
Prozession verwandelt zum Krieg. Umgekehrt. (Procession transforms into war. Reversed.) |
Date and author unknown; oil on canvas, 67.5 x 55 cm
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We belong to the light. - We belong together. |
2020, candle wax, Ø 20 cm
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Little Snotty Horse & I’ll be right here. |
1989/2015, bronze, 16 x 7 x 7 cm
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2020, booklet, A5, hand-bound, text by Víctor Albarracín Llanos (Original text Spanish with German translation).
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Limited edition of 100. Shelf: spruce, 17 x 50 x 3.5 cm
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Two Good Tyrolean Souls |
2020, spruce, 50 x 150 x 50 cm; 50 x 120 x 50 cm, iron hook
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Historie einer Sammlung über das Leben (History of a collection about life) |
2020, graphite on tracing paper, 21 x 29.7 cm. Framed in spruce, each 27 x 36 x 2.5 mm, corners in beechwood, photo corners, series.
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Hypericum perforatum. 24th June 2020. Hägerau. |
2020, olive oil, St. John’s wort, glass Ø 20 x 15 cm
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Torture Wheel Couple. Assembly Kit. |
2020, split fireplace brick, 37.5 x 37.5 x 22 cm. Wheels Ø 85 cm x 27 cm; Ø 75 cm x 25 cm. Trees, sharpened, 2.66 m Ø 8.5 cm, 2.45 m Ø 8.5 cm
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De-Cure with Consequences. Nailed to the Wall in Rank and File. |
2020, shears, pitch, nails, variable dimensions
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E.T. - The Believer. |
2020, graphite on linen, black and gold thread; white Gelly Roll pen, marmot oil; 25 x 34 cm. Pineframe, 30 x 39 x 2.5 cm
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Fuerchte dich nicht (Fear not) |
2020, linen, wool, iron hook, 147 x 230 cm. Scythe handle, 120 x 20 x 10 cm
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Man sieht die Sonne langsam untergehen und erschrickt doch, wenn es plötzlich dunkel ist. |
(You see the sun slowly setting and yet you are shocked when it‘s suddenly dark.) |
2020, iron ring, black cotton cloth, lashing belt (black), pitch, candle wax, Ø 85 cm x 7 cm
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Fuerchte dich nicht (Fear not) |
2020, Neue Galerie, Innsbruck |
photos: WEST. Fotostudio |
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We must identify the world of antagonistic policies and power relations by which our |
bodies are constituted and rethink the struggles that have taken place in opposition to |
the „norm” if we are to advise strategies for change. |
Silvia Federici: The Body, Capitalism and the Reproduction of Labor Power (2020), S. 10. |
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Using the Tannhäuser font developed in the 1930s, the written words Fear not are emblazoned |
above the entrance to the Neue Galerie. “Fear not” is proclaimed by angels in numerous biblical |
stories as they encourage the sinner to pass from darkness into light. The dichotomy between light |
and darkness, good and evil, pervades all religions and beliefs. An investigation of this polarity also |
plays a key role in Margarethe Drexel’s artistic practice. |
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The works of the artist, who lives in Tyrol and Los Angeles, are always interspersed with components |
of her own biography. Starting out by examining concepts of faith and morals, Drexel investigates |
mechanisms of conquest and subjugation. She draws on the material, pictorial and linguistic worlds |
surrounding her – found objects and references from her immediate surroundings, including her family |
household and the community in which she was born and raised, which she transposes into the exhibition |
space in a cathartic act. Among other things, these personal, often Catholic and mystic narratives and |
symbolisms contain investigations into depictions of the Dance of Death (Totentanz von"Elbigenalp, 1840), |
rituals of execution like breaking on the wheel (Rädern/Radebrechen, 1500 - 1800), and the American |
entertainment industry (E.T., 1982). |
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According to Michel Foucault, the body is constituted within specific regimes of discourse and power, |
outside of which it has no materiality. (Foucault, 1983: Sexualität und Wahrheit: Der Wille zum Wissen, Vol. I). |
For Judith Butler, Körper sein (being body) means being exposed to creative and formative social forces, |
which is why the body’s ontology has always been a social ontology. (Butler 2010, Das Unbehagen der Geschlechter). |
Drexel re-exposes herself to these creative and formative social forces in the course of her artistic practice, |
deconstructing, experiencing and staging them in the exhibition space. She places intergenerational traumata at |
our disposition, searching for strategies with which they can be anchored in the present. In this way, the artist |
discloses heteronormative power structures as well as strategies of antagonistic politics, and creates a dialogic space |
incorporating an inherent possibility for change. |
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Petra Poelzl, Director Tiroler Künstler:innenschaft, Innsbruck |
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