Hans Kupelwieser

“Consequently,” wrote the architect Manfred Wolff-Plottegg in the catalogue, »Hans Kupelwieser« [Christa Steinle [ed.], Hatje Cantz Verlag 2004], “I jot down scraps of conversation … and fictional bits about Hans Kupelwieser’s search methods. … Naturally, everything could also be different… but it isn’t, and this paragraph stands here as if spoken. Because it isn’t only different; it’s as it is; as is Hans Kupelwieser’s second solo exhibition in the Neue Galerie in Graz, a compilation of his real oeuvre, not a speculation about other possible works.” After Graz, the Austrian artist Hans Kupelwieser [*1948] will show his exhibition in Karlsruhe, where he was already a guest at »Brennpunkt Wien« in the Badischen Kunstverein in 1989.

Along with Franz West and Erwin Wurm, Hans Kupelwieser presents post medial sculpture in which medias, materials, functions, and formulas are bound together in a new sculptural fabric. His works may look like photographs or sculptures, yet in reality they are pure conceptual art, as Rainer Metzger explains: “Kupelwieser removes a dimension from things. And even if this dimension is the second one.” With photograms, in photogram photos, through aluminum coatings, the artist gives back to simple things such as spaghetti, potatoes, and rice, or chairs, armchairs, and tables, that dimension which they lose in the constant effort to create a technically perfect reproduction. Thus the photogram of a series of various chairs first makes clear the relationship between things and light (Bar, 2001). The reality of the things seems precise, independent of their appearance. It is first the medial impression, the photogram, which allows us to clearly recognize the subject.

Though the background theory is complex and multi-layered, the works by Kupelwieser, who studied in Vienna with Bazon Brock and Peter Weibel, appear clear and light. The brooding has already taken place: the results are vivid, sensual, and elegant. With the exhibition »Hans Kupelwieser« the ZKM will continue its presentation of contemporary Austrian sculpture, following the solo exhibits by Franz West, 2000, and Erwin Wurm, 2003. A sculpture, “presenting a clear rejection of the abstract epoch and a prospective further development of the concept of sculpture in the post modern.” [Christa Steinle]