In the collective consciousness, sunshine still stands for joyful life - no summer without warming rays of sunshine, no life on earth without sun-energised photosynthesis. But the current climate crisis is drastically changing the picture: Droughts increasingly threaten the environment and habitat.
Böhler & Orendt meet this challenge with a good dose of irony and let trees speak. Seven "tree cyborgs" ponder summer rain, fresh groundwater and the gentle touch of a squirrel. The work, developed especially for KUNST HAUS WIEN, combines the existing architecture with cinematic animation, painting, sculpture, text and song to create a multimedia chamber play. In a forest of oversized stylised leaves, beings with tree trunk bodies and screen faces lie on yellow couches. Similar to ancient wandering singers, these "cyborg rhapsodes" communicate with their audience by declaiming and singing. At some points, their voices condense into a chorus that reverberates in the visitors' ears.
Matthias Böhler (born in Aachen, Germany, in 1981) and Christian Orendt (born in Sighișoara, Romania, in 1980) have been collaborating as an artist duo since 2008. Their artistic interests revolve first and foremost around the tragic, comic and absurd repercussions of humankind’s influence on the destinies of the planet, which they reflect through all manner of artistic media. Their extensive installation projects are exhibited internationally and have been awarded numerous prizes and grants. Most recently they created the interactive multimedia sculpture Kwirki, der Sendbote [Kwirki, the Emissary] at ‘Am Spitz’ in Floridsdorf, as part of Vienna’s art in urban public spaces programme (KÖR). Matthias Böhler and Christian Orendt live and work in Berlin.
Curator
Sophie Haslinger
OPENING
WED 22.03.2023, 19:00
Free admission
The opening will take place in the presence of the artists.
