exhibited:
16.–20.11.2022, Art Cologne, Solo booth New Positions for Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Cologne, GER
TAMBOURMAT, from French le tambour, German: die Trommel.
In French, all sorts of things can be added to le tambour, e.g. laveuer, then it is immediately the washing drum, or melangeuer – the mixing drum. Tambourmat is my fictitious umbrella term for everything that goes through the world drumming. In the 21st century, we expect exhibitions to have the character of an event, as well as shopping malls, parks, but also films, celebrations, festivals should be an experience. Even a visit to a medical center is advertised as an “all-around feel-good experience.” Everywhere, attention-generating mechanisms are drumming for our affection. My sculptures also drum for it through their dazzling colours and soft skin. Like in a laundromat – where they encounter the tambour leveur – they lie on tiles or are rubber banded to the wall, as if they could be put to use at any time; as if they want you to experience something with them. Only what it is remains unclear. Only desire becomes palpable, but with it simultaneously its pale companion: the non-fulfillment of our desires, which in the culture of experience function as the engine of a shrill Perpetomobile. (Julia Haugeneder, November 2022)