Cement Shoes (Phantom Lovers)
Office of the team of Kunsthalle Exnergasse, MDF, mobile wall elements, screensaver, socks,
2026

For the duration of the exhibition permanent, temporär, the office of the team of Kunsthalle Exnergasse is presented as a living sculpture, positioned atop a large pedestal. The pedestal simultaneously functions as a working area for adO/Aptive, an artist collective developing a publication for the exhibition. In addition, a screensaver presents Phantom Lover, a silent karaoke video. Whenever a computer is left idle, the workspace becomes a display for this work. Its lyrics frame the relationship between an institution and its public as a tricky romantic entanglement, defined by its own undefinability. To avoid the pedestal being marked by footsteps, a series of socks function as “soft paintings,” redirecting attention toward other traces of labour, such as the markings left by the wheels of office chairs.

Cement Shoes (Sticky Pasts)
Collection of Kunsthalle Exnergasse (1989 – 2026), poster archive, mobile wall element, lights
2026 – ongoing

Since 1989, Kunsthalle Exnergasse has accumulated a somewhat accidental collection of artworks, ephemera, and objects, often with unclear authorship and origin. As sticky residues of the past, the work permanently relocates this collection from storage into one of the mobile wall elements—quite literally embedding the past within the walls. Half sculpture, half facility, Cement Shoes (Sticky Pasts) is a permanent intervention paired with an equally permanent display of exhibition posters found in the archive. These are pasted onto a wall typically inaccessible to the public, part of a storage area opened for the duration of the exhibition. Future exhibition posters will be added over time.

Cement Shoes (Psycho Buildings)
Repurposed window panels, surveillance cameras, projection, MDF, variable objects, bar
2026

Repurposed window panels alter the exhibition’s spatial logic through an interplay of light and architecture. As the office is relocated into the exhibition space, insurance no longer requires surveillance. The existing surveillance infrastructure is repurposed to produce a theatrical frame, structuring two stages within the exhibition’s scenography—a literal stage and the office. The main entrance to the office is blocked; access is instead provided via a set of stairs through a window that typically connects the office to the exhibition space. The artist Hilma Bäckström was invited to develop a work for the bar front, to be used for future openings.