SELECTED SHOWS: 05 08 — 24 09 2022 Duo Show: A terrible doorstop - /w René Stiegler @ KEIL Gallery 2020, Graz (AT), 17 09 — 28 11 2020 Group Show: In Suspense / Albeit Unintentionally – Rather Acrobatic @ ROTOR – Association for Comtemporary Art, Graz (AT) 27 09 2020 Group Show: Context Cocktail @ Lager 2 / Waagner-Biro Straße 117, Graz (AT), 14 09 — 09 10 2020 Residency @ Atelier im Schwimmbad, Wies (AT) 06 06 2019 — 07 06 2019 Group Show: Oh Please Do @ Fifteen Seconds Festival 05 05 2019 (Various Dates) Screening: Basically, they are just Separated ('Old Images') via theoneminutes.org (Curated by Tao Hui) @ East China Normal University, Shanghai (CN) @ 65th International Film Festival Oberhausen (DE) @ Betty Jane, Amsterdam (NL) @ Dortmunder U (DE) @ Mu, Eindhoven (NL) @ Museum Hilversum (NL) @ Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam (NL) @ De School, Amsterdam (NL) 02 02 — 18 04 2019 Group Show: Hate Speech — Aggression and Intimacy, @ HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark / Künstlerhaus  — Halle für Kunst & Medien (Curated by Sandro Droschl) — https://www.km-k.at/de/exhibition/hate-speech/ Graz (AT) 08 01 — 11 01 2019 Group Show: Residue Posing Ortwein Stipendium 2018, @ Schaumbad Freies Atelier, Graz (AT) https://schaumbad.mur.at 08 03 2018 Group Show: Art on Prescription — Art sur Ordonnance, Paris, @ Musée du quai Branly 37, Paris (FR) 09 02 — 11 02 2018 Group Show: Something Goes Wrong Wenn ich Schlafe with Hannes Schauer, @ Volke 4, Graz (AT) 09 10 — 31 10 17 Solo Show: RETAW, RETAW Falls, @ Popup Gallery Füll die Lück, Graz (AT) 13 05 — 26 11 2017 Group Show: Art on Prescription, Offspace Project during the Venice Biennale 2017, @ La Biennale di Venezia 2017 (Venice, IT) 05 05 — 07 05 2017 Group Show Galerientage Graz, @ Artepari, Graz (AT) 09 01 — 12 01 2017 Group Show, @ Cuntra la Cultra, Graz (AT) 07 12 — 12 12 2016 Group Show: MHD, @ Schmiede36, Graz (AT) 02 05 — 07 05 2016 Group Show, @ Lendwirbel, Kunsthaus Graz (Innenhof), Graz (AT) 17 06 2015 Live-Performance / Group Show The Third War (Roter Keil)@ Designhalle Graz (AT) 08 02 2014 Performance TTMMM with Hella Comet, @ Volt, Graz (AT) 12 05 2007 — Sound Performance Sonntags Abstrakt with Wouter Jaspers (NL), @ Postgarage, Graz (AT)

General request and whole portfolio:
Contact: markus.sworcik@ichno.com

A TERRIBLE DOORSTOP … piles of supposedly litter describing a reality which we all felt would come, subliminally, subconsciously… but refuse to acknowledge.

Stepping into a wasteland between the preposterous (1). An intrinsic mess, so terrible you are hardly willing to enter, but at the same time crave for. Rough Skins. The calm before the actual event, a wait for change. Simply stuck inside a story. Suddenly, I saw all these rearranged objects in this uncomfortable situation, from underneath my desk, under piles of shit, cut themselves into ribbons. Some encounters, visible as blinking phones (ready to Be answered). Peasants of tech, buried in litter, mostly charred, weathered, seemingly scarred. Some of them are untested verified objects and material stemming from a peculiar crisis. All those rituals, screaming with wet lungs fanning smoke and haze. Even the sun's rotation is off by unknown degrees. But what do you expect? Endless crippling scenes of us running around in the dark. Holding candles trying to keep them alive in the arising wind (2), just some with flashlights. Reoccurring tools appear– boots to kick ass. And then, as predicted, a cold stormy climate upheaval takes place which dooms everyone. But look, there is still hope, which can be filled with thoughtlessness, fake colors and foremost possibilities. In the future we adore creatures with subtle, rough genitals and small limbs. Species of amnesia. 

(1) an ordered wasteland, being content with failure, future and past, old and new…
(2) Candle scene, NOSTALGHIA (1983), Tarkovsky

The duo exhibition "A terrible doorstop" by Markus Sworcik and René Stiegler attempts to sketch a non-functional state and at times suggests a dilemma, a state of limbo. The exhibition juggles intrinsic states of mind, materiality that embodies these impressions, and a penchant for the improvisational. Both artists' interest comes from the scenic, getting lost in atmospheres, creating a sense of space and object. A space that feels different, strange. The intended emotional worlds touch anomalies, fears, inner frictions, dystopias or also fast growing influence by technology. The tipping states addressed are also found in society, and everyday life. Likewise, the objects and works in this exhibition, constructed both individually and collectively, carry emotional threshold states.

Photography:
Elsbeth Ebenberger,
Markus Sworcik