Vienna Contemporary25.09.2019–29.09.2019Thomas Geiger
Thomas Geiger's practice is located at the intersections between public, private and institutional spaces. With elements from performance and sculpture his works can be described as fragmentary stages that create playful situations for mediation between Art and Life. One of his guiding principles is to navigate with independent structures: Since 2016, he has developed Kunsthalle3000 an institution as intervention located in the public realm. Since 2014, he performs The Festival of Minimal Actions, a one-person festival in which he re-enacts actions by other artists. His ongoing project I want to become a millionaire can be seen as the back bone of this practice. The multilayered work explores economic and distribution strategies outside of the art market and allows him to fund his activities autonomously.
Some Great Europeans
Chandigarh is the earliest planned city in India, designed by Le Corbusier. As such, it is stamped with the modernist European visions of scientific rationalism, efficiency and social improvement through design. In this context Some Great Europeans took place, as an ephemeral monument in front of the Art Museum, one of the Le Corbusier buildings. Visitors were invited to select an image from aseries of photographs, all of which show public statues of some “great” Europeans and interpret it on an improvised pedestal. The short gestures of the participants become a fragile but all the more lively antithesis to the statit and solid monumentality of modernism.
Private Monuments
Private Monuments is a series of eight sculptures based on holes of missing bricks on public squares. As the positive forms of the original holes, they create fragments of public space within a new environment. Eight dedications can be found as instructions to activate these Private Monuments with momentary gestures that are an echo of the daily life on public squares.
