02.12.2014 to 31.01.2015 - MQ ART BOX
Host: MQ Cultural Tenants
Uli Aigner: Open Shape
ART
Opening: Tue, Dec 02, 19:00
Venue: ArtBox
Admission free
It is an entirely different thing, for instance, whether one regards religion as something slowly drifting away into a faraway fairytale land or whether one sees it exploding in front of one's own eyes as something that makes people die in the present - and (will do so) in the future. It is a vast difference whether nature is a giant reservoir of power with an unlimited capacity for storing refuse, or whether it suddenly turns into something that interrupts any kind of progress - something that cannot be appealed to or get rid of.
(Bruno Latour : "Von der Realpolitik zur Dingpolitik oder Wie man Dinge öffentlich macht?", Berlin 2005)
INSTALLATION:
The ground within the glass box is generously covered with coloured fabric, the leftovers from the works of various renowned designers. In one spot a shape bulges beneath the fabric, looking like an enshrouded human figure.
It is in fact an ornate oriental metal vase the size of a fulll-grown adult. Not far from the figure two paper webs are suspended from above, each 5m long and 1,80cm wide.
DRAWING:
Both sides of the paper webs are covered in forceful crayon drawings. They display the same longish shape as the figure (the vase beneath the fabric), blown up to 5m and turned upside down. The surfaces of both the monumental vase-like shapes show strong ornamental and representational patterns - shrouded people, a bombed landscape, an aeroplane, a prismatically distorted landscape, chicks, a child, a curb, all interwoven with various ornaments.
AUDIO:
The soundtrack consists of a looped piece of contemporary music for two violas by German composer and musician KP Werani and is titled "Small Difference". It was recorded by Véronique Bastian and KP Werani. It is Uli Aigner's intention to use the music to open up the glass box and thus create a contrast to the box's sealed hermeticism. Passers-by and visitors are directly addressed by the music which is simultaneously seductive, disturbing and soothing.
Image: © Uli Aigner