Stolen Paradise

Ines Kaufmann
Raphael Pohl
Martin Sommer
Masa Stanic

Vernissage
19.05.2021 / 6pm

Exhibition
20.05 - 05.06.2021 / We-Sa 4-8pm

Please everybody come with your FFP2 Masc, attending the opening event is possible only with a negative corona test, a proof of covid19 vaccination or a proof of recovery from a coronavirus infection not longer than 6 months ago.

Some hot goods,… lets not wait until tomorrow…
We’ve already been we’ve already seen …
All the sorrow that’s in store for you and me…
Gona beg, steal or borrow Just to hold on tighter…
just to hold on tighter…
to that one thing.

paradise /ˈparədʌɪs/.
1. the abode of Adam and Eve before the Fall in the biblical account of the Creation; the Garden of Eden.
2. an ideal or idyllic place or state. “the surrounding countryside is a walker’s paradise”.

What is this paradise spoken of in neoliberal culture?
Where can or can these paradises be located?
Who profits? What do we take and what remains of it in the end?
Cultures are put on display to serve as amusement masses of onlookers. First World Countries thereby exercise their power over minorities as well as whole nations through cultural takeover or suppression, depending on the current doctrine: an act of cultural genocide or assimilation. This self-empowerment goes hand in hand with the projection of a desired ideal place and/or state. In the end, paradise awaits. The global village grows, leaving no place that cannot be consumed. Paradise is another commodity, and like much of the commodity of our everyday life, it is produced, for maximum profit, under anti-humanist systems: systems that profit from the exploitation and enslavement of poorer societies. The close links here are fluid. The geographical location of the theme will be reworked by the participating artists within the framework of the exhibition. The definitional level of meaning as well as the way of dealing with the theme remain individual.

Ines Kaufmann was born in Carinthia in 1996. She is currently studying in Vienna, in the class Extended Painting Space with Daniel Richter. Her artistic work encompasses an intersectional field of painting, performance and video work. Her work deals with the confrontation between eroticism and self-discovery, dirtyness and purity, feminist art and teenage kitsch.

Raphael Pohl, born in 1998 in Bolzano (IT), lives and works in Vienna. His space-related installations are an assemblage of readymade and self-made form, which in connection with their original form creates a distance between supporting ground and drunken material. Through the moving pictorial recording of his playing building blocks, he refers to the purely intuitive action of a growing body. He tries to capture the authenticity of the material and its temporal existence by making his installations understandable through personal associations.

Martin Sommer, born in Graz, lives and works in Vienna and studies at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, in the class Sculpture and Space. In his works he uses the medium of sculpture as well as instalation. Oscillating between responsibility and resignation, his sculptures seek to explore approaches and emotions evoked by multifaceted materials and forms. Feelings of heaviness and lightness imply conflicts of social as well as personal nature, questioning manifested and fragile constructs of humanity.

With her uncensored snapshots, 25-year-old photographer Maša Stanić provides insights into Vienna’s youth scene and makes provocative statements against the omnipresent Biedermeier on Instagram & Co. She collaborates with current stars of the local music scene such as Mavi Phoenix, Jugo Ürdens and KeKe. Her photo work has already been published in magazines like i-D and Vice.