12.2. – 25.3.2021
galerie michaela stock
opening: Friday, 12.2., 3 – 6 pm
Timeslot every 15 minutes / come-and-go
FIRESIDE CHATS (2 prerecorded fireside chats with Veronika Merklein will take place.)
1_Talking with Anna Mendelsohn, performer and psychotherapist in training under supervision: "Speaking about the unspeakable"
2_Talking with Bernadette Anzengruber, artist: "The porous body in virtual space"
The fifth exhibition series of Salon Real / Virtual shows works of the young performance artist Veronika Merklein. In the solo exhibition designed for the real and virtual gallery under the title Der wunde Punkt (The Sore Spot), the artist focuses on silent pain and quietly scratching on the bottom of nightmarish life events, depressing emotional intensity and mute conversations with one another. Veronika Merklein's work is always personal, but not necessarily autobiographical. Using imagery and poetic language, the artist shows a sober understanding of a situation that cannot be changed. Her strategy is to capture unspeakable personal, social and political problems in ways ranging from humorous to painful, and to make them visible and speak for those people who are incapable of doing so at this moment. These works initiate a sequence of return (recollection), liberation (imagination) and reinvention (storytelling).
For SALON VIRTUAL, the virtual exhibition space of galerie michaela stock, Veronika Merklein has compiled both never-before-exhibited and new works from the last 12 years (2009-2021). Veronika Merklein uses the virtual gallery space to newly contextualize her art; many of the works shown are of a performative, temporary and ephemeral nature, which in some form move along the interface between image and text. The artist uses 3D simulations to experience the documentation of the performances shown for a second time, in completely new way. A still life performance, for example, is brought back into a plastic space, typefaces float in the room like a hallucination and the 5-meter-high light-colored walls seem oppressive and give the exhibit an even greater sense of urgency. The photo series Sitting in the Closet, or The Silent Neighbor and drawings of the series Phlegma Loop are only a few of the "sore spots" of our society that are shown. Suicide on a smiley balloon or an anthropomorphous body lying in a neglected apartment show how Merklein uses her own body both as a subject and as an object in the works of art and how it even gets forced out in the end.
In SALON REAL, a small selection of these works is presented. The "beautiful appearance" in the idyllic real salon of the gallery is broken and invites visitors to discussions.
Curriculum Vitae
Born in Germany in 1982, Veronika Merklein lives and works mainly in Vienna (AT). As an artist she works within a variety of media with a focus on performance art. Her art revolves around topics inherent in performance art, pop-cultural phenomena and the "pure, brutal (inner) life of human beings". Starting with her own body, she has examined body politics as a focus of her art since 2012.
Veronika Merklein enjoyed her artistic education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the School of Art and Design Kassel. She presented her artwork among others at the Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago (US), at "Neuer Kunstverein Wien", Vienna (AT), Kaskadenkondensator, Basel (CH), Fridericianum, Kassel (D), Secession, Vienna (AT), Kiasma, Helsinki (FI) and from time to time at home. Veronika Merklein received scholarships i.a. of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York City, Austrian Chancellary, Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture, Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
SALON REAL / VIRTUAL 5# Salon: Veronika Merklein | DER WUNDE PUNKT (THE SORE SPOT)
Der wunde Punkt / The sore spot exhibition leaflet
Please use this QR code to enter the virtual exhibition!
Veronika Merklein, Der wunde Punkt /The sore Spot, 2021, animated video with sound, 00:58 min, animation: Line Finderup Jensen, plus video still/ photo, edition 3+AP
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde punkt (The sore spot), exhibition view, Salon Real, galerie michaela stock
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde punkt (The sore spot), exhibition view, Salon Real, galerie michaela stock
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde punkt (The sore spot), exhibition view, Salon Real, galerie michaela stock
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde punkt (The sore spot), exhibition view, Salon Real, galerie michaela stock
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde punkt (The sore spot), exhibition view, Salon Real, galerie michaela stock
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde punkt (The sore spot), exhibition view, Salon Virtual, galerie michaela stock
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde punkt (The sore spot), exhibition view, Salon Virtual, galerie michaela stock
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde punkt (The sore spot), exhibition view, Salon Virtual, galerie michaela stock
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde punkt (The sore spot), exhibition view, Salon Virtual, galerie michaela stock
Veronika Merklein, Sitting in the Closet 2020, series of 5 b/w photographs, each 40 x 60 cm / 120 x 120 cm, photo: Julia Kujat, edition: 3 + AP
In Merklein's work, the complex inner life is brought into a multi-layered narrative by means of alienating body-space relationships. In the black-and-white image-text work "Sitting in the closet," the collapse is described on a textual level as something that is invisible but resembles a ruin on the inside. Through the excavation, symbolically not only a life is rearranged, but also things are assigned and repaired. On a pictorial level, this fragmentation is shown on the one hand by a hand that grasps a door like a spider and on the other hand by an anthropomorphic, reclining body in an abandoned apartment, where one does not know how to correctly locate the bottom and the top.
Veronika Merklein, Sitting in the Closet, 2020, color photograph mounted on aluminium, 46 x 70 cm, photo: Julia Kujat, edition: 3 + AP
Veronika Merklein, erdbeermilch / strawberry milk, 2015, 23 x 85 cm, 1 photograph / series of 3 film stills, video: Anatol Bogendorfer, edition: 3 + AP
"erdbeermilch" was a two days durational performance over a duration of around 12 hours. It was part of the performance festival "Hotel Obscura" by "Die Fabrikanten" where visitors met the performers in a one-to-one-meeting in a hotel room.
"erdbeermilch" was a David Lynch-like situation, a scored performance which talked about fear and depression. The cushion and Merklein's dress are out of the same darkgreen fake leather fabric. The bed used to be the center of a room smelled intrusively of marzipan and chocolate. The bed was the centerpart of the performance where the matress was exchanged by an over-sized cushion which symbolizes the feeling of falling deep into a depression. During the whole performance Merklein read out texts which were hidden in the white ballons, she cut her hair, she drank strawberry milk, scraped marzipan of a picture, baked mircowave cake, and let the audience feel deeply uncanny.
exhibition poster, 59 x 45 cm, signed, edition: 100 / Veronika Merklein, Die stille Nachbarin / The silent neighbor, 2011, photograph, Lambda C-Print, photo: Christian Messner
Veronika Merklein, Die stille Nachbarin / The silent neighbor, 2011, photograph, Lambda C-Print, 59 x 45 cm, photo: Christian Messner, edition: 3 + AP
THE SILENT NEIGHBOR is a performative project which was staged in Merklein's apartment, located on the ground floor of the Gschwandnergasse 59, Vienna-Hernals. In THE SILENT NEIGHBOR, she takes up topics that are negotiated within the private area. In the best case they should remain unseen, unheard and undone.
On three consecutive days, three hours a day, the artist stand on a pedestal, apparently hanged on a smiley-face balloon filled with helium. (As in a trompe-l’oeil painting, the pedestal disappears into the background).
At night, a video loop is shown throughout the duration of the night. One sees my face, slowly beginning to smile. Behind the facade of the blemish-less face foulness is revealed through making ”her” rotten teeth visible. The audience can see the performance and the video only through an open window to the street.
Veronika Merklein, Die stille Nachbarin / The silent neighbor, 2011 video, 7:50 min, camera: Bernhard Staudinger, plus photo, edition 3+AP
THE SILENT NEIGHBOR is a performative project which was staged in Merklein's apartment, located on the ground floor of the Gschwandnergasse 59, Vienna-Hernals. In THE SILENT NEIGHBOR, she takes up topics that are negotiated within the private area. In the best case they should remain unseen, unheard and undone.
On three consecutive days, three hours a day, the artist stand on a pedestal, apparently hanged on a smiley-face balloon filled with helium. (As in a trompe-l’oeil painting, the pedestal disappears into the background).
At night, a video loop is shown throughout the duration of the night. One sees my face, slowly beginning to smile. Behind the facade of the blemish-less face foulness is revealed through making ”her” rotten teeth visible. The audience can see the performance and the video only through an open window to the street.
Veronika Merklein, Error Münder, from the series "Phlegma Loop", 2011, ballpoint pen on paper, 30 x 21 cm
Veronika Merklein, Schlauchboot, from the series "Phlegma Loop", 2011, ballpoint pen on paper, 21 x 30 cm
Veronika Merklein, Es tut mir leid / I am sorry, from the series „Phlegma Loop“, 2009/10, digital drawing on photo paper, 15 x 10 cm
Veronika Merklein, Hand mit Ei, from the series „Phlegma Loop“, 2009/10, digital drawing on photo paper, 15 x 10 cm
Guided gallery tour visit on request
A Guided Tour with Veronika Merklein through the Salon Real / Virtual can be booked with the gallery owner Michaela Stock. Appointments can be made by phone +43 699 19 20 77 78.
The virtual exhibition is documented in the form of printed information brochures. At the same time, art lovers can purchase a limited signed art poster for € 20,-
PRESS REVIEW
Die Psyche ist ein David-Lynch-Film, von Claudia Aigner, - Wiener Zeitung Online, 17.03.2021
PRESS
We would appreciate a report/mentioning in your medium. I hereby confirm the approval for the free of charge publication of all sent images / text.
Courtesy: Veronika Merklein / galerie michaela stock
PRESS TEXT
Veronika Merklein | Der wunde Punkt (The Sore Spot)
IMAGES
image 1: Veronika Merklein, erdbeermilch, 2015, series of 3, filmstill: Anatol Bogendorfer
image 2: Veronika Merklein, Sitting in the closet, 2020, photography, 46 x 70 cm, photo: Julia Kujat
image 3: Veronika Merklein, Die stille Nachbarin, 2011, photography, Lambda C-Print, 59 x 45 cm, photo: Christian Messner
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