Michael Sailstorfer is a contemporary sculptor based in Berlin. Taking an experimental approach, Sailstorfer challenges the conventions of sculptural practice by incorporating sound, movement, and time to reconfigure objects and ascribe them with new meanings.
Read MoreBorn in Velden, Sailstorfer grew up learning to build things with his hands at his father's stone workshop, as well as his grandfather's farm. His father studied art in the 1970s and encouraged Sailstorfer's artistic interests, taking him to significant exhibitions including the Venice Biennale and documenta.
From 1999 to 2005, Sailstorfer studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under German sculptor Olaf Metzel. Waldputz (2000), Sailstorfer's first work at the Academy, comprised a subtractive transformation of the woods near his father's house, with the artist cleaning the forest floor and tree trunks.
In 2004, Sailstorfer graduated with an MA Fine Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London. Shortly afterwards, he participated in the Villa Aurora Residency in Los Angeles.
Zeit ist keine Autobahn (2008) is a kinetic sculpture comprising a wall-mounted tyre that is driven by an electric motor. Over the course of the exhibition, the spinning tyre gradually wears against the wall due to friction, leaving a growing pile of rubber residue on the floor below.
Zeit ist keine Autobahn reflects Sailstorfer's interest in degradation and the passage of time. The powerful scent of burning rubber becomes an integral part of the sculpture, facilitating a visual, temporal, and olfactory reception of the work.
Sailstorfer's large-scale installation Forst (2014) consisted of five trees suspended upside down from slowly rotating motors, at a height of 16-feet above the floor. Over the course of the exhibition, the trees dry out and lose their leaves. The dead foliage is swept into patterns by the remaining branches.
Forst explores the relationship between nature and man-made mechanical systems by interrupting the sterility of the gallery space with the sound, movement, and smell of decaying trees. Sailstorfer's immersive, multi-layered installation serves as an experiment for understanding alternative approaches and possibilities for contemporary sculpture.
For the 2014 Folkestone Triennial in Kent, Sailstorfer produced a participatory public art project titled Folkestone Digs (2014).
Sailstorfer has received numerous awards, including the Artisti per Frescobaldi Prize (2014), Vattenfall Contemporary (2012), Kunstpreis junger westen (2011), and the Dr. Franz und Astrid-Ritter Stiftung Prize (2007).
Michael Sailstorfer has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally.
Solo exhibitions include 1-32, Galerie Zink Waldkirchen, Seubersdorf (2020); TEAR SHOW, Perrotin, New York (2019); SINK, SANK, SUNK, KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin (2019); Space is the Place, BNKR, Munich (2019); We Love Them All, Carbon 12, Dubai (2018); Brainspotting, Avlskarl, Copenhagen (2018); Clouds and Tears, Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City (2017).
Group exhibitions include Mourning: On Loss and Change, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (2020); Nine to Know, Ruttkowski;68, Paris (2020); And the FORESTs Will Echo With Laughter..., ERES Foundation, Munich (2020); Primitive cool, Sardenhaus, Munich (2019); THE BIG SLEEP, 4th Artists' Biennial, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2019); The Aerodrome, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2019).
Sailstorfer's works are held in major public and private collections worldwide, including Centre Pompidou, Paris; S.M.A.K. Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent; Sammlung Boros, Berlin; Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Michael Sailstorfer is represented by KÖNIG GALERIE.
Michael Sailstorfer's website can be found here, and his Instagram can be found here.
Phoebe Bradford | Ocula | 2022
