Krems (OTS) – The Swiss artist Christian Gonzenbach (born 1975) developed a temporary spatial installation specifically for the secularized Dominican Church in Krems. To do this, Gonzenbach looked into the religious background of the building. He interprets the creation myth in an artistic context and turns the space into a production site for contemporary art. Visitors can understand the transformation of the material through the visible stations and artifacts. Spiritual atmosphere merges with industrial aesthetics.
Andreas Hoffer, curator of the exhibition: „Christian Gonzenbach shows us how art is created. We can follow the individual phases of his objects, similar to the cycle of life – from their initial formation, through their lifetime as exhibition objects, to their return to their original state as pure matter. This inevitably leads to the question: What is work actually good for?
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Process as part of the artwork
Beforehand, Gonzenbach and his team cast sculptures from a tar-like, viscous substance in the former church interior. The formal vocabulary of his objects consists of echoes of religious figures and forms from nature. The objects are arranged like offerings on long tables and pedestals in the central nave, as if they were being sacrificed. The production process becomes understandable for visitors through manufacturing artifacts. In the side aisles there are pots and dozens of silicone molds that were used to heat and pour the black wax. Larger shapes strapped to devices resemble torture easels and tortured martyrs. Wax residue was collected in large vats. Converted transport boxes act as platforms for the figures. A short film sequence, which can be accessed on your smartphone using a QR code, shows excerpts from the process.
After the exhibition ends, nothing will remain. The sculptures are melted down again and the presentation material is also recycled. What remains is only the memory of endless human activity.
Christian Gonzenbach: „With this project I want to merge the materialized world of production with a spiritual place by moving the workshop to the church. In the exhibition nothing remains hidden, everything is visible: the production of the objects, their presentation, their destruction. Some areas are determined by necessity (production workshop), others by reason (museum exhibition) and others by emotion (Way of the Cross). One and the same material temporarily takes on these different attributes. Even if we understand the process and how these things work, they still remain alien to us.
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Artists and researchers
Christian Gonzenbach sees himself as a researcher at the interface between natural sciences and artistic approaches. He attempts to capture the physical appearance of living beings and objects in an unconventional way and to redefine them through their materiality and size. Gonzenbach studied biology and art. He has exhibited his complex, often irritating sculptures in church spaces several times, most recently in Lausanne in 2023.
Gonzenbach’s works are in major public and private collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Essl Collection at the Albertina in Vienna, the Musée de la Chasse in Paris, the MUDAC in Lausanne and the FMAC in Geneva. Gonzenbach lives and works in Geneva.
CHRISTIAN GONZENBACH. ON HUMAN LEVEL
29.06. – 27.10.2024
Opening: Saturday, June 29, 2024, 11 a.m
Dominican Church Krems, Körnermarkt 14, 3500 Krems an der Donau
Press photos
Photos of the opening (online from June 29, 2024, 3 p.m.)
Questions & Contact:
Krems Art Gallery
Franziska Treml
+43 664 60499 176
franziska.treml@kunstmeile.at