one can easily see the sexual allusion to both male, or female genitals in Untitled (Sacks # 2) .
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source: exponaute

On pénètre dans les expositions de l’artiste autrichien Markus Schinwald comme le ferait un cobaye dans un vivarium : sur ses gardes, en tension constante, surveillant ses arrières. Investissant l’immense et majestueuse nef du CAPC – musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, l’artiste reproduit grandeur nature la maquette que l’on a pu voir cet automne au Palais de Tokyo, grande boîte vitrée dans laquelle se baladait un énigmatique iguane bleu. Divisé par de grands barres métalliques qui soutiennent des cimaises placées à plusieurs mètres de hauteur, le vaste espace n’offre pas de sens de circulation précis, incite à l’errance plutôt qu’au cheminement logique – contrairement à ce que l’on avait pu expérimenter au pavillon autrichien de la Biennale de Venise en 2011, dans lequel Markus Schinwald imposait une sorte de gymkhana au visiteur, obligé de lever le nez, plier les genoux ou se hausser sur ses pieds pour observer les œuvres disséminées dans d’étroits couloirs.

Chez Markus Schinwald, le corps du spectateur est réduit à son statut de bipède primitif, son regard à un œil reptilien scrutant l’espace à la recherche d’un objet à ingérer. Metteur en scène autant que plasticien, l’artiste dessine un théâtre mécanique dans lequel des marionnettes d’enfants se cachent derrière un rideau de scène pour jouer un mauvais tour (en l’occurrence produire des bruits de bottes anxiogènes). Il réalise une exposition de peintures placées trop haut pour que l’on puisse les voir convenablement, et dispose des corps haut perchés qui nous confisquent le rôle de regardeurs. Nous voilà pris au piège de l’architecture, comme cet individu que l’on voit dans une somptueuse vidéo chorégraphiée, Orient #7, le pied coincé dans l’anfractuosité d’un mur.

Les rares peintures visibles à qui s’impose la contrainte de se tordre le cou, montrent des portraits de style Biedermeier (période du XIXe siècle germanique caractérisée par son conservatisme bourgeois), auxquels Markus Schinwald a fait ajouter des prothèses grotesques, des voiles aveuglant ou des excroissances monstrueuses, faisant ainsi ressortir des défauts effacés par une époque trop normative. Au sol, esseulées, des sculptures en céramique sans forme, de taille vaguement humaine, représentent des corps en négatif, fantomatiques.

Œuvre d’art total, l’exposition de Markus Schinwald est une objectivation du corps contraint, de l’asservissement à la norme et aux espaces imposés. Une sorte d’univers concentrationnaire pour corps mécanique, où l’on se sent plus observé qu’observateur, mais où, paradoxalement, la liberté – de voir, de circuler, de sentir – naît de la contrainte même. S’échappant vers les coursives qui surplombent la nef, on retrouve son rôle d’observateur pour contempler les lignes tracées dans l’espace – mouvement que l’on comprend a posteriori comme un calcul de l’artiste imposé aux marionnettes que nous sommes.
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source: leedor

Markus Schinwald (Austria, 1973). En base a intereses que van desde la psicología y la literatura a la danza y la historia de la moda, explora la idea del cuerpo humano como una construcción cultural. Su arte da forma a la psique y sus tensiones: esculturas de patas de mesa extendidas, distorsionados retratos del siglo 19, marionetas, películas sin principio ni fin en instalaciones site-specific.

Schinwald pisa la fina línea entre la represión y el juego, la disfunción y la elegancia, lo aterrador y lo seductor. El artista describe su obra como una especie de experiencia introspectiva que trata de dar forma a la compleja relación con nosotros mismos.
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source: chometemporaryit

Il campo di attività di Markus Schinwald è molteplice, oscilla tra il mondo della moda e l’arte, tra performance e film, investigando su un complesso carico di elementi che comprende corpo umano e vestiario, con diversi gradi di convenzionalità, codici linguistici e spazi sociali.

I suoi lavori modificano costantemente la relazione tra oggetti, oggetti e corpi, corpi e spazio, sviluppando scenari che portano lo spettatore in un mondo indipendente e con regole a sé stanti, in alcuni casi disturbanti, ossessive e surreali.

Nei suoi dipinti Schinwald manipola tele antiche applicando su di esse apparati non identificabili che trasformano l’esperienza interna in condizioni esterne. Indaga il ruolo del corpo in relazione con l’ambiente che lo circonda, aggiungendo continuamente questi affascinanti – e spesso sconcertanti – elementi. Le protesi, le maschere e i bendaggi applicati alle figure sollecitano la curiosità, spingendo lo spettatore a domandarsi se gli oggetti abbiano una provenienza medica o sessuale, lasciandolo sempre perplesso e con un ossessivo senso di mistero.

Nel 2011 Markus Schinwald ha rappresentato l’Austria alla 54th Biennale di Venezia con una installazione che giocava architettonicamente con lo spazio esistente. Nel padiglione Austriaco l’artista ha costruito una struttura labirintica costituita da muri sospesi, aprendo la visuale dello spettatore sulle gambe delle altre persone presenti e incorporando così i visitatori nell’installazione, facendoli diventare protagonisti. In questo spazio labirintico l’artista ha esposto diversi dipinti antichi, un nuovo gruppo di sculture e la doppia proiezione del film “Orient”.

In occasione della mostra Schinwald presenterà nuovi lavori elusivamente erotici, giocando sugli istinti di voglia e desiderio. I sui tipici dipinti rielaborati saranno esposti accanto a sculture di gambe che ricordano vagamente quelle delle ballerine di strip bar e piccole stampe in tiratura unica.

Completano l’allestimento 3 acquari, inseriti all’interno di strutture provvisorie che modificano l’architettura della galleria.

Markus Schinwald è nato nel 1973 a Salisburgo, in Austria; vive e lavora a Vienna e a New York.

I suoi lavori sono stati presentati internazionalmente in diverse esposizioni personali e collettive, presso istituzioni quali quali: La Conservera Centro de Arte Contemporàneo, Murcia; ICA, Boston; Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz; Kunstverein, Hannover; Kunsthaus Bregenz; Migros Museum, Zurigo; Aspen Art Museum; Kunsthaus, Zurigo; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Tate Modern, Londra; MAMbo, Bologna; Moderna Museet, Stoccolma; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Haus der Kunst, Monaco di Baviera; Center for Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki.