TONSPUR_display #19

Opening: Sun., 06.12., 17:00

Under the title “ACT,” the recipient of the 2019 Austrian Art Prize for Media Art will present the installation “VERBALE.CONDENSER PHONE,” which will be on view in Vienna for the first time. Coinciding with the exhibition, a 12-inch maxi single produced by Thomas Feuerstein and Georg Weckwerth will be released, featuring a recording of the text “I/C”—written and narrated by Heinrich Dunst for the exhibition—with cover artwork by Thomas Feuerstein (Edition 6 + 9 AE).

The central element of “VERBALE.CONDENSER PHONE” is a conventional speech microphone mounted on a microphone stand. The microphone is connected to what is known as a recirculating thermostat. Words condense on the cold metal of the microphone and freeze into ice crystals. The more one speaks, the more moist breath escapes into the room, causing the “speech sculpture” to grow. The layer of ice grows with every sentence—until it reaches the dew point, at which point droplets form and the moisture in the breath evaporates.

The 2010 installation “VERBALE.CONDENSER PHONE,” which epitomizes the medium of sound yet produces no sound, fits perfectly into the concept of the TONSPUR_display. Since 2022, the wedge-shaped, non-accessible exhibition space has been showcasing works that represent or explore the concept of sound in a very broad sense, yet are themselves silent. The exhibition space thus expands upon the well-known sound presentations of the TONSPUR_passage by incorporating the aspect of imagination, which is significant for sound and media art.

In his projects, Thomas Feuerstein weaves together art, literature, and philosophy with economics, politics, digital media, and biotechnology to create artistic narratives. His works include large-scale installations, process-based sculptures, drawings, radio plays, bioart, and net art.

Since the early 1990s, digitization, networking, and biotechnology have been central themes in Feuerstein’s projects. He began creating algorithmic works in 1990, including network installations and projects involving artificial neural networks (AI). Starting in 1995, he began an intensive exploration of biotechnology and tissue engineering, resulting in works involving bacteria, algae, fungi, myxomycetes, and human cells.

Thomas Feuerstein studied art history and philosophy and earned his doctorate in 1995 from the University of Innsbruck. Among other things, he served as co-editor of the journal *Medien.Kunst.Passagen* beginning in 1992 and worked on research projects focusing on art and architecture and art in the digital realm. Since 1997, Feuerstein has served as a lecturer and visiting professor at universities and art colleges; most recently, he was professor of artistic discourse at the Institute for Experimental Architecture/studio3 at the University of Innsbruck.

Feuerstein’s works have been featured in solo exhibitions, including at the Kunsthalle Krems, the Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol, the Tyrolean State Museum, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, the Kunstverein Heilbronn, the Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin, the ERES Foundation in Munich, the Kunstraum Dornbirn, the Chronus Art Center in Shanghai, as well as at biennials in Moscow, Lyon, Guangzhou, and Beijing.

His works are part of international collections, and he has received, among other awards, the Leopold Franzens University Innovation Award for Artificial Neural Networks (1993), the RLB Art Prize (2006), the Tyrol State Art Prize (2010), the Austrian Media Art Prize (2019), the Chobot Sculpture Prize (2024), and the Martin Rainer Prize (2026).