Exposition (with Maja Osojnik) Mahler Forum, Maiernigg – curated by Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein
Exposition
Mahler Forum, Maiernigg (2022)
with Maja Osojnik
curated by Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein
May–October 2022
Mahler Forum
[…] Gustav Mahler’s composing hut – a historically significant site – Margreiter’s art installation, which incorporates components of architecture and display, explores the relationship between the past and the present as well as the relationship between representation and fiction. The striking three-dimensional structure made of scaffolding poles has the outlines of a traditional building situated among the trees. Built as a single-storey, gable-roofed structure, it mirrors, like a slightly larger doppelgänger, Mahler’s composing hut, which is visible nearby. The construction of scaffolding poles evokes an intermediate stage, something on the verge of becoming instead of a final state of completion. It is an openly built idea, nothing about it is set in stone. Here, authorship is interpreted as universal and not as belonging to a singular genius. Unlike the composer’s brick-and-mortar retreat, Dorit Margreiter’s house claims a space without claiming to create space. Her house has no walls that might exclude, no locking doors that signify ownership, no windows that let in wanted light but keep out wind and rain. Her house lets Everything in. It doesn’t filter anything out; it belongs to Everyone. Its open construction is a maximum of inclusion, permeating the dichotomy of inside and outside, of fixture and building. Here, nature and thus change take place permanently. Here, there is no such thing as the empty, impervious space that is a sealed vacuum. Here, we are part of the universe’s happenings.
Exposition is an exhibition space that turns the space of retreat into a public space.
Text by Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein