C'est la vie, Sellerie - Michael Sailstorfer
Images of the Exhibition
Virtual Tour
Description
The “C'est la vie, Sellerie“ (C’est la vie, Celery) exhibition presents new works by the sculptor Michael Sailstorfer (*1979 in Velden). Following René Decarte's principle “I think, therefore I am”, Sailstorfer's “Brain” sculptures are the focus of the exhibition. Brains formed from interwoven ropes depict the endless process of thinking, where the heaviness of this process is manifested in black patinated bronze thought loops. Arranged as a group, the brains network with each other, condition each other, creating an energetically charged scene.
Breathing is inevitably linked to thinking and a prerequisite for all life. In this exhibition, the in and out of the lungs lie like a dense carpet of sound on the backdrop. This sound is produced by two old petrol tanks, which the artist has transformed in a manner typical of him, thus robbing them of their original function and re-contextualising them. The results are wall objects (“Tank 1/2”), whose hollow bodies seem to communicate with each other through their breath. Action and reaction. The empty tanks are filled with new content. Sailstorfer playfully breathes life into the objects, allowing man-made objects to become human. While the viewer is still trying to find their way around this spectacle, they are already part of the whole.
“C'est la vie, Sellerie” is an exhibition that deals with relationships, communication and causalities. On display are body part studies on sandpaper (“Name?”) and large-format canvas works in mixed media (“Brain 1/?”). If the walls in one room symbolically have ears (“I can hear you 8”), guns that have lost their shape and long since disarmed themselves are dueling in another room (“Gun 3/5”). Two neon strands designed in complementary colours seem to magically attract each other and unite to form a solid knot (“Kreuzknoten RG”), while a monumental tear (“Heavy Tear 49”) lends the artist's abstract “Self-Portrait (21.11)” a supposedly melancholy touch.
Michael Sailstorfer makes use of a wide range of different materials and techniques in his objects. The focus is always on ironic interplay, the dialogue between the work and viewer as well as between the works themselves. His works appeal to the senses. They want to be endowed with meaning and only acquire their raison d'être through interaction.
