Kerstin von Gabain: Raver geht ins archäologische Museum – Photography & Culture Clash

This exhibition by Kerstin von Gabain features recent photographs combined with plaster casts, exploring the playful dialogue between classical antiquity and contemporary rave culture. The installation creates an ambiguous spatial situation, engaging with themes of appropriation and the relationship between images and objects.

Kerstin von Gabain's exhibition, "Raver geht ins archäologische Museum," presented in the Secession's Grafisches Kabinett, showcases her latest photographs alongside plaster casts. The exhibition is conceived as an installation where the performative engagement with sculptures and their translation into photography creates a unique spatial experience. Von Gabain bridges classical antiquity with contemporary culture, particularly referencing rave and techno music subcultures. The artist was inspired by a 1960s publication on archaic Greek art, initially focusing on archaeological presentation forms. While Greek sculptures and museum display conventions informed the initial casts and photographs, the work evolved towards grotesque and macabre arrangements, humorously highlighting a "culture clash" between antiquity and modern music scenes. The photographs depict limbs cast in plaster, sometimes in staged narratives, and assemblages of plaster fragments, all derived from sculptures von Gabain experimented with. These sculptures serve not as final products but as starting points for bizarre stagings, which are then transferred into analog black-and-white photographs. Isolated against dark backgrounds, the sculptures are photographed with an seemingly objective gaze, mimicking the systematic documentation of museum collections. This formal rigor is counteracted by the poses of the objects, such as "dancing" feet, which escalate the absurdity. The layers of reality blur as von Gabain outfits cast limbs with shoes or adorns them with accessories, creating surreal juxtapositions. Temporary assemblies, like fragmented casts of everyday objects, offer a counterpoint to the classical forms. Von Gabain often employs appropriation, transforming furniture or entire rooms, leading to unexpected analogies and insights. Her photographs, increasingly prominent in her oeuvre, document these peculiar situations, building on previous projects like "City of broken furniture" (2013) where she "treated" furniture with bandages. She draws parallels between real objects in photographic space and 3D objects in virtual space, examining the relationships between images, objects, and ultimately, realities.

Ticketing information is available via a link to the Secession shop. General opening hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 10 AM - 6 PM, with the note 'heute geöffnet' (open today). More detailed ticketing and visitor information can be found via a dedicated link.