when he threw the knife into the sun

when he threw the knife into the sun
With als er das Messer in die Sonne warf[when he threw the knife into the sun] Claudia Märzendorfer has developed a modular system for a construction set. Four slightly varying basic types can be combined with eachother to form simple geometric units, prototypes: once these remain abstract, sketch-like, then again they assume a distinct form, for instance when the fragile objects are reminiscent of ladders, a chair or a frame.

Principally, the ice casts offer the possibility of serial production; this is continued with the idea of making an assembly set that, theoretically, can be combined and extended infinitely. The parts are reproducible, but never identical. De facto, this leads to divergences; divergences that are unpredictable but not unintented by the artist, they are rather part of the concept. als er das Messer in die Sonne warf follows the cinematic, compositional logic, in that the artist understands the exhibition space as a kind of ‘stage’ on which she, in the course of an exhibition, can arrange and re-arrange new spacial constructions made of ice, and in doing so creates a series of different situations.

An overall picture of this performative installation as such can hardly be experienced live. als er das Messer in die Sonne warf describes a moment that seems to be out of control, and at the same time impossible, somehow ‘wrong’. Due to ist narrative, poetical quality, the exhibition title could just as well be the title for a film, or for a piece of music.

Jeanette Pacher