exhibited:
30.09.-22.10.2021 MICHAEL KIENZER Formfolge Vol. 5, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Vienna Seitengalerie, AT
25.06.-26.10.2025 MICHAEL KIENZER Outside, twelve Pieces, Schlossmuseum, Linz, AT
publiziert/published:
Michael Kienzer, Some Works 09/2024, ed. Fondazione Mudima Milan, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck/Vienna, Milan 2024, ISBN 978-88-99925-56-7, S. 185.
In addition to “Parasites Vol. 4”, the rose garden in the castle grounds in Linz is home to another sculpture in which Michael Kienzer explores possible ways of combining nature with industry. The sculpture, which is over seven metres in length, is a new piece that he created for the exhibition. It is based on a simple, horizontal branch that the artist chanced upon in the countryside and which served as the starting point for the artistic process. The branch was cast from aluminium so that its shape and structure might be faithfully reproduced. The addition of industrial tubular sections made of aluminium results in a hybrid form that combines natural and industrial elements. The tapering design of the tubes, resembling the natural branch structure, creates a formal link between the two elements. The combination of vegetative form and constructive design makes the sculpture appear both organic and geometric, while its size and stability create an imposing presence.
Kienzer extracts the architectural elements of nature and gives the overall construction the appearance of the scaffolding on a building or the poles of a tent. The title “Formfolge” (“Form Progression Vol. 6”) suggests that the sculpture is part of a series or sequence of works dealing with the exploration of form. The term “Form Progression” implies a logical or systematic sequence of forms and hints at the conceptual and artistic strategy behind this work. (Inga Kleinknecht, Linz 2025)
Five different elements made of aluminium and steel are continuously connected to each other at the ends. This creates a circular, self-contained sequence that the artist sets up vertically and places in the centre of the room. An elongated block of rectangular surfaces serves as the floor element, adjoined on the left by a diagonally cut deep tube and on the right by a free form made of a thin crumpled material. Towards the top, the circle is closed with a rounded double rail made of steel and the aluminium cast of a wide branch.
The pencilled preliminary drawing for a cut on the tube, the grey layer of paint on the crumpled surface and the nature cast in a hard material refer to the artist’s working process and seem like a snapshot within the sculpture. Similarities to the past sculptures titled Formfolgen (Vol. 1-4) are recognisable: the construction from functional elements of the building industry are combined with new forms, which the artist obtains from different mostly hard materials. The continuity leading to the titled sequence can be traced in the repetition of certain forms, which sometimes can only be brought together associatively (the round pipe meeting an angular counterpart). As well as the monochrome silver colouring of the works – even if obtained from different parts – makes them appear as if they were cast in one piece.
Kienzer’s expansive sequences of forms leave open connections to everyday objects and thus invite an activation that has been made impossible. Vol. 2, for example, made of several tubes lying on the floor, is reminiscent of conveyor belt machines in large-scale industry. However, the pipes, which are only joined together by a rectangular frame, would immediately roll apart if stepped on or touched. Vol. 5, on the other hand, with its knee-high angular floor element, invites the viewer to linger as a bench, but at the same time negates this by its sharp edges.
In his sculpture, the contrast is decisive for Kienzer – a momentum of attraction and distance, order and chaos, function and dysfunction, openness and closedness as well as the various constellations of carrying and burdening. (Inga Kleinknecht, Linz 2025)
