Set Staged Envisioned: Spaces of Narration
Nikola Hansalik, Paul Kajander, Tammy Kim, Jakob Lena Knebl, Tine Tillmann, Benjamin Tomasi, Magda Tothova
Curated by Michael Strasser
April 13th – June 13th, 2012

308at156 Project Artspace is pleased to present its fourth exhibition, Set Staged Envisioned: Spaces of Narration, a major group show featuring artists from around the globe! Curated by Michael Strasser (Vienna, Austria). This show is supported by the Austrian Ministry For Arts and Culture.

Set Staged Envisioned: Spaces of Narration focuses on works by international artists, which construct and de-construct (narrative) space using a variety of different strategies and means.

Whereas Jakob Lena Knebl and Paul Kajander evolve their stories in empty, vanishing-to-black studio sets, focusing only on their protagonists and a small variety of props, Benjamin Tomasi presents his vision of a famous rock guitar solo based on ambient sounds outdoors, alongside a multi-layered expressway section in Tokyo. Within this arc of suspense, this selection of works links various strategies on constructing narrative space into a dialogue and brings forward possible confrontations, as well as references and analogies amongst them.

In her latest video work, “In Between”, Magda Tothova composes a dialogue on time and space employing an encounter of two characters, one from the past and the other from the future. Detached from any seen entity, various images of an empty and inanimate architecture build a connection to our communal and cultural value system in today’s society.

Tammy Kim’s basic drawings envision space-consuming installations, which in the context of exhibition, focus on the act of building, the aura of ritual and the cycle of creation and destruction marking an engagement with the spectators themselves.

Diversely, Tine Tillmann’s collages and drawings mark the starting point for her scienfically-inspired utopian stories. Woven into a mixed-media installation, “Fungifiction/Mycophilian Tales” plots a manifold vision of a potential future, featuring a miraculous mushroom as its main character.

Inspired by a Madeleine Vionnet haute-couture dress and its geometric pattern Nikola Hansalik reworks floor plans of major exhibition venues like the New York MoMA or the London Tate Modern into dresses and documents artists stuck in different museums.  

308at156 Project Artspace serves as a unique creative platform for new and emerging artists, selected by seasoned guest curators. This new inter-disciplinary space is located in the Presbyterian Building, a French Gothic chateaux-inspired office building on lower Fifth Avenue. In this architectural jewel with its diverse history, the organization programs events and exhibitions in which young artists and curators have the opportunity to meet, engage and promote new collaborative projects. Our following exhibition, a solo show of paintings by Aaron Zulpo, curated by Jeremy Young, will open mid-July 2012.

For more information or press photographs contact: Jeremy Young at (212) 271-0664.