Josef Dabernig: Initial Encounter

“… I asked Josef Dabernig to create such structure. His works has often been based on very precise patterns and systems. It is important, too, that his (often minimal) objects, photographs, films etc. usually include references to modernity. They indicate his strong fascination with modernist architecture, his understanding of its contradictory aspects, but also an ironic distance that is always present in his approach. Also, I knew the spaces that he created in Vienna, for Depot (1994) and MUMOK (2002), where he organized very strict (but nonetheless useful and flexible) spatial systems without really changing or even touching the existing architecture. …”

Excerpt from a text by Igor Zabel for: Can Buildings Curate. Architectural Association Gallery, London 2005. Courtesy of Mateja Kos Zabel.