[Speis] 2003

This book retraces the installation of the artist at the Secession Museum in Vienna (2003)

Inside, Schabus blocks the entrance to the exhibition space with a wall, with unplastered traces of work showing in the entrance space, whereas the other side is invisible as part of the wall of the building. The only entrance to the main room that is available to visitors is a tunnel leading through the branching cellar and side rooms of the Secession. In the main room, Schabus has built a true-to-scale model of his atelier out of cardboard and squared timbers. It is not until one leaves the windowless installation that the construction and positioning of the "atelier" become apparent to the gaze from the outside. The form of the architectonic sculpture picks up from the floor pattern of the Secession, thus penetrating into the representative space quasi from below. What concerns Schabus is not so much a display of his working situation or place of production, but rather the atelier model, as a space set into a space, mirrors the presentation context of the exhibition space. In a manner similar to a film set, the "empty" space has more potential than reality.

Layout and photos: Hans Schabus