MARLENE HAUSEGGER: TIPPING POINTS

Solo Show

with a text by Eliana Otta

27/10/2023 – 11/11/2023

Opening 27th of October 19:00

“Marlene Hausegger lives between Austria and Slovenia, close to Monfalcone, an industrial city in transition known as “City of the cruise ships”. The shipyard is operated by the Italian global multinational company Fincantieri, which reinvented itself by specializing in the construction of cruise ships after a crisis in the 1970s let to the closure of many shipyards all over Europe. Now Fincantieri employs around 2500 people and subcontracts around 14000, generally non-Italian workers, mostly from Bangladesh. They live and work usually in very precarious conditions to guarantee the construction of luxurious ships, whose length can have more than 3000 meters. Marlene witnesses daily the development of an industry exemplary of marine capitalism and its effects on the wounded planet we live in.

For her solo exhibition at One Minute Space, Marlene addresses contemporary contradictions like the obscene business of high-class tourism, which requires the construction of imponent metallic infrastructure that navigate the same sea where hundreds lose their lives while trying to reach European coasts. She does it the way she usually does things: touching and playing, drawing and molding quotidian, accessible materials into subtle forms which awake curiosity and convoke us to activate our imagination. What does this object mean? How come she decided to connect A with C, D with G? Marlene’s precarious assemblages can deceive us with their paradoxical manners: humble materials infuse them with a familiar aura which attracts us without easily revealing their motives. It is as if their opacity finds a way to be friendly, welcoming our gaze into a slow-paced relationship.” Eliana Otta

Marlene Hausegger (1984) studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the École des Beaux Arts Montpellier. Since 2019 she teaches at the Art University Linz with Prof. Anna Jermolaewa.  From 2019 to 2022, she worked as a jury member for the Public Art Committee Lower Austria. Since 2022 she is program board member of Festival der Regionen. She received the Austrian State Stipend for Fine Arts (2018) and the Gabriele-Heidecker Artprize (2023).

Selected exhibitions: AK Kunstprojekte (Solo, 2023), Art Lahore 22 (2022), Künstlerhaus Bregenz (Solo, 2021), Belvedere21, Community Outreach, Vienna (Solo, 2020), Lendhauer, Klagenfurt (Solo, 2020), In Sesto Art Prize, San Vito al Tagliamento (Solo, 2019), Kardinal König Kunstpreis, Salzburg (2019), Into the City/ Wiener Festwochen (2018), Vernacular Institute, Mexico City (2017), Kyoto Experiment Art Festival, Japan (2016), Biennial Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2015), Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havanna, Kuba (2015), BINA, Biennial for Architecture, Belgrad (2014), Stedelijk Museum, s´Hertogenbosch, Niederlande (2013), Projektraum Viktor Bucher, Wien (2019/ 2017/ 2012/ 2011), Rotor, Graz (2020/2019/2014/ 2010), Steirischer Herbst, Graz (2015/ 2010), LENTOS, Linz (2010), Startgalerie MUSA, Wien,( Solo, 2010) BJCEM Biennale, Skopje (2009), Wittmanshowroom Karlsplatz&Wittmannlounge MUMOK, Wien (2009) Residency The BreederGallery, Land Steiermark, Athens (2021), Residency Islamabad, Austrian Embassy (2020).

The exhibition is supported by