Groupshow / Art Installation
28. 9. – 25. 10. 2019
curated by Stephan Lugbauer
Dominique Koch (CH/FR)
Stephan Lugbauer (AT/FR)
Lina Morawetz (AT/DE)
Seijiro Murayama (JP/FR)
Art as magic and magic as the art of change.
Parallels between various theories on magic and artworks formulate the basis to this exhibition initiated by Stephan Lugbauer. The focus lies on these magic moments featuring images, objects or gestures which are able to transport specific ideas and atmospheres.
Alchemie served science as basis to continue researching and finding while searching and similiar to that magic builds the basis to this exhibition.
Magic as in the magic of coincidence, transfer, repetition, ritual. In this show artworks, respectively fragments of artistic positions, open up intervals to host abstract thought and communicate via hereby emerging atmospheres. This creates the possibility to form a new, mulitilayered entitiy with fragments taken out of context. In the process we pursue forms of transfer and perception of magic from a distance as well as through direct contact such as in Seijiro Murayama’s seemingly dadaistic spoken word performance, which could be a ritual of immortality. The DNA-code of the jellyfish Turritopsis Dohrnii which biologist view as nearly immortal serves Murayama as magic spell – comparable to magic rituals where the intonation of the words is often more important than their semantics. A fragment of Dominique Koch’s work shows a lifeless Turritopsis Dohrnii displayed in a test tube as used by scientists.
Lina Morawetz’s bases her search search for linguistic bundles and echos of transcontinental movements on Gerhard Rühm’s nähern und entfernen (1961). Traces of navigation, delays and silence accumulate into a debris of narration, which withdraws from the gaze, but not at all the sense of hearing.
In „This Law of Similarity“ Stephan Lugbauer displays friendship-wristbands bearing the inscription „I like my friends because they (are) like me“ and hereby paralleling social-media dynamics with essentially older theories of magic:
„Like produces like, similia similibus evocantur; and like acts upon like, and, in particular, cures like, similia similibus curantur.“ Marcel Mauss, A Theory on Magic.
alongside our material world. 2019. Installationview 
“EMMA” 2019. 16mm transferred to HD. 6min Loop. silent. suspended Screen. 
left: “Produces Like” 2019. ink jet print in Artist Frame. 41x31cm.
right: “Acts Upon Like” 2019. ink jet print in Artist Frame. 41x31cm.
“I like my friends because they (are) like me” 2019. mixed Media. 98x80x35cm. (wood, Nicki fabric, foam, Rubberbands) 
“Cures like” 2019. mixed media. 41x31x7cm (wood, wrapping tissue, red rubber friendship bands, glass) 
Alongside our material world. 2019. Installation view. 
„nobody has ever seen a cube …“ 2019. ink jet print in artistframe. 41x31cm. 
“A boundary“, “but also a passage”, “a gateway, a portal“ 2019. series of three ink jet prints in artistframe. 70×39,5cm each. 
“This law of similarity” 2019. mixed media. 41x31x7cm.
(wood, wrapping tissue, rubber friendship bands, glass)
