Eva Ursprung & Alexandra Gschiel — HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark

Performance

On the occasion of The Art of Surfacing, Eva Ursprung in collaboration with Alexandra Gschiel will ceremoniously open her exhibition through a sound performance. Interwoven with plastic, she will draw on a central aspect of her show: the theme of the so-called Plastocene.

The term Plastocene refers to an unofficial era in which plastic has become a defining geological and cultural marker of human activity. Plastic permeates soils, oceans, organisms, and atmospheric cycles and will remain as a permanent sediment in future layers of the Earth. As an intensification of the Anthropocene concept, the Plastocene refers to the material, ecological, and symbolic legacy of an era whose promise of progress is inextricably linked to long-term environmental consequences.

In their performance, Ursprung and Gschiel focus on the man-made catastrophe that, as recent research shows, primarily affects human and animal life itself, with microplastics and nanoplastics also being detected in the body, for example in the blood, lungs, and placenta, where they are absorbed through food, drinking water, and the air we breathe, manifesting themselves as invisible but real traces inside the human body. Nevertheless, beneath the layers of plastic, the human being remains: a biofeedback device translates the artists’ interactions into sound, which increasingly shapes the performative soundscape.

Artists

Participating artists

Solo and Group exhibitions, projects (selection):

Steirische Kulturinitiative (2025, 2024), kunstGarten, Graz (2025, 2021, 2016, 2011), Kunsthaus Graz (2025, 2021, 2012, 2007), prison wall Justizanstalt Karlau, XENOS & Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Steiermark, Graz (2024), Taman Budaya, Yogyakarta (2023), BACC (Bangkok Art and Culture Center) (2023), La Terminal Zawp, MEM Festical, Bilbao (2023), IMA Institut für Medienarchäologie, St. Pölten (2022), Künstlerhaus München, Munich (2022), Schaumbad Freies Atelierhaus Graz (2021, 2018, 2008), Steirischer Herbst, Graz (2020, 2014, 2013, 2006, 1999), <rotor>, Graz (2019), Gakerija ALU, Sarajewo (2018), Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt (2017), POST, Los Angeles (2016), Flux Factory, New York (2016), Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (2015), Les Kurbas National Theatre Arts Center, Kiew (2014), APO33, La Plateforme Intermédia, La Fabrique, Nantes (2014), MAD Emerging Art Center, Eindhoven (2013), Literaturhaus Graz (2011), Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina / Institut für Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Novi Sad (2011), Stadtmuseum Graz (2010), galerie wildwechsel, Frankfurt am Main (2008), Freiraum Transeuropa / PiroschkaREV, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna (2004), Cornerhouse, Manchester (2002), Laznia Center for Contemporary Art, Gdansk (2002), The Substation, Singapore (2002), Ottis Gallery, Los Angeles (1998).

is a photographer. After training in classical photography, she works across media with photography, video, installation, sculpture and textiles. From 2009 to 2021, she worked at Schaumbad – Freies Atelierhaus Graz, including many years on the board and in conceptual and organisational work. From 2022 to 2024, she worked at KiG! – Kultur in Graz.

Exhibitions (Selection): Residenz und Präsentation Saraiki (Liepāja, LV, 2025); Photo Graz (Altes Kino Leibnitz, 2022, 2024); Insurgent Flows (KiG! Kultur in Graz, 2023); and I – Alexandra Gschiel (KiG! Kultur in Graz, 2023); PLATFORMS PROJECT – Independent Art Fair (Athen, GR, 2021); Mobilise/Demobilise (hybride Performances, Graz, Malmö, online, 2021 – 2022); Zaungäste (Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Graz, 2018 – 2019); We have a situation! (Furtherfield, London & international, 2013); Fronteras en cuestión (Havanna, CU, 2015).