Kerstin von Gabain presents her reaction to the scholarly paradigm of museums’ collecting practice, using her sculptural and photographic works to conjure up an atmosphere that is deliberately reminiscent of a sanatorium. Both her medical-seeming treatment of furniture and her 19th century-style photographic portraits of objects from the MAK’s collection of seating furniture humorously suggest these pieces’ supposed anthropomorphization. Von Gabain considers photography, as a tool of classification and of phenomenological study, to be a particularly interesting way of dealing with the archival paradigms evident in the museum’s Study Collection.

Curator Janina Falkner, MAK Contemporary Art Collection

Exhibition series New Look

In this exhibition series, four Vienna-based artists of the younger generation deal specifically with the MAK Study Collection. NEW LOOK reflects on the MAK as a site of present-day artistic production while also providing an opportunity to contemplate applied art and the transfer of applied art-related knowledge from new and different perspectives.

New Look # 1
BENJAMIN HIRTE the classic mob ballet (12.9.–25.11.2012)

New Look # 2
KATHI HOFER craftivism (19.12.2012–3.3.2013)

Video

For the exhibition NEW LOOKS # 4. Kerstin von Gabain city of broken furniture Kerstin von Gabain and Johann Neumeister collaborated for a video project.