Sleeping Dogs
Exhibition with graduates of
the Department for Site Specific Art
Klima Biennale Wien 2024
What if the proverbial dogs went on strike by not waking up from their sleep? The labour power of non-human animals
is exploited in many ways in contemporary biocapitalism, mostly without it being understood as work. This concerns not only
their actual productive power, but also the reproductive abilities of (female) animals: Animals become meat, milk becomes
food. Non-human animals also often contribute to shaping the environment without this being perceived as labour. The cultural
and material logistics established by humans have been producing and utilising animal life as a form of capital for centuries.
The works presented in this exhibition by graduates of the Department of Site-Specific Art (University
of Applied Arts) are dedicated to this unequal division of labour between human and non-human animals. It introduces the motif
of sleep as a subversive strategy. Sleep can appear in many different guises: Rest, hibernation, breeding phase. The works
shown here thus pose the question of the extent to which animals and humans can resist these forms of exploitation by consciously
taking breaks. However, they also address the fact that it may be too late to wake the dogs: that human trust in the regenerative
processes of nature is disproportionate to the consequences of systematic destruction.
Ivana Lazić: IMMANENCE:
In Becoming
Durational performance, Audio, Karlsplatz clay, natural wool, 2023, Courtesy by the artist
Ivana Lazić‘s immersive work invites visitors to literally be in becoming with the installation. The artist covers the
floor with large blankets made from the wool of Pramenka sheep. She compares the migration processes of human and non-human
animals. Lazić‘s work deals with transformations: the sheep‘s lifetime, which has gone into growing the wool, is transformed
into warmth that visitors can feel when they wrap themselves in the blankets.
Ana Likar: Myriad Tentacles
Will be Needed (Again and Again)
Full HD video, colour, stereo sound, 13 min, 2022, Courtesy by the artist
Ana Likar‘s video takes the shopping centre „City“ in Ljubljana as its starting point. Animal specimens
from the collection of the Slovenian Museum of Natural History are stored here. In abandoned storage rooms, the animals are
waiting to be transferred to another, better place. Starting from this mysterious city within the city, Likar develops an
equally insightful as poetic reflection on the penetration of architectural and non-human bodies with capitalist logics.
Raphael Reichl: Andar pisando en cascarones arenosos (Walking
on sandy egshells)
2-channel installation, 220 x 125 x 50 cm, 23 min (loop), stereo sound, 2022, Austria/Mexico,
Courtesy by the artist
In his installation, Raphael Reichl portrays two conflicting dynamics in the Mexican
harbour region „Puerto Escondido“. At the centre are hideaways, places of refuge and breeding sites that are being transformed
or destroyed by global capitalism. Reichl shows labourers who build hideaways for tourists under precarious conditions. At
the same time, a young woman creates small refuges for turtles with her bare hands: she digs sand nests in order to protect
the turtle eggs.
Ursula Gaisbauer in collaboration with Marie Janssen und
Anna Brock, David Fedders, Marie Filippovits, Lena Heinschink, Laura Josic, Tutku Kocabas, Flores Paul, Yevhenia
Pavlova, Michelle Schäfer,
Anastasiia Verzun, Lin Wolf, Ida Zahradnik:
Erdzeitalter (Ages of
the Earth)
Installation and workshop, ceramics, kiln, fire, 2024
The site-specific
work „Erdzeitalter (Ages of the Earth)“ reconstructs the emergence and death of species by means of ceramics created in collaboration
with students of the University for Applied Arts. In five open workshops, the ceramics are then burned in a kiln especially
made for this purpose by the artist Marie Janssen. The work will continue to evolve throughout the exhibition period. „ Erdzeitalter
“ questions human trust in the regenerative powers of nature and counters it with ritualistic artistic acts. This project
takes place both outdoors and indoors.
WORKSHOPS
23.4.24/ 10.00-20.00 1. (Burning Erdzeitalter)
- End of Ordovizium
07.5.24/ 15.00-23.00 2. (Burning Erdzeitalter) - End of Devon
21.5.24/ 15.00-23.00 3. (Burning
Erdzeitalter) - End of Perm
04.6.24/ 15.00-23.00 4. (Burning Erdzeitalter) - End of Trias
22.6.24/ 15.00-23.00 5.
(Burning Erdzeitalter) - End of Kreide
All workshops are open to the public and take place here on the festival
site in the outdoor area.
Artists: Ivana Lazić, Ana Likar, Raphael Reichl and Ursula Gaisbauer
in collaboration with Marie Janssen und
Anna Brock, David Fedders, Marie Filippovits, Lena Heinschink, Laura Josic, Tutku
Kocabas, Flores Paul, Yevhenia Pavlova, Michelle Schäfer,
Anastasiia Verzun, Lin Wolf, Ida Zahradnik
Curator:
Marlies Pöschl
