Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman is pleased to present the ninth solo exhibition of Julia Bornefeld. In the exhibition sentirethe artist processes body- and sensory perceptions and places them in an exciting context in the exhibition space. The verb sentire (ital.) describes a wealth of these perceptions: to feel, sense, sense, hear, experience, notice, smell, taste, try, taste…
Julia Bornefeld further develops the basic idea of her morphic fields (last shown in 2018/2019 together with Michael Fliri in the exhibition Grenzgänger in the fortress Franzenfeste) and deepens the focus on sensual perception. She freely uses painting, graphics and sculpture as means of expression, allowing them to relate to each other and flow into each other. With a series of sculptural, painterly and graphic works created especially for the exhibition, she explores the artistic experience of sensory stimuli, as well as their limitations, and thus comments in an ambiguous way on our current reality. Bornefeld’s works oscillate between figuration and abstraction, are deliberately ambiguous and leave the viewer great scope for associations
The various objects in this room have in common that the materiality and
form of their outer skin is more important than the impression of volume or
weight. The surfaces exert a strong haptic attraction and by this I do not only
mean the desire to touch them. Is there a haptic view? I have the feeling that
I can feel the objects with my eyes to a certain extent even without a physical
touch.
Especially with DERMA I and II, the constrictions of the foam are almost
physically – painfully – palpable for me. At the same time (and therein lies
one of the contradictions that make Julia Bornefeld’s works so appealing) these
surfaces seem to be in a state of dissolution: (…) the untidily protruding
bulges also make the objects seem strangely amorphous. Above all, however, the
soft foam, the stretchy rubber hoses, the knots and lacings give the impression
that the shape of the objects is only temporary, changeable like a state of
matter. Quote from: Lena Nievers, opening speech of the exhibition morphic
fields, Julia Bornefeld_2016, Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna
Julia Bornefeld, *1963 in Kiel, lives and works in Berlin and Bruneck. The multimedia artist is also present in Innsbruck with works in public space, installations, sculptures and performances. In the performance grundlos_glücklich 2009 Bornefeld is the hostess at the red-and-white chequered parlour table in the container and the three of them are cruising in dirndls with chequered aprons and plumeaus in the red Fiat 500 as a tourist attraction through the city centre. In 2010, the Goldener Rahmen in front of the Ferdinandeum forms a much-used selfie motif, Burning Supper in Innsbruck’s St. Jakob Cathedral in 2012, men and women gather apostles in the six-meter-long photograph, and in 2019 Bornefeld shows the cent chandelierEphemere in Innsbruck’s baroque hospital church. Julia Bornefeld has been awarded numerous art prizes and has been exhibiting internationally since the 1990s, including solo exhibitions in 2004 Kunstverein Marburg, 2011 Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum and Stadtgalerie Kiel, 2014 ZKM Karlsruhe, 2017 Augsburger Kunstverein, 2019 with the light installation Matrix at Museion in Bolzano. 2014 Bornefeld creates the sculpture Melaton 45 on behalf of Max Hollein for the exhibition Little Nemo curated by Hollein in the gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Vienna.
Julia Bornefeld morphic fields 2019
authors: Lena Nievers,
Martin Fritz, Feruccio delle Cave
ed.: Julia Bornefeld, Klaus Thoman
ISBN 978-3-902315-15-1