Solo exhibition Georg Petermichl. U.T. (After Kelley)
Basics
– bb15Description
Georg Petermichl’s fascination with Mike Kelley began with a moment of aversion. Petermichl stood in front of Kelley’s installation, ‘Lumpenprole’ from 1991, which, by coincidence, is roughly the same size as bb15’s exhibition space. Consisting of forty-eight stuffed animals gathered under a crocheted „afghan“ carpet, it is accompanied by eight wall pieces, including a repainted ÖVP campaign poster and seven scatological „lump“ drawings. Petermichl found the work repellent.
Over the years, these emotions never quite left. The work kept an ominous attraction, one that has continued to shape Petermichl’s practice, paradoxically, in positive ways. For this exhibition, Petermichl takes on this fascination, treating ‘Lumpenprole’ less as a work to be interpreted than as a text to be translated. Following the poet Ilya Kaminsky, a translation should be a window into another consciousness not a mirror reflecting what the viewer already expects. It should not explain a mystery, but rather deepen it.
Petermichl examined each element of the installation for its internal logic, looking at Lumpenprole’s syntax, rather than searching for a fixed meaning. He reassembled these findings with new vocabulary, resulting not in a revitalization of Kelley’s piece, but an empathetic, provisional response to it. The project extends into concerns that have nourished Petermichl’s ceramic art practice in recent years. He is interested in everyday items and commodities that are understood as common ground, and how a consumeristic society engages with the world through products. In this exhibition, he draws on the objects and rituals of self-optimization, and the ordinary, largely shared experience of trying – and failing – to locate oneself between body, mind, and society.
[Quelle: https://web.archive.org/save/https://bb15.at/2026/3714/]