KEX Open Material

KEX Open Material
Karl-Heinz Ströhle
Wednesday, 30.09.2015, 8:00 pm

Karl-Heinz Ströhle lives and works in Vienna.
The artist was born 1957 in Bregenz and studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Since the mid-80s his works have been showcased in numerous international exhibitions, amongst others: Deichtorhallen Hamburg; Kunsthaus Bregenz; Kunstforum Bank Austria; Vienna; Haus für konkrete Kunst Zurich; Musee Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France; Pietr art, St. Petersburg. Since 1994 Karl-Heinz Ströhle has realised several art in public space projects: Golmer Bahn; Schruns; Dornbirn Hospital; Kunsthaus Bregenz; Swisslife Rentenanstalt München; District Authority of St. Johann im Pongau; Lascygasse Vienna; Illwerke Headquarters Vandans, amongst others. Karl-Heinz Ströhle is a multimedia artist and teacher at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in the Art and Communication Practice Department. http://www.khstroehle.com


Aformative Sculptures by Karl-Heinz Ströhle
The following translated excerpt is from the text “Geprägte Form, die lebendig sich entwickelt” from the Karl-Heinz Ströhle exhibition catalogue, Kunstraum Otten, 2011–12.

On the Aformative Sculptures by Karl-Heinz Ströhle:
Ströhle’s aformatic objects – I would almost equate them with the concept of “theoretical objects” or of “epistemological objects” – can also be seen as manifestations of thing-magic, similar to Kafka’s spool-like creature “Odradek”. As a child of the Imperial era one inserted thin elastics through the eye of the spool and then coiled them up with a match. When you removed the match the accumulated tension in the elastics discharged in the vibrant dancing movement of the spool: a reformation discharge as a return to the tension-less initial state. Every small child wants to find out what can be achieved through the incantation of a thing. The movements of Ströhlian objects are also expressions of the magical incantation of forms, until something like a primeval form as the sum of all forms emerges: This is the end form. The representation of the primeval form as end form through adding all of the individual formal movements is then a closed surface, like how the sum of all lines that can possibly be drawn on a piece of paper results in the end as a page covered uniformly with graphite; the sum as representation of the absolute is quasi the “black square”. Magical incantation is thus the accumulation of individual concrete forms into a totality in which the individual components are no longer visible. Accordingly, thing-magic through the incantation of forms leads to a focus on the all-encompassing possibility of creation, which can only be reached, however, in the black square of formlessness as the sum of all creative possibilities. Here, the primeval form is not “that what everything is based upon” rather “that what everything amounts to”.


A programme in the framework of:

KEX Open Material
4 X 50-Minute Experiments
400 m2 and 50 minutes of space and time for art and material. In this framework invited protagonists define their approaches to materiality, the concepts and flows of material in their artistic production processes. Between the specific potentials and frictions of material and the demands of artistic intention, the focus is placed on aesthetic decisions, formal transfer, and collaborations through experimental presentation methods of different artistic positions.
KEX Open Material will take place each Wednesday between Sept. 16 and Oct. 7, 2015 in cooperation with the Kunsthalle Exnergasse.

16.09.2015, 8:00 pm Fiona Rukschcio
23.09.2015, 8:00 pm Daniel Hafner
30.09.2015, 8:00 pm Karl-Heinz Ströhle
07.10.2015, 8:00 pm Elisabeth Wildling