STAGES
Patrick Winkler
Constructing the representation of a space.
Display for eternity.

STAGES is a recurring format, which is both radical and simple: young artists from Graz and Styria are offered a stage for the duration of at least one evening – the presentations can be extended if suitable. In this way, HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark provides a platform for emerging artists from the region to make their work accessible to a wider audience.

The focus is on exploring an artist’s practice through a presentation of selected work, shown on site. The artists themselves can decide whether this presentation of their work takes the form of a short lecture, a performance or another format of their choice. Regarding the selection process, the artist should choose a work which reflects and expands on the current exhibition and its central themes.

Patrick Winkler’s practice focuses in particular on concepts of space and its perception. He examines spatial strategies and the manifestations of power relations with them, for instance in institutions, where the entanglement of public and private interests coalesce or are at least in a charged relationship.

Winkler has a similar interest concerning the relationships between sculpture, architecture and institution, and how hegemonies might be maintained or deconstructed here. His approach has involved collecting emulsion paints from various relevant Austrian and international institutions, such as the white wall paint of mumok in Vienna, and taking pieces of wall from institutions to make new works by reconstructing or writing on them. In doing so, he always references the history of the white cube and institutional critique.

For the STAGES format at the HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Winkler will take a critical and sculptural look at the local architecture and Mathias Poledna’s exhibition.