6. Maruša Sagadin
Terra Cotta, Panna Cotta
14 October to 19 November
Moltkestr 81, Cologne
Images / Text
A squeezed column, a ‘Bauch’, a fake,
As voluminous as a stone / cement / …, unwearable, unbearable accessories,
An ‘Indoor Stone’ disabling a body's form.
Question or statement – why can’t I love life in balance as much as I love the AT&T Palace?
Terra Cotta, Panna Cotta begins by infusing canonical decorative traditions with Sagadin’s characteristic semiotic humor.
Saturated with playful, rehydrated neoclassical and postmodern details, the show’s aesthetic signatures have as much in common with retro-couture clothing as the implied architectures – a liberal blend of pop culture, graphic, comedic, and anatomic influences. However, the resulting objects do not comfortably reside within any of these categories, constantly changing with each exhibition. Sagadin’s primary material is a malleable and personal language which feints toward function, durability, and timelessness.
The exhibition partially functions as a second-act evolution of Doris, Ionic, Iconic, her exhibition at SPACE, London this past Spring, which featured indoor and outdoor benches representing that show’s title. In this setting, the sculpture now becomes a central, theatrical character. The reclining, pantomime caryatid on its union-mandated break masquerades vainly as street furniture to disguise its metamorphosis. The surface-mounted prop cosmetic (first appearing as an outdoor installation in London) might mean the character has rested in place too long, or suggest a designer’s quirky presentation of a model big-budget skyscraper.
Sagadin’s surrounding wall objects start with standard foam insulation material in the manufacturer’s proprietary color, which is excavated to admit a rough concrete mix. The process simulates the pouring of structural foundations, but onto a permeable, branded ground which assumes an advertisement-like profile when hung upright. These are supplemented with an installation of posters and research material fly-posted at the edges, the mossy origins of the puzzling drama creeping back into view.
Maruša Sagadin was born 1978 in Ljubljana, Slovenia and works in Vienna. She studied architecture at TU Graz before transitioning to performative arts and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Amongst her many awards, she completed a year-long ISCP residency in New York City this past spring, and received a 2009-10 MAK Schindler House grant for research in Los Angeles.
Her recent exhibitions include SPACE in London UK, the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York and London, Kunsthalle Wien, Room of Requirement/Horse & Pony Fine Arts in Berlin, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Ljubljana. Earlier this year, her monograph © MMXV, designed by longtime collaborator Christian Hoffelner and published by Verlag für Moderne Kunst, was a finalist for Schönste Bücher Österreichs 2016, a prize for books made in Austria from any discipline.