Objects Yet To Become
With ‚Objects Yet To Become‘ (2016 -) Nikolaus Gansterer develops a series of situative and speculative objects that challenge visitors and passers-by to participate in actions. With simple poetic instructions for such actions – lasting from a few seconds up to a few minutes – the audience is invited to realize and perform them in public or private spaces.
By directly addressing an „affective other“ the artist is interested in how an object could be extended along the categories of time and space, movement and imagination: how, for example, a line of thought might become a line in space; a line verbalized, be activated by the whole body, becoming a „time-based object in the making – full of potentialities“.
These fragile choreographic scores stand for Gansterer’s consistent development of an own performative grammar and a specific language of the materiality of perception; as well as a playful way of reflecting upon the imaginary boundary between thought and matter, between artist, audience and art work.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #1
Take a long silver string.
Follow it until you fall into a sudden deep sleep.
When waking up, tie the string to the bottom of your memory.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #2
Choose two things you wish to connect with.
Reach out until you get in touch. Feel their materiality.
Mediate between them for a while till they coalesce.
Then swallow them.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #3
Find yourself a distinctive corner.
Observe the shadows passing by.
Carefully fill the corner with a gentle murmur.
Stop before it spills over and head off.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #4
Focus all your attention on one point.
Start compressing time there
till there’s an abrupt implosion.
Collect all the swirling dust and keep it warm.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #5
Start circling with your attention slowly.
Like a spiral. Like a whirlwind.
Delirious like a hurricane.
Up till the space around you becomes a void.
Filled with curiosity.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #6
Become aware of your shadow,
be in line with its movements
Now follow your shadow.
Switch roles
when it melts into darkness.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #7
Choose a strong light source (flame, bulb, sun,…)
Stare at it for a minute.
Close your eyes to see the afterimage.
Formulate a question.
Whilst blinking wildly
place it gently at your blind spot.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #8
Think of something that really matters to you.
Feel your thought’s skin.
Touch its texture,
Weigh the words‘ weight.
Then air it, secretly.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #9
Envision a horizontal circle.
Start stretching your field of view
beyond its outer periphery.
Once the lines of sight meet in the back of your mind,
shout out loud!
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #10
Take a deep breath.
What is the back side of the opposite?
What is the front side of the contrary?
Enter the backstage of unknowing
to silent applause.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #11
Say everything you see,
speak it out loud.
Now see what you said
and enter the limbo between seeing and saying.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #12
What you do when you do?
Now try to do nothing for as long as possible:
doing not doing doing
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #13
Think of one of your favourite concepts,
repeat it over and over again
till it is fracked into pieces.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #14
Focus on your nose,
capture the specific smell of this place.
Catch it between your hands,
carry it to another space
and release it carefully.
OBJECTS YET TO BECOME #15
Start running in an arc with a cloth in your hands,
circulate the air around you,
find others to join!
Imagine you are creating a cyclone
now stop and feel the force of the headwind on your skin.
A series of text and drawings with instructions for taking action, in variable dimensions, on various materials. Ongoing series since 2016.
A limited edition of postcards is available.
Exhibited in the frame work of:
– Tempo Incognito: On Flows, Rhythm, and Movement, art space Depo, Istanbul, 2021.
– Boundless Objects, Fundacao Eugenio de Almeida, Evora, 2020.
– Nikolaus Gansterer, tracing (in)tangibles, Galerie Crone, Vienna, 2019.
– Nikolaus Gansterer, Drawing as Thinking in Action, Drawing Lab, Paris, 2019.
– Volatile Dreams – Art of the World’s Fair, Marta Herford Museum, Germany, 2019.
– A fist of pure emotion, Crone Side Gallery, Berlin, 2018
– A Performance Affair, Vanderborght Building, Brussels, Gallery Weekend, 2018
– Regime der Vorhersage, Galerie Weisser Elefant, Berlin, 2018.
– Con-notations, Centre d’art contemporain, Villa Arson, Nice, 2018.
– Don’t call it off-space!, das weisse haus, Vienna, 2017.
– Argument Place, Stadtgalerie Bern, Switzerland, 2017.
– Drawing Praxis, Gallery Marie-Laure Fleisch, Brussels, 2017.
– Lightness and Matter. Matter and Lightness, at Kunstraum Niederoesterreich Vienna, Austria, 2017.
– Proxemia – Another Co-Creation of Space (together with Monika Grzymala) at Gallery Crone, Vienna, Austria, 2016.
– In der Kubatur des Kabinetts: Get Involved, Be Involved at Kunstsalon Fluc, Praterstern, Vienna, Austria, 2016.
– Fluca – Austrian Cultural Pavillion / Sariev Contemporary / Open Arts Foundation, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2016. Download info sheet with Bulgarian translation, here.
Reviews:
– „Anleitung zum Kunstwerk“, Sina Kloter, in: Berner Kulturagenda, 7/2017
Published in:
„Con-notations: Nikolaus Gansterer“, Nikolaus Gansterer, Sophie Orlando, Katrin Stroebel, (eds.),Edition Villa Arson, Nice, Cat. Exhib./ Français-English, 2018. ISBN 978-2-913689-39-8
Free download of the digital version of the publication: HERE!
„Lightness and Matter. Matter and Lightness“, Christiane Krejs (Ed.), with texts by Christiane Krejs, Eva Maria Stadler, Christian Egger, German/English, Paperback, Verlag für moderne Kunst, Vienna, 2017. ISBN 978-3-903153-39-4