Caroline Mesquita, Leon Höllhumer, Eröffnung

Opening

Caroline Mesquita, *Source* (detail), 2024; Leon Höllhumer, *Insalata di Sentimenti*, 2024

With Caroline Mesquita’s Verdet Bath and Leon Höllhumer’s The Feast, HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark opens two exhibitions by artists who not only work primarily with sculpture and film, but who are also particularly interested in scenic storytelling. In both exhibitions, individual works are placed in relation to each other to develop narratives which go beyond simple storytelling. Caroline Mesquita is less interested in depicting individuals than in portraying whole communities, and exploring how certain situations and experiences of social interaction are created through mutual exchange. While Mesquita uses the setting of a public swimming pool to transform her brass and copper figures into a theatrical tableau, Höllhumer has created a series of (video) installations that weave together an episodic sequence of stories. Juxtaposing morbid imagery with more pleasurable scenes, Höllhumer’s piece culminates in an immersive parcours installation, offering a complex and ambivalent narrative experience. Despite the two artists’ differences in content, production and tone, both exhibitions are highly immersive in design, and unexpectedly similar in their ability to capitivate the viewer.

Artists

Participating artists

Solo exhibitions (selection): T293, Rom (2024, 2022, 2017), HAB Gallery, Nantes (2024), Bourse du travail Centre d’art, Valence (2023), Villa Medicis, Rome (2023), Le Parvis Centre d’Art contemporain, Tarbes (2022), CAN, Centre d’art Neuchâtel (2022), Blaffer Art Museum, Houston (2021), Statement, Art Basel, with Union Pacific (2021), Pivô, São Paulo (2020), Passerelle Centre d’art contemporain, Brest (2020), carlier / gebauer, Berlin (2019, 2015), Fondazione Arnoldo Pomodoro, Milan (2019), Galeria Municipal de Porto (2019), Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2018), Prix Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Centre Pompidou, MAM, Paris (2018), SALTS, Basel (2017), 221A, Vancouver (2017), Kunstverein Langenhagen (2016), MOT International, Brussels (2016), SpazioA, Pistoia (2015), Union Pacific, London (2015).

Group exhibitions (selection): Contemporaine de Nîmes (with Laure Prouvost) (2024), Mucem, Marseille (2022), Fondation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence (2022), Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Guadalajara (2021), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019, 2012), Folkwang Museum, Essen (2019), Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2019), Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main (2019), Parcours Art Basel (2018), La Loge, Brussels (2018), Fondation Ricard, Paris (2017, 2015, 2013), Sans Titre, Paris (2017), The Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2014).

Solo exhibitions & Performances (u.a.): Efes42, Linz (2022), TQW Tanzquartier Wien, Vienna (2021), Perspektiven, Attersee (2021), WAF-Gallery, Vienna (2021), Daihatsu Rooftop Gallery, Vienna (2020), OEVERwerk, KiöR, Graz (2020), Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (2020), EXILE, Wien (2019), Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer, Vienna (with Karl Karner, 2019), Mauve, Vienna (2018), Milieu, Bern (2017), MUSA, Vienna (2016)