Thinking Matters
THINKING MATTERS
The solo exhibition „Thinking Matters“ — which represents another step in Nikolaus Gansterer’s visual research — explores in detail the relationship between drawing, thought and action. His work is a true example of interdisciplinary studies; it is the result of a close confrontation between socio-humanistic, scientific and artistic disciplines from which the artist takes single methodologies and applies to these his unique, higly personal artistic language. The result of this work is an installation which occupies the entire space: the work is composed of autonomous elements which, contemporaneously, are tiles of a vaster mosaic which the artist has developed specially for the gallery space.
Gansterer creates a free universe of works which is somewhere between the physical and the ideal; two realities which continually cross-reference each other. The intellectual processes take on a temporary form and substance in the works, constituting the starting point to develop new lines of thought. Gansterer’s aesthetic re-elaboration on completion of his creative journey of theorization gives rise to a series of objects pertaining to scientific research which evoke not only the ideal but also the material dimension: blackboards with diagrams and graphs, laboratory tables with numerous notes, drawings and glass slides, frameworks made of light wood which take the form of three-dimensional chemical structures.
The artist constructs a laboratory in which he conducts a series of experiments to trace, as he himself says: “essential flows of consciousness between recongnition and naming” of reality. His drawings, sculptures, videos and his translectures are visual and concrete instruments to know and understand this flow of thought. It is his drawings which represent the common denominator in the exhibition; almost evanescent, drawn in chalk and white pastel, they seem to become fragile threads which support the artist’s theoretical constructions.
The exhibition gives the visitor a fascinating insight into the essential questions of human perception and interpretation told through the subjective construction of reality.
Exhibtion: Nikolaus Gansterer, Thinking Matters (solo),
Gallery Marie-Laure Fleisch, Rome, 23 Sept – 28 Nov 2013
Project assistance: Thanks to Simona Koch.
The installation: Thinking Matters, 2013,
video projection on the table, dimensions variable, video loop, sound, 16:9 aspect ratio, 35:24 min,
is courtesy the artist and the Artothek des Bundes Austria.
A selection of the work has also be presented in the context of:
– 2014: Nikolaus Gansterer / Katja Davar, PiK-KunstWerkKoeln, Cologne, Germany.
– 2013: Artists in Multifunctions, Gallery Lalit Kala Akademi, New Dehli, India.
Reviews:
– „Lavagne d’arte per Gansterer“, Corriere della Sera, Roma, 23.9.2013, p.10.
– „Nikolaus Gansterer, Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch“, Marta Napoleoni, in: Exibart.com, 18.10.2013.
– „Thinking Matters“, Emiliano Zandri, in: ZERO Magazine, p. 48, 30.9.2013.
– „Thinking Matters“, Giuliana Benassi, in: SEGNO Magazine, #245, 15.9.2013.
– „Thinking Matters“, Mousse Magazine, 11/2013, p. 276/80