Reprototypes, Triangulations and Road Tests- Simon Starling and Superflex

Contributions by Robin Mackay, Esther da Costa Meyer, Venugopal Maddipati, Mirjam Schaub, Birgit Schneider, Eva Wilson, Daniela Zyman

Reprototypes, Triangulations and Road Tests brings together seven seminal works by Simon Starling and Superflex in a dialogical setting—among them Exposition (2004), Three Birds, Seven Stories, Interpolation and Bifurcations (2007–08), D1 – Z1 (22,686,575:1) (2009), Black Out (2009), and Kuh (2012). These works “collapse” as unstable complexes around pertinent themes whose triangulated speculations are articulated by undisciplined objects, piercing through the layers of time and history and revisiting long-held certainties. Posited as reprototypes, they reveal various strategies for siting the contemporary within the modern, resuscitating objects and innovations out of obsolescence, testing their contemporary vitality and thus disrupting the self-sufficiency of the modernist canon.

Accompanying the exhibition at the newly inaugurated Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary exhibition space at Augarten, the publication includes contributions from philosopher Robin Mackay, architectural historians Esther da Costa Meyer and Venugopal Maddipati, media and cultural historian Birgit Schneider, the exhibition curators Eva Wilson and Daniela Zyman, and philosopher Mirjam Schaub.