Heimo Zobernig, key figure within the Austrian art scene, is one of the mostimportant artists of his generation. In the 1980s, he made a name for himselfwith his protean art, using multiple media such as video, performance, painting,sculpture, installation, architecture and design. Challenging the major artistictrends of the 20th century, such as constructivism, geometric abstraction or evenminimalism, his art questioned the very system of art, its modus operandi and itsideological framework.

On view for the first time, the exhibition will present works in India ink, felt-tippen and gouache on paper taken from the visual diary the artist kept in the 1980s.Figurative recordings of his day-to-day impressions, the drawings present thehuman form, usually absent from his graphic work, but introduced in his videos,performances and sculptures (in which he stages his own body).

A series of small abstract paintings anticipate the artist’s future pictorial work, inparticular his borrowing from modernism of a ‘formal neutralism’ stripped ofall symbolism or narrative content. Alongside these works are miniature modelsmade of cardboard, upon which the artist applied oil paint. Midway betweenpainting and sculpture, they are precursors of the architectural interventionsand installations he developed from the 1990s on. Heimo Zobernig extends themonochrome of paintings to the world of objects (furniture, pedestals, etc.) andarchitecture (walls, floors, etc.).

Scenographic objects punctuate both gallery spaces: a table painted black, a screenpainted white, man-sized cubical columns of cardboard. A black synthetic resinvarnish, applied to the entire surface of the latter, covers personal pictures of theartist or acts as a framework for white goose feathers. These stage props, recurringin his work, play with the codes of minimalism and send out a destabilisingreinterpretation of art history which under the appearance of a certain form ofunderstatedness, is not without lightness.

Curated by art critic Stéphanie Moisdon.